The museum is privately owned by the Ropkey family. It stemmed from the founder Fred Ropkey's interest in military history and his past career as a tank platoon leader in the U.S. Marine Corps during the early 1950s.[2]
The Ropkey Armor Museum closed July 29, 2017. Afterwards, the vehicle collection was downsized. Some pieces of the collection were distributed to other museums while the core collection was relocated by the Ropkeys to Indianapolis, Indiana. The museum lives on today as the Ropkey Armor and Aviation Museum with renewed focus given to historic aircraft and aviation history.[3][4]
Other exhibits are soft-skin military vehicles, aircraft and a Vietnam War-era PBR. The aircraft include an Antonov An-2[5] and the unique Bell X-14B. This aircraft was used for early research into VTOL until it was written off in a landing accident in 1981. It is currently being restored by the museum.
