Aviation archaeology is primarily the locating and documenting of old aircraft crash sites.
It focuses on the preservation of these sites and of the history surrounding the activities that caused them. There are many ways to preserve crash sites and their history. However, a major barrier that stands in the way is a lack of knowledge on the part of the public and land managers. First, I would like to emphasize that aviation archaeology is not the recovery and restoration of wrecked aircraft. Though recoveries preserve the aircraft themselves for future generations to see, which is very important, the act of recovering a crash site destroys information and history.