India, Oct. 19 -- Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. But decades before Apollo 11, his ambitions were taking shape in a two-storey house in Ohio, where he built model aeroplanes, tested them in a homemade wind tunnel and launched them from his bedroom window.

Now, the house where Armstrong spent his teenage years is set to open to visitors after a retired pilot donated $400,000 to help a local historical society acquire and preserve the property. The society plans to restore it to its 1940s appearance and open it to the public by 2030, the centenary of Armstrong's birth.

Armstrong's family moved frequently because of his father's work as a government auditor. They settled in Wapakoneta, Ohio, in 1944, wh...