It takes very little time in the Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum before one sees that it’s the owners’ passions for the colorful toys — for aviation itself — that soars through the air of the museum’s rooms faster than any of the little airplanes could — lighting on all of the glass cases and wrapping each toy with its own story and layer of history.

Rosalie Dunbar and Deborah Scheetz may know more about aviation than any gallery owner knows about Impressionism. Dunbar, the curator of the Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum on Prichard Street in Fitchburg, runs the non-profit with Scheetz, and together they have created a toy airplane collector’s dream.

So the museum, incorporated in 1997, was born out of a love of aviation — no surprise there. But more out of the ordinary is how it was two women who took their love of model airplanes, toy rockets, and flying in general — all traditionally male-dominated interests — and flew it as high as their means would allow.

Scheetz can remember when it all began. When she was just 2 years old, she drove past an airport in Orlando, Fla., and uttered the word “airplane” in almost-inaudible toddler language. After that, her parents didn’t hear much more about their daughter’s love for airplanes — until she was much older.

Scheetz eventually ended up in Massachusetts. She and Dunbar, originally from Pennsylvania, were friends from working at the same company in the Tewksbury area and ended up buying a house together in Dracut to save some money. They learned quickly of each others’ likes and dislikes — and long-lost dreams. When Scheetz’ family came up to visit one year, Dunbar dropped them a delicious hint regarding what her friend might want for Christmas — flying lessons.

Sure enough, when Scheetz received a Christmas card from her father that year, it contained in it a check for the most priceless of gifts: The ability to fulfill a dream.

“I asked her if she was going to open the card, and she kept saying, ‘Yes, in a little while, not right now,’” Dunbar said. “I was so anxious!”

When Scheetz finally opened it, Dunbar said it was one of the nicest things she’s ever witnessed.

In 1988, Scheetz got her pilot’s license, and she remembers fondly her first solo flight at the old Tew-Mac airport in Tewksbury. Dunbar said she and Scheetz’s instructor were waiting anxiously for her on the ground, and while Scheetz took no longer than the average solo pilot out on a first run, to them it felt like ages.

Scheetz got Dunbar hooked on aviation, too, and the friends began going to aviation conferences together. Then, in the early 1990s, the two of them decided to plan a trip to Kitty Hawk, N.C. to see for themselves the spot where the Wright Brothers’ first flight took place. But Dunbar said they made it no further than the Mass Pike before realizing that North Carolina, having just suffered a hurricane, probably didn’t need two more pokey tourists driving around. So they turned around and drove toward the destination that is a natural alternative to Kitty Hawk: Dayton, Ohio, where Wright Brothers grew up.

“It was totally spontaneous,” Dunbar said. The two vividly describe rushing to see as much as they could during their short visit, and they fondly remember using birding binoculars to take a look at a static airplane display from the front seats of the their car in a parking lot, too tired to walk. “A lot of things came together with that trip.”

The two stopped at an antiques shop on the way home, and slowly they built up a collection of aviation toys that they one day realized was enough for a museum.

“We had been collecting things for a while,” Dunbar said. “So a core of [the museum’s] collection was our own, but we transferred it to the property of the museum.”

At first, the museum existed as non-physical entity as the women looked for a space that would be suitable for their needs. Finally, in 2000, they opened the museum doors in the old Murdock School in Winchendon. After a few years, however, the town needed the building for a senior center, and the museum was forced to find another spot. After an extensive search, Dunbar and Scheetz found the Prichard Street location in Fitchburg. They started moving in May 2006 and reopened the museum in April 2007.

The museum gets a steady stream of objects donated, Dunbar said. All donations are eligible for tax deductions.

“For example, the fellow who owned ‘The World’s Smallest Airplane Museum’ in his house gave his items to us,” Scheetz said. “We have 700 to 800 things on display now, but there are 2,000 in the collection.”

And even the most seasoned toy airplane collector is in for some surprises at the Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum. After all, there is more to toy airplanes than wood-and-paper-mache models or plastic military replicas. Just head to the back corner where it takes only an instant to recognize who is piloting these colorful, bubbly jets:

That’s right. With Ken sometimes at her side, it’s Barbie who sports the pilot’s uniform and takes her passengers to places far, far away in this glass case. With even a tiny ice bucket filled with intricate, bead-sized ice cubes, the Barbie display has much in common with one of the museum’s most recent acquisitions and another surprising addition to the collection — a large Polly Pocket airplane that expands into an impressive fashion runway. 

Other toy airplanes and space machines displayed are more traditional. The best part of each, however, may not be what it looks like or how it functions: It could just be the story behind it.

“This is one of only two rubber toys we have,” Dunbar pointed to a large, red, white, and blue airplane that looks like it has been through a lot of adventures. “Rubber toys are quite unusual. A woman was sandbagging during the Missouri River flooding of the 1990s, and this came across her path. Though eBay, we got it.”

“Some are originals; some are reproductions,” Dunbar said. “The thing about the tin toys is that they’re spectacularly beautiful. We have pre-war German and Japanese planes — they were the leaders in tin toy manufacturing.”

Also dotted among the cases are a Friendship Capsule with John Glenn; the other rubber toy called “Mickey’s Airmail” (Dunbar said a man simply dropped this and another toy off and then drove away without explanation); die-cast metal toys; and hot air balloons, just to name a few. Dunbar and Scheetz said they like to have colorful, fun toys on lower shelves at the eye-levels of small children. For example, Jimmy Jumbo Jet is one of several happy, winged toys that smile out from their places on the low shelves.

And then, of course, there is a cow in a space suit — why, the cow that jumped over the moon, of course.

“[The collection] is a little bit eclectic, with some things that aren’t exactly toys but make you think,” Dunbar said.

Scheetz runs the activity side of things, with a separate room dedicated to talks and children’s activity programs. From an activities table loaded with colorful paper to puzzles, games, and computers for flight-simulator games, there’s enough to amuse young flight-lovers for hours.

“We try to encourage flight to take place in here,” Scheetz said. “The great thing about the flight simulator game is that no one gets hurt. Although, it’s funny: I find a real plane is much easier to fly than the flight simulator!”

As Dunbar and Scheetz have day jobs during the week, the Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum is open on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sundays from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. There are often special programs on Sundays at 2 p.m., ranging from talks on special topics to children’s activities. Workshops are also available to be booked, including workshops for birthday parties. For more information, call 978-297-4337 or 978-342-2809.

But before heading to the Top Fun Aviation Toy Museum, be forewarned: It’s easy to get carried away.