CAPTION: HornBlasters’s Leslie Supertyfon 425-DVE Horn. This horn came from the USS Ranger aircraft carrier made famous in the “Top Gun” movie. (Courtesy: HornBlasters
TAMPA, Fla. — Planes, trains, automobiles — all these vehicles move us across the country, and all of them have horns.
We use horns to honk at bad drivers, alert people of an oncoming train and more.
Despite this, we’ve yet to see a museum dedicated to horns.
Enter HornBlasters’s new Museum of Horns.
For more than 20 years, HornBlasters has sold horns to drivers, who install massive train horns on their cars and trucks.
Now they are creating a museum for horn history, a perfect tourist destination for kids addicted to toys, car enthusiasts or drivers who rely on Hornblasters for the loudest honk in the land.
CEO Matt Heller is one of these drivers himself.
A Florida native, he hated combating bad drivers on his morning commute, so he started designing train horns for cars, according to a news release.
He could blast bad drivers off the road–and he’s since blasted HornBlasters into a famous American brand.
Heller, though, loved horns all his life.
Train horns and whistles fascinated him as a kid, and he’s devoured horn history as he’s experimented with new horns to add to Americans’ favorite cars.
Over the years, he’s acquired horns from across the world, including the Leslie Tyfon 425-DVE horn from the USS Ranger Aircraft Carrier from the 1980s smash hit Tom Cruise film “Top Gun.”
Heller’s creating the Museum of Horns to display his collection and honor America’s storied horn history, including the “Top Gun” horn.
“We have unique, historical horns from all modes of transportation that will be on display,” Heller said in a statement. “We have a strong desire to build a destination worthy of showing off these historic and unique horns and whistles–a place where people can get in touch with the history of horns and get up close to some of these pieces.”
HornBlasters plans to open the museum in Tampa by 2025, the news release stated.
