Looking for Information on Closed/Renamed Aviation Museums

[Noha307]

I've been working off and on, on a project to record some basic information on aviation museums in the United States (and possibly Canada, we'll see). Part of this involves looking into those that have either closed or changed their name. However, for obvious reasons it is difficult to even know what has existed in the past. I was hoping you guys could help by listing whatever ones of which you are/were aware. Anything you can think of is welcome! So far, here's what I have come up with on my own:

Closed Museums

• Air Acres Museum (?)
• Champlin Fighter Museum
• Flightarama
• International Flight and Space Museum
• Midwest Aviation Museum (?)
• Movieland of the Air Museum
• Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum (Pending)
• Ontario Air Museum

Museums with Changed Names

• Barksdale Global Power Museum <--- Eighth Air Force Museum
• National Air and Space Museum <--- National Air Museum
• National Museum of Aviation and Technology at Historic Willow Run (Pending) <--- Yankee Air Museum
• National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force <--- Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum
• National Museum of the United States Air Force <--- United States Air Force Museum
• National Naval Aviation Museum <--- National Museum of Naval Aviation <--- Naval Aviation Museum
• Niagara Aerospace Museum <--- Ira G. Ross Aerospace Museum
• Pioneer Air Museum <--- Alaskaland Pioneer Air Museum
• San Diego Air & Space Museum <--- San Diego Aerospace Museum
• Strategic Air and Space Museum <--- Strategic Air Command Museum <--- Strategic Aerospace Museum
• Travis Air Force Base Heritage Center <--- Jimmy Doolittle Air & Space Museum <--- Travis Air Museum

One small note; because the names can change ever so slightly, I would appreciate it if you could include the names exactly as they were written. (See difference in SDASM name, for example)

What aviation museums do you know of that no longer exist? What aviation museums that are still around used to go by different name(s)?

[Warbird Kid]

New England Air Museum <--- Bradley Air Museum


On a side note, in my opinion, this is the worst name change of them all:
National Museum of Aviation and Technology at Historic Willow Run (Pending) <--- Yankee Air Museum

Does anyone know if the Yankee Air Museum will retain ownership and copyright on the name when they change over?

[Noha307]

New England Air Museum <--- Bradley Air Museum

Thanks! I had no idea it was ever called anything else.

Does anyone know if the Yankee Air Museum will retain ownership and copyright on the name when they change over?

Not entirely sure, but when I visited two months ago I was reminded that there is both a museum (the Yankee Air Museum) and a foundation (the Yankee Air Force, Inc.) behind it. IIRC, while the name of the museum is changing, the name of the foundation will likely not. Why do you ask?

FWIW, there was one disadvantage to the name "Yankee Air Museum" - it is very similar to the name of the "Yanks Air Museum". For us WIXers that's not much of an issue, but I imagine large sections of the general population could get the two museums confused.

[Chris Brame]

Victory Air Museum (Gilmer, IL) - Earl Reinert sold off the last of his collection in the mid-80s.
Michigan Military Air Museum (Freeland, MI) - closed late 1974.

Last edited by Chris Brame on Tue Sep 22, 2015 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[BK]

Strategic Air and Space Museum <--- Strategic Air Command Museum <--- Strategic Aerospace Museum

Is now Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum. http://sasmuseum.com/2015/05/06/renaming-the-museum/

[JohnB]

While in grad school at ASU, I did a project on the Champlin museum (hey it beats working).
Got to interview Doug Champlin a couple of times and see the ac up close.
It was collocated with the American Fighter Aces Museum...a "Hall of Fame" for many aces. It consisted of histories, uniforms, Bios, etc.
As you may know, the majority of the aircraft were sold to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Other closed museums:
For information on Movieland of the Air (the Tallmantz collection), see Scott Thompson's website for details on aircraft and dates.

There was also a "Movieworld" museum (IIRC called "Planes of Fame" and paired with "Cars of the Stars") in Buena Park, CA where they had statics like the now scrapped B-25 from the 70s TV movie Sole Survivor (a takeoff on the Lady Be Good). It closed in 1973.

Payte Museum at Ft. Worth (closed a few years back...various military items including a few ac).
Florence Air & Missile Museum in South Carolina consisted primarily ex-military stuff, many now rare types (B-66, etc.) were scrapped when it closed.

Also, the CAF had a few postwar military statics (C-124, etc.) at their original base in Harlingen. They have a few at Midland, I don't know if they'll be making the move to Dallas-Ft. Worth.

[Noha307]

Victory Air Museum (Gilmer, IL) - Earl Reinert sold off the last of his collection in the mid-80s.
Michigan Military Air Museum (Freeland, MI) - closed late 1974.

Another two museums I had never heard of before. This is turning into a learning experience. Thanks!

Question about the Victory Air Museum though. A quick Google search turned up another thread on WIX that seemed to insinuate that the museum was still around in another incarnation. Apparently there is even a website. Any thoughts on this?

The aforementioned thread also mentioned another museum I have never heard of before: the "Polidori Air Museum".

Finally, to address one other issue that thread brought up, I am interested in anything that was billed as a "museum" even if it was more of just a collection. As long as it referred to itself as one, go ahead and post it. I won't say I'll necessarily end up using it, but I can't even consider including it until I am aware it exists!

EDIT: I found a post in another thread on WIX that quotes Baugher for a "Mid-Michigan Air Museum" in Freeland, Michigan. Do you know if it could have gone by a different name? Goodall notes a HU-16 at a "Michigan Military Air Museum" in Saginaw, MI (of which Freeland is apparently a suburb). Finally, a whole bunch of Google results are pointing me to something at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport, but I'm thinking this is a misidentification due to public confusion. Tracking down information on museum that closed pre-Internet era is hard!

Strategic Air and Space Museum <--- Strategic Air Command Museum <--- Strategic Aerospace Museum

Is now Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum. http://sasmuseum.com/2015/05/06/renaming-the-museum/

I feel like I saw that somewhere, but forgot about it. Thanks for (possibly) reminding me!

Also, it looks like they've come full circle with their name.

There was also a "Movieworld" museum (IIRC called "Planes of Fame" and paired with "Cars of the Stars") in Buena Park, CA where they had statics like the now scrapped B-25 from the 70s TV movie Sole Survivor (a takeoff on the Lady Be Good). It closed in 1973.

Huh. So this "Movieworld" was separate from both the Tallmantz museum and the modern day Planes of Fame museum?

EDIT: The Wikipedia article about the current Planes of Fame museum claims that the "Movieworld" museum was an earlier location of the Maloney collection. So the "Planes of Fame" museum you referred to is the same as the current Planes of Fame?

Payte Museum at Ft. Worth (closed a few years back...various military items including a few ac).

Another one I've never heard of! And I thought I knew 'em all! Thanks!

Florence Air & Missile Museum in South Carolina consisted primarily ex-military stuff, many now rare types (B-66, etc.) were scrapped when it closed.

I forgot about this one. I remember it now because it's where the only remaining BTD Destroyer came from.

Last edited by Noha307 on Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[JohnB]

Huh. So this "Movieworld" was separate from both the Tallmantz museum and the modern day Planes of Fame museum?

I thought it was affiliated with Tallmantz, but to be honest, I'm not sure so I didn't make that claim in my post.
It wasn't at an airport, so no flying could be done from there.

[Chris Brame]

Payte Museum at Ft. Worth (closed a few years back...various military items including a few ac).

Pate - no Y.

[K5DH]

There used to be an aviation museum outside the gates of the Lockheed facility at Carswell AFB in Fort Worth. It closed a long time ago. Anyone remember the name? They had a bunch of interesting aircraft on display, including B-36J "City of Fort Worth" which was restored by and is now in the care of the fine folks at Pima.

[K5DH]

Payte Museum at Ft. Worth (closed a few years back...various military items including a few ac).

Pate - no Y.

The full name was Pate Museum of Transportation. They were located several miles south of FW near the town of Cresson on US Highway 377. They had aircraft, military vehicles, a Navy ship (!), and I think a RR loco or two. Everything was in poor shape when the museum finally closed. All of the aircraft were redistributed to other museums, and VFM wound up with their CH-21B Flying Banana (it's on loan to us from USN).

[Noha307]

There used to be an aviation museum outside the gates of the Lockheed facility at Carswell AFB in Fort Worth. It closed a long time ago. Anyone remember the name? They had a bunch of interesting aircraft on display, including B-36J "City of Fort Worth" which was restored by and is now in the care of the fine folks at Pima.

That B-36 apparently had quite a history! The Aerial Visuals entry on the plane lists it as being on display at "Aviation Heritage Collection, Amon Carter Field, Fort Worth, TX", "Carswell AFB, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX", "Southwest Aerospace Museum, Fort Worth", "Aviation Heritage Museum, Fort Worth, TX", and "B-36 Peacemaker Museum, Fort Worth Meacham Airport/Meacham Field, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX".

Good call, that brought up a lot of museums of some form or another.

Payte Museum at Ft. Worth (closed a few years back...various military items including a few ac).

Pate - no Y.

The full name was Pate Museum of Transportation. They were located several miles south of FW near the town of Cresson on US Highway 377. They had aircraft, military vehicles, a Navy ship (!), and I think a RR loco or two. Everything was in poor shape when the museum finally closed. All of the aircraft were redistributed to other museums, and VFM wound up with their CH-21B Flying Banana (it's on loan to us from USN).

I found some photos! Apparently, they had quite the eclectic collection! Their AviationMuseum.eu entry lists them as having these aircraft at some point:

• 42-108866 - Douglas VC-117
• 51-2675 - Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar
• 131063 - Grumman F-9F-8 Cougar
• 51-7176 - Grumman HU-16B Albatross
• 58-1841 - Kaman HH-43B Husky
• 58-0621 - Lockheed T-33A
• 59-0471 - McDonnell F-101B Voodoo
• 66-8812 - MCD Douglas F-4D Phantom II
• 53-1239 - North American F-86H Sabre
• 140659 - North American T-28C Trojan
• 53-4324 - Piasecki CH-21B Workhorse
• 53-7595 - Republic RF-84F Thunderflash
• 60-0500 - Republic F-105D Thunderchief

EDIT: I found an interesting quote on the fate of the planes at the museum in an article about its closing:

[The caretaker] further explained that the Air Force had seized several of the other planes from the museum – some of which actually landed on the grounds – because they were not being properly maintained.

Another quote from a forum post, quoting the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the same topic:

The amphibious airplane from the 1950s called the HU-16 Albatross is being dismantled by some Coast Guard members. They've been looking for a plane like this for a memorial they're setting up in Florida. "Tail number 7176, manufactured by Grumman in 1951, was flown onto the museum's property in the early 1970s. It has sat outdoors through almost 40 Texas summers, been beaten by a goodly number of hailstones and had birds nest in its cockpit." The Coast Guard members even found the manuals for this plane at the Pate Museum, which will help them in restoring it. They plan to put the Albatross on static display in Florida, as a memorial to six crewmembers who perished in 1967 in the Gulf of Mexico during a rescue.

The Pate Museum of Transportation opened in Cresson in 1969, according to the article. "When the Albatross leaves on three flatbed trucks this weekend, only three airplanes will remain on the grounds: a C-119 Flying Boxcar, an F-101 Voodoo and an odd-shaped CH-21 helicopter nicknamed the Flying Banana."

Most of the other aircraft from the Pate have already been transferred to other museums and military bases across the country.

Last edited by Noha307 on Tue Sep 22, 2015 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris Brame]

Question about the Victory Air Museum though. A quick Google search turned up another thread on WIX that seemed to insinuate that the museum was still around in another incarnation. Apparently there is even a website. Any thoughts on this?

I know who has this but I haven't gotten any response when I phoned or emailed.

The aforementioned thread also mentioned another museum I have never heard of before: the "Polidori Air Museum".

That could have been a mistake in the article; Amilio Paul Polidori owned the land where the aircraft, which largely belonged to Earl, were displayed and flew his Taylorcraft from there (it was basically farmland with a 3000' grass airstrip and a barn-like hangar; the aircraft were outdoors).
A bit of trivia about Paul: He once told me his US-born cousin was killed flying for Italy early in WWII. Recently I checked the Chicago Tribune archives and sure enough:



Some further Googling reveals Amerigo Polidori was a graphic artist of some note before the war.

Last edited by Chris Brame on Tue Sep 22, 2015 8:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[JohnB]

In the early '70s there was a museum in Michigan that closed.
Among other items, it had an Albatross and one of the prototype/service test YOH-6s.

I read somewhere that the Michigan Sate police were interested in getting the helicopter...probably until they learned of the cost of replacing/overhauling the engine/transmission/rotors.*

Anyone know where it was, what it had and where the aircraft went?




*(Rather like our sheriff's dept. which received a "free" OH-58.....it cost them $400k to get it flying and equipped for police work. They also got a spare (no police equipment) helicopter as a "trainer". I believe it's been sold...(BTW: it seems that cities/counties/community colleges could make a fair bit of money by selling ex-military stuff).

[Chris Brame]

That's the Michigan Military Air Museum as mentioned above. Photos and info on this thread (scroll down a bit):
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=55268&hilit=longshot
ETA: The OH-6 is mentioned (with serial) in an issue of Air Classics from that period - let me check downstairs later and I'll have that number.