Chanute Air Museum in financial trouble...

[Warbirdnerd]

RANTOUL, Ill. (AP) - The Chanute Air Museum has had financial trouble before, but president Jim Eldridge says this time it's a crisis.

He says without an infusion of cash, the Rantoul museum may have to close its doors. And the museum's board says it needs $24,000 to help pay its bills through the end of March.

Eldridge says even Executive Director Hal Loebach has been helping out, working without a salary for the last four months.

With 40 aircraft, the museum says it has the largest collection in the state dating back to 1917.

From here:
http://www.wthitv.com/Global/story.asp? ... =menu593_2

http://www.aeromuseum.org/

[Zachary]

Man, that's unfortunate. Chanute has a really nice collection, and the historic buildings are really interesting to walk through. Unfortunately Rantoul, Illinois is literally in the middle of nowhere, and I don't think they get too many admission-paying visitors through the doors.

I sincerely hope they can find a way to stay open.

Zack

[mlenoch]

Their problems stem from their airshow in 2007. They applied for state funding for the airshow and just recently were told it would denied. Thus they needed to use their foundation money to pay past due and current expenses. These expenses are about to exhaust the foundation account. (Per their newsletter.)
VL

[RickH]

I'm sorry to hear this. They are good people doing yeoman's work with little rescources.

[bdk]

Too bad all the aircraft assets seem to be owned by the USAFM. Otherwise some of these birds could be let free to fly again...

[APG85]

Too bad all the aircraft assets seem to be owned by the USAFM. Otherwise some of these birds could be let free to fly again...

Do you really want an old A-model Herc flying again? I don't think thats the point of this collection. Better to keep it as a static display. I hope they find a way to get the funding. Chanute is a neat place with a lot of history...

[Django]

I didn't know it was there until a couple years ago. I'm hoping to take a trip down there this summer, if it's not too late!

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

I went to tech school there, I got to watch them cut up the B-36 to ship to Caslte. It was rather sad watching those guys cut plumbing and wire bundles apart with hack saws! They did have some cool stuff there when I was there, they had two B-52's out on one of the far runways that were cut up per the SALT program. Some really cool hangars there, and alot of history.
Scott.......

[bdk]

Do you really want an old A-model Herc flying again?

I said SOME OF THEM, like the P-51H for instance. I couldn't care less about a C-130.

[AeroTRrat]

One of my favorite road trips of all time was to Rantoul in '72. I took my cousin, J.A."Pete" DeBell, down to where he started his AF career, which only just recently ended, I am told.

He had a great old 64 chevy and we listened to the same Moody Blues 8 track tape most of the way down. I finally got sick of it and launched it out the window. "Pete" talked the whole dang trip but when I jettisoned the tape, he just said "Thanks".

Last I heard he was in FL. I would love to talk to him again but lost track of the guy. Maybe he was PO'd about the tape.

Any USAF guys know of James A. "Pete" DeBell. He's around 56 now and supposedly retired.

Dave

[APG85]

I couldn't care less about a C-130.

Nice... When did this message board turn so hostile?

[spookyboss]

Sad to hear this. I think Alot of air museum's get in trouble when they start hiring folks to run it. By the time you have a director, secretary, PX shop workers you just run out of income. I hope the best for them as they have a very nice collection.

[krlang]

Nice... When did this message board turn so hostile?

This is mild compared to the VW people

[bdk]

I couldn't care less about a C-130.

Nice... When did this message board turn so hostile?

C'mon! All in fun. Why did you take my post so out of context? Next you'll think I'd recommend they sell the B-58 so someone can get that back into the air too.

I guess it's too late to recover my sensitivity award with respect to C-130s, so to preserve my reputation with the VW folks out there, I will refrain from giving an opinion on those (other than saying the Type 166 is really cool).

Last edited by bdk on Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Mike]

Next you'll think I recommend they sell the B-58 so someone can get that back into the air too.

Hey, that's an idea!