Aviation museum at Anoka County-Blaine Airport closing
The American Wings Air Museum, hit with higher costs and less income, has ended tours and is putting historic crafts in storage.
By Brady Gervais
bgervais@pioneerpress.comUpdated: 07/07/2009 10:16:08 PM CDT
Say goodbye to the Big Beautiful Doll, a Vietnam War-era L-19 Bird Dog and a one-of-a-kind 1911 airplane.
After 12 years, the American Wings Air Museum is shutting down. The combination of higher rent and fewer donations has forced the aviation museum to close to the public this month. Operators are finding new homes for war birds and memorabilia.
"It's an unfortunate thing that our programs and the things that we provide to the community, the state and the region in general will not be able to continue," said Len Burgers, one of the museum's three directors.
The 20,000-square-foot museum was paid for and built at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport with the checkbooks and muscles of volunteers. But it's on land leased by the Metropolitan Airports Commission, and monthly rent has increased from $1,000 to $4,300, Burgers said. The museum's board of directors can no longer keep up with the bills.
The museum is about $50,000 behind in rent payments, said MAC spokesman Patrick Hogan.
In April, MAC put the museum on official notice, said Randy Lapic, a museum director. No more tours will be offered, the directors said.
Lapic has found a buyer for the museum's building. And in June, the MAC approved transferring the lease to Twin Cities Aviation Real Estate, Hogan said.
"It is a loss. The museum provided a very welcome public service that was good for aviation," Hogan said.
The MAC is willing to work with museum directors to find a smaller, more
affordable site, he said. But it's up to the museum's directors to take the next step.
"We want to rise from this setback," Lapic said.
It's unclear how and when that will happen.
The museum's members and board of directors are beginning to pack and find storage for the airplanes.
Though the museum owns two small hangars at the airport, it's too little space.
"We don't have a place for everything," Burgers said. "We're trying to hang on to as much as we can with the hopes of finding another facility in the Twin Cities area."
Among those concerned about the museum's closure is Dennis Eggert, director of the Minnesota Air and Space Museum, which doesn't have a building.
Eggert kept the only airplane built by Stephens Engineering Co. — a 1911 Steco Aerohydroplane — at the American Wings Air Museum. He helped restore the historic airplane.
"It's extremely valuable. You can't even put a price on it," he said.
He's puzzled over what he'll do with the airplane, which has a wingspan of 40 feet, he said. The moving crates used to transport it from a Chicago suburb to Minnesota several years ago are gone.
Disassembling the airplane and moving it to another location would be a "major, major
task, and it's going to be a huge financial burden," he said.
The American Wings Air Museum — on paper — has been around since 1986. It wasn't until 1997 that it had a building to showcase its planes and memorabilia. The museum's first piece was an OV-1 Mohawk, which the U.S. Army used during the Vietnam War, Lapic said.
For years, the museum has been the meeting space for aviation groups and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadets.
An estimated 6,000 visitors toured the museum annually, Burgers said. They came from all over the world. One year, he said, a television crew from Japan filmed at the facility.
"Air Wings has done anything and everything to educate, educate, educate," Lapic said.
The American Wings Air Museum
American Air Wings Museum co-director Len Burgers, left, and volunteer Dave Taylor pack museum artifacts Tuesday, including a sheepskin-lined World War II leather flight jacket. After 12 years, the state s last aviation museum open to the public is scheduled to close.
"They do a hell of a job," Eggert said. "My gosh, it's a loss to everybody."
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