Victory Air Museum - New Website

[Sasquatch]

Hey, look what I just found...

http://www.victoryairmuseum.com/Welcome_.html

I didn't know any of Earl's stuff was still around.

--Tom

PS...photos at http://www.victoryairmuseum.com/_VAM_Ga ... llery.html
(double-click the first photo to get started)

[Pat Carry]

Where is this located at?

[Sasquatch]

"was"...

Used to be located near Mundelein, Illinois on Gilmer Road. Earl was an early warbird collector, and if you do a search for "Earl Reinhart" or "VAM" on this board, you can pick up a lot more history on him. Lots of planes flying today were saved in whole or in part by Earl. Also search on "Polidori Field" maybe...I think there's some stuff on the field where the "museum" was based. Note that this wasn't a museum in the modern sense; more of a collection of saved airplane "stuff" like Walt Soplata's place back east. VAM no longer exists, as the local area grew up around them and forced them to close down.

--Tom

[Pat Carry]

I remember it being near Mundelein. I was thinking after seeing the link it had been reincarnated someplace else.

[Pat Carry]

"was"...

Used to be located near Mundelein, Illinois on Gilmer Road. Earl was an early warbird collector, and if you do a search for "Earl Reinhart" or "VAM" on this board, you can pick up a lot more history on him. Lots of planes flying today were saved in whole or in part by Earl. Also search on "Polidori Field" maybe...I think there's some stuff on the field where the "museum" was based. Note that this wasn't a museum in the modern sense; more of a collection of saved airplane "stuff" like Walt Soplata's place back east. VAM no longer exists, as the local area grew up around them and forced them to close down.

--Tom

Dont you just love "progress" also known as urban sprawl!

[Sasquatch]

I remember it being near Mundelein. I was thinking after seeing the link it had been reincarnated someplace else.

I think it might be reincarnated somewhere Pat...all that stuff's gotta be in a hangar somewhere. My buddy tells me he thinks he used to see that 727 cockpit in a backyard somewhere in Arlington Heights, so maybe it's somehwhere around there. There's that budding museum at Sugar Grove near Aurora, I think...but I personally don't know of any others around there.

And yes, urban sprawl forcing out places like VAM really chaps my hide!

--Tom

[RMAllnutt]

Very cool... it is definitely connected to Earl Reinert, as the there is mention of his collection of manuals, correspondence, etc. on the Collections page. There's also a fascinating group of photos from when the Earl's museum was in its prime... some fascinating stuff! I hope they do well. Thanks very much for posting the link!

all the best,
Richard

[mlenoch]

Earl's relatives still live on a house on the property. It was not developed into a housing project, but still sits almost as it was. Nearby, there was new home development, but not on Polderoi. A few of the barn/hangers are still there. It may still host a few resident ultralights on the very short airstrip. I do need to walk up to the house to say hello and what's up today.
VL

[Chris Brame]

Well, you knew I was going to weigh in here soon enough... I just scanned through the site and was thrilled to see so many photos... I really hope it's true that Earl's photo archives have been saved and we'll get to see more - like that photo of a teenaged Earl in the cockpit of a P-38! I'll always regret not taking many more pictures while I was there.

Earl's relatives still live on a house on the property.

Earl's relatives or Paul Polidori's relatives? Earl, Ray and his sister (who I seem to recall passed away the same year - 1985 - that Paul did) had a big two-story house on a residential street in Arlington Heights; I don't recall Earl owning any property at the field. I imagine Paul's son Roger would have been the heir to the Museum land.

I wonder if the folks at the site will finally have the answer to the warbird equivalent of Citizen Kane's "Rosebud" question... "What happened to the Buffalo?"

[jdvoss]

Following the 1977 Oshkosh EAA Fly-in I a made it a point to visit the subject air museum while on my way back to ORD. There had been a write-up in a magazine and according to the article there was a lot of interesting aircraft on display ...including a Brewster Buffalo, a Lockheed Hudson, a Japanese WWII twin engine bomber et.al. The Buffalo certainly had my attention! Although Mundelein is a rather small place no one in the town knew of any air musuem whatsoever and looked at me as if I were nuts. Upon spotting a mailman I figured he would know...and sure enough he did. After driving thru miles of cornfields I finally found it!! What a disappointment. It was basically an aircraft junkyard with only a couple of complete airframes: P-51, P-47, "Hudson" and "Japanese Bomber". The Lockheed Hudson turned out to be a Lodestar painted in RAF colors using latex paint. The twin engine Japanese bomber was a Beech 18 painted in WWII Japanese markings and laying on its belly. Oh yes,.. the Buffalo? Where is it? "Oh, it's in a warehouse". May I see it? "NO!!, its location is secret". Sigh. If my memory serves me correctly there was a partial airframe of a PBY and a Spitfire fuselage in a box.

Excuse me, ..but did I actually pay an admision fee for this ?? I guess I did. Is it tax deductable? ... Yeah, right!

The "museum" had a rather poor looking runway (dirt) and probaly didn't warrent incusion on a sectional chart as it looked really dangerous being that it wasn't flat nor particulary straight...and just a few hundred feet in length. There was a hanger of sorts on this old farm... or was it an old barn? This site "may" have been the former NOLF Mundelin an auxiliary of NAS Glenview during WWII. Paul Freemans website shows such an OLF for Mundelein and it appears to be about the same location of the "museum".

With the exception of possibly finding an old NOLF the whole experience was a waste of my time. I believe I have some old photos somewhere...

[Jerry O'Neill]

May have been a waste of time for you , but not for the warbird movement.

Most of those aircraft are still with us and some are flying or are about to fly.
Thanks to Earl they were saved from destruction.
That, my friend, was not a waste of his time.
Thanks Earl!
Jerry

[Larry Wielgosz]

"Jerry O'Neill" - May have been a waste of time for you, but not for the warbird movement.

Most of those aircraft are still with us and some are flying or are about to fly.
Thanks to Earl they were saved from destruction.
That, my friend, was not a waste of his time.
Thanks Earl!
Jerry

I have to agree with Jerry. Collections have to start somewhere. Collections save items. This man saved many aircraft for us. I recall a time when Air Classics magazine "Warbird Report" had photos of Ed Maloney's Air Museum in the early days at the Ontario, California location. They would put down his collection. Now for the past 20 years or so the same magazine praises Ed Maloney for saving all those rare aircraft. On top of that it's interesting to look at the old photos.


Larry

[Steve]

If I'm not mistaking the P-61 in Dayton was an Earl Reinert save.

Steve

[Chris Brame]

Most of those aircraft are still with us and some are flying or are about to fly.

Actually with the exception of the Hispanos and the center section of his Hellcat, all of Earl's aircraft are still static displays or in storage (and the B-25 and Lodestar are still displayed outdoors ). The Lone Star Flight Museum's AT-11 was there for a while but I don't think Earl actually owned it.

[VCS1]

I also seem to remember a rumor about a scrapped P-43 and the landing gear still surviving with Earl? I happen to own part of a P-43 tail gear, so the main gear would be VERY interesting to me if they still exist!!