The museum was founded in May 1998 as the Jet Heritage Museum and was located on the property of Bournemouth Airport. However, the following year it was renamed Bournemouth Aviation Museum. Then, due to expansion of the airport, in 2008 the museum was forced to move to a site near the Adventure Wonderland theme park on the south side of the B3073 road.[1]
In 2013, the museum acquired a Boeing 737-200 named "The Spirit of Peter Bath" and has created an exhibition about Sir Peter Bath and his company Bath Travel inside the fuselage.[2][failed verification]