A few years after retiring from the United States Air Force, Lt. Col. Harold F. "Red" Smith began a drone manufacturing business. Over the years, he gathered a collection of various drones in a building at the Caddo Mills Municipal Airport. By 2014, he began raising funds to establish a museum. However, Smith was killed in a car accident in 2017. His family continued the project and the museum opened to the public on 16 May 2021.