As usual here at the Connecticut Air and Space Center, the crawl of progress has been just that. A crawl, but things are happening if you know where to look.
Cleaning:
No less than a year ago a man in his late 50's named Jerry joined the museum. He had always worked in broadcasting during his career and never really found aircraft interesting. But dangit if he didn't find himself a nice niche in our museum! The man is a constant cleaning machine! He's reorganized parts, pieces, tables, furniture, and odds and ends. The guy has taken the large amassed bulk of worthless junk we've collected (broken chairs, outdated servers, computers, etc) and has brought them to the dump. He also frequently sweeps and washes the floors. He's gained a great deal of respect by our other volunteers for single handily taking on the jobs no one wants.
Board of Directors:
For the past few years the museum has essentially been in command by a "Sleeper Board". Its like the body's running around without the head. But were hoping to change that with frequent monthly meetings (crazy idea right?!) and holding a basic election in November for a new board that will hopefully be far more productive.
Building Ownership:
For those who don't know the awkward and annoying situation at our museum, we're currently located in what I think is the ideal location for our museum:
From my limited research I believe this building was the experimental shop. Not only did the hand picked Corsairs that Vought put aside for various testing were in this hangar, but other experimental aircraft like the V-173 Flapjack were housed here. From reading Guyton's book
Whistling Death it seems like this was the building he was in, along with legends like Lindbergh visiting often. Also I believe some of Sikorsky's historic flights took place South/South East of our Hangar. Im sure someone here on WIX can fill in the holes or correct me where I might be askew.
Where are ya' Jerry?
Anyways, the property isn't owned by us (Still a US Army site after Avco Lycoming moved out in the late 90's) and supposedly in the next few days the keys are suppose to be handed over to a movie studio production company, with aspirations of turing the facility into just that. A giant movie studio with multiple large sound-stages, TV stations, radio stations, classrooms, etc. We at the museum are very interested and excited about this possible future, but we don't fully know if there going to be acceptable with us keeping our current facility. With being separated from the rest of the facility across Sniffins lane, we hope theres a better chance at us staying where we've always been. So as usual around here, your just gunna' have to hurry up and wait.
Displays:
What displays?
No, seriously we don't have any. But then again our museum isn't opened to the public yet so we don't have an immediate reason for one. Even still we have some stuff that should be on display somewhere so some of us here were playing around with the 2 showcases we have in the hallway. We'll have to see come Saturday if the higher ups don't like it and make us move them.
Restoration:
As you can see from my very hastily put together panoramic shot of our main shop floor, we've been busy cleaning and reorganizing things.
T-33: Being actively worked on by one very productive and very salty/grouchy ex Avco Lycoming employee!
That thing will hopefully gain momentum in the coming months with a few more hands on her.
S-52: It may be a little hard to see but the 2 S-52's in the shot have been a project since the museum first got rolling. One for us, while another is for a Marine museum. (Not sure where its suppose to end up) Either way we have a few more guys working on these birds and will continue to crawl to the finish line.
O-2: This aircraft is just getting a basic clean while some internal parts and pieces are getting repainted. At this time we might install some of the minor components we took out and then wheel her out of the main shop and put her back in storage.
150: This aircraft is display ready (only 1 of 2 aircraft at the museum!) but we'll have to take the wings off to move the aircraft out of the main shop to make room for another aircraft in need of some much needed work.
Corsair: Yep, you heard it here first folks. Our Hose Nose will hopefully be coming in from the cold! Well, less cold storage shed anyways!
Both of the Cessnas are being moved out of the main shop to make way for the fighter so we can perform alot more work under good lighting and in a heated room! You should have seen Bill Dinghey (Original Vought-Sikorsky employee) out in our rear storage shed during the dead of winter last year bangin' away at that bird! In order to get her into the main shop though, the fuselage is going to have be broken just aft of the cockpit. The rest of the forward fuselage will be de-matted from the wing at a later date.
Craig Mcburney has been there every step of the way with helping us dismantling the big pieces off the Corsair and his input/expertise will be greatly appreciated and welcomed in the coming years. Maybe he'll even help us "accidentally" restore it to flying condition!
Heres a shot of her from the beginning of the year. She now has the prop, engine, and other small components taken off.
Thats it for now, but I'll try and keep posting about my favorite little museum.
Warbird Kid out....
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