Warbird Information Exchange

Courtesy Aircraft is in Rockford

The Air Venture Museum in Oshkosh,Wi is worth a visit or even closer is the Indiana Aviation Museum in Valpariso,Indiana www.in-am.org

Or perhaps Sabremech will jump in here and set you up at the Warbird Heritage Museum in Waukegan. www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org

As promised, I took some photos of the replica warbirds at the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant next to Palwaukee Airport in Wheeling, IL on the only sunny day we had during the holidays...

I also went to the site of NAS Glenview; the Hangar One building and its control tower have been incorporated into a shopping center...
and the Von Maur store to the right of Hangar One has this Stearman on display...
...which, oddly, is marked as an N3N! The fellow in the last picture is an animatronic figure - stick a quarter in the box and he'll come to life and tell you about the history of NAS Glenview!

As well as the NAS Glenview Museum at 2040 Lehigh in Glenview:

Take Interstate 65 South to highway 24 East to highway 31 South...Grissom Air Museum will be on your right just past Peru, Indiana. A wonderful collection with even better staff

Whoops...forgot a couple of things...Grissom Air Museum is not on the Air Force Base, so it is open to the public. And, yes, we are open...a bit wet out on the grounds, but you won't regret the trip

Another thought, if you are coming south on 94 out of Wisconsin, just past Kenosha, on your right is a mottled collection of helicopters, military vehicles and a few skeletons of older jets. Last time I was there (about 5 years ago) the best part is going into that guys junkyard behind the regular displays...has some interesting bits and pieces back there.

The village's new Community Development Authority will work to formulate a redevelopment plan for the newly acquired properties in the next three months, Pollocoff said.

The village sent letters this summer to property owners notifying them that their properties are blighted and that it will begin working with them to acquire the properties and find new locations. The acquisitions are expected to take about a year to complete.


State law governs the acquisition process and requires the village to pay fair market value for the properties in addition to providing relocation assistance to the businesses.

Museum founder upset
Mark Sonday, founder of the Kenosha Military Museum, said he wishes he would have been told 10 years ago that the comprehensive plan calls for different uses of the land.

Sonday, who also owns Sonday's Vans, a van conversion business affected by the land purchase, said he's been trying to expand the museum for the past 10 years and proposed constructing a 50,000-square-foot building for indoor exhibits. Sonday's permit applications have been denied by Kenosha County, he said.

Sonday parlayed his hobby of collecting military artifacts to start the Kenosha Military Museum in 1986. The museum, operated by a nonprofit corporation, now has 125 pieces ranging from World War I artillery to Vietnam-era helicopters.

Moving the museum will be costly, although the village will be required by state law to pay the museum's moving expenses.

Sonday said he also needs the visibility of the interstate.

"People who travel from the east to the west pretty much pass my front door," he noted.

He estimates as many as 15,000 to 20,000 visitors tour the museum between May and October. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children.

Kenosha Military Museum is/was here:

http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=42+07+02.39+N+87+53+40.90+W&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=19&ll=42.513733,-87.952994&spn=0.001429,0.003374&t=k&iwloc=addr

They are moving into Illinois though. Wisconsin shoved them out using eminent domain so they could put more outlet malls along the expressway.

Think about the children... They don't need more outlet malls.

The museum will now be called the Russell Military Museum www.russellmilitarymuseum.com

I have added an entry. Where exactly are they located? Are there any airframes in the collection?

I have added an entry for this one, but need help with the map. Google seems to be a bit off the mark as I can't see any sign of the replicas around a building.