 In 1989 the museum started to fund raise to construct buildings to house at last some of the collection indoors and in 1991 planning authority was granted for a new hangar to be built, actual construction of which was started in 1993.The museum used the old Sunderland Airport control tower for storage and administrative use and it was burnt in an arsonist attack in September 1996.On 23 January 1997, arsonists destroyed the museum's Vickers Valetta C2 (VX577), which was one of only three Valettas in existence.