Looking for Information on Closed/Renamed Aviation Museums

[Noha307]

As far as the Shannon Museum goes, it is NOT part of Jerry Yagen's Military Aviation Museum (name's are close!). The Virginia Aviation Museum is based in Richmond, VA and apparently Shannon's collection was the base that started it.

In Fredricksburg, VA there was the Shannon Museum that I believe was later moved and became the Virginia Aviation Museum in Richmond. http://www.vam.smv.org/

What exactly was the VAM's relationship to the Shannon Museum? Did it change when Yagen bought it? (I have no idea how long he's been involved with that.)

Darn! How did I miss that? Here I am, just a few posts above, mentioning how easily the uninitiated can get museums confused and I manage to do it myself!

EDIT:

Page 3 of this thread has images of a Victory Air Museum flyer and of Earl Reinert that I posted (scroll way down), plus fellow WIXer Garbs posted a bunch of VAM photos:
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... er#p235001

Dude! That is awesome! A hand drawn museum brochure! It really gives you a feel for the thrown together atmosphere of the times.

For a while we had the Kenosha Military Museum in southeast Wisconsin. The moved just across the border to Zion Illinois in 2008 and are renamed the Russell Military Museum. A nice collection of aircraft along with wheeled and tracked vehicles and a few water craft.

http://www.russellmilitarymuseum.com/

Would like to have made it to the Indiana Aviation Museum in Valparaiso before it closed up shop in 2010. One of the museum's more well-known warbirds was the P-51 "Excalibur" (which I think now lives in Europe somewhere).

From the late '70s to the mid-'90s there was a museum called "Wagons to Wings" at the Hill Country complex in Morgan Hill CA. They had a grass runway down the middle of their golf course and a great restaurant called "The Flying Lady" that had hundreds of airplane models that rotated around the dining room on a giant dry cleaning conveyor track.
When the facility closed, some of the airplanes and a lot of the models went to the "The Wings of History Air Museum" at the nearby San Martin airport and some of the planes went to "Hiller Aviation Museum" in San Carlos, CA.
Mike Coutches had a tall tail Mustang and a Hellcat displayed there. the Mustang went back to Coutches at Hayward CA and the Hellcat went Lone Star Flight Museum.
There was also a Ford Tri-Motor that went to Kermit Weeks.

Dang, you guys are spitting out examples faster than I can write them down! I'm loving this!

[Rauhbatz]

Hey noah...am headed over to the storage unit tomorrow...will get the Florence flyer and scan it

[gale_dono]

the Ohio History of Flight Museum in Columbus, OH (located at Port Columbus International Airport.) I don't have a defunct date, nor am I 100% certain of the disposition of all the items it had (mainly because I still haven't determined what all they had.) Most notably is one of the few Sud Aviation Caravelles preserved in the US (and with the demise of the CVG Caravelle, possibly the only survivor in the US aside from N1001U at Pima), which is now with the CMH airport fire department, in reasonably good condition.

[Spectre_I]

This is a very long thread, so my apologies if I am mentioning something someone else already did, or if this even qualifies:
The Western Museum of Flight. It was part of Northrop Grumman, before divesting itself. It was located at Hawthorne, Ca. airport. It has moved to Zamperini Field, formerly known as Torrance Municipal Airport, formerly known as Lomita Flight Strip. ::: Whew :::

Very small, but has a YF-23 and a YF-17 amongst its collection.

[Noha307]

Hey noah...am headed over to the storage unit tomorrow...will get the Florence flyer and scan it

Cool, thanks!

the Ohio History of Flight Museum in Columbus, OH (located at Port Columbus International Airport.) I don't have a defunct date, nor am I 100% certain of the disposition of all the items it had (mainly because I still haven't determined what all they had.) Most notably is one of the few Sud Aviation Caravelles preserved in the US (and with the demise of the CVG Caravelle, possibly the only survivor in the US aside from N1001U at Pima), which is now with the CMH airport fire department, in reasonably good condition.

Man, there was even a museum in my state that I had never heard about.

I found a new article about the museum's collection being parceled out and a blog post about where the collection ended up. Apparently, our museum has a V-1710 from their collection and I didn't even know it! I never thought that this thread would end up right back at my doorstep!

This is a very long thread, so my apologies if I am mentioning something someone else already did, or if this even qualifies:
The Western Museum of Flight. It was part of Northrop Grumman, before divesting itself. It was located at Hawthorne, Ca. airport. It has moved to Zamperini Field, formerly known as Torrance Municipal Airport, formerly known as Lomita Flight Strip. ::: Whew :::

Very small, but has a YF-23 and a YF-17 amongst its collection.

Nope, hasn't been mentioned in this thread before and it qualifies. Good call. I knew the other (i.e. non-NMUSAF) YF-23 ended up in a museum somewhere out west and thought it had something to do with its manufacturer, but never realized that it was an aviation museum that actually used to be part of Northrop Grumman. I have to ask, how much of an actual "museum" was it when it was part of the company? I always figured it was nothing more than a bunch of planes sitting outside on pedestals.

By all means, keep 'em coming!

[wacoykc]

The Ohio History of Flight Museum closed its doors around 1998. All the contents were given to the Ohio Historical Society. Around 2010, I was able to get the Waco GXE and Waco 9 plus about six aircraft engines, a number of propellers, a Ford AA Fuel Truck and a Saxon automobile placed on indefinite loan to the Waco Historical Society Air Museum in Troy, Ohio. A couple airplanes were sold which included a 1938 Dart and several homebuilts. The engine that went to the warbird museum in Batavia, Ohio was also part of the deal with a few connections with friends who work at that museum.

[jdvoss]

Beale AFB, CA used to have an air museum and I believe that it was closed about 25-30 years ago. It was a rather small display (possibly a dozen max A/C). included in the collection was a B-17F "Homesick Angel" which was relocated somewhere in the mid-west ...?? IIRC, they also had an L-5 "Guinea Shortlines" and possibly a B-57. The museum was located well inside the base so security was an issue.

http://www.fuselagecodes.com

[Chris Brame]

Beale AFB, CA used to have an air museum and I believe that it was closed about 25-30 years ago. It was a rather small display (possibly a dozen max A/C). Included in the collection was a B-17F "Homesick Angel" which was relocated somewhere in the mid-west ...??

That's 42-3374, now on display at Offutt AFB in Omaha.
JD, did you get my message re the Hobbs, NM tail code?

[Spectre_I]

This is a very long thread, so my apologies if I am mentioning something someone else already did, or if this even qualifies:
The Western Museum of Flight. It was part of Northrop Grumman, before divesting itself. It was located at Hawthorne, Ca. airport. It has moved to Zamperini Field, formerly known as Torrance Municipal Airport, formerly known as Lomita Flight Strip. ::: Whew :::

Very small, but has a YF-23 and a YF-17 amongst its collection.

Nope, hasn't been mentioned in this thread before and it qualifies. Good call. I knew the other (i.e. non-NMUSAF) YF-23 ended up in a museum somewhere out west and thought it had something to do with its manufacturer, but never realized that it was an aviation museum that actually used to be part of Northrop Grumman. I have to ask, how much of an actual "museum" was it when it was part of the company? I always figured it was nothing more than a bunch of planes sitting outside on pedestals.

By all means, keep 'em coming!

Other than what I wrote, I don't have much info on the history of the place. I grew up near there, and had been to the museum (many moons ago). A participant in the Castle Air Museum FB group recently visited the "new" museum. He wrote:
"The good folks at the museum allowed me to view the aircraft despite not displaying the planes that day due to a lecture. These beauties are locked inside a gate at a considerable distance from the actual museum so they have to take people to see them. It took me two hours to get there because of the usual Southern California traffic. They took pity on me and took me over." He posted lots of pics. Here are a couple:

YF-17



YF-23

[Rauhbatz]

Hi Noah...just went to our storage unit on a rainy ohio day. I have pics of the Florence museum flyer as well as an air classics article about it closing

Send me a private message w your email and I will forward...

[JohnB]

Beale AFB, CA used to have an air museum and I believe that it was closed about 25-30 years ago. It was a rather small display (possibly a dozen max A/C). Included in the collection was a B-17F "Homesick Angel" which was relocated somewhere in the mid-west ...??

That's 42-3374, now on display at Offutt AFB in Omaha.

Just to make it clear, it's the aircraft at Offutt, not the SAC museum.
The B-17 is displayed outdoors in a round-about.

the Ohio History of Flight Museum in Columbus, OH (located at Port Columbus International Airport.)

Is that the outfit founded by Charles (?) Lane?
He was a very early pilot....Jenny-era airmail pilot, not WWII...who became a successful FBO owner. He passed away in the 90s.

[JFS61]

I remember seeing the old Wings and Wheels Museum at Santee when we passed through on the way to Florida one time back in the late 60's. I wanted to stop, but we didn't have any spare time in our schedule. Of course, back then the road was littered with all sorts of roadside attractions of dubious value, so I'm sure that no doubt played a decision in our not stopping as well. A shame too, as I understand it was a nice little collection.

There was also briefly (very briefly) another Wing & Wheels museum located near Six Flags over Texas called Wings & Wheels over Texas. Apparently it was primarily a vintage car collection, with a few planes from Overton collection thrown in the mix. I remember seeing signs for it when we visited some friends there back in the 70's. Apparently they themselves had visited it, and said it wasn't worth the trouble, an opinion apparently shared by most everyone else as it was disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared.

[BAJ]

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

What a DOG of NAME !!!

[Noha307]

I'm back! Sorry for the delay. Anyway, a couple things of note I came across.

First off, I found another WIX thread with old pictures from aviation museums.

Secondly, I found another museum - in this case modern - that I for a short time had confused with the one Spectre_I mentioned above. (Both are outdoor "airpark" museums with a connection to the government/manufacturer.) It's called the "Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at Palmdale Plant 42" and is near a seperate airpark, called the "Blackbird Airpark", that is connected to the Air Force Flight Test Museum. (As an aside, I am noticing a theme with multiple, but in some way interrelated aviation museums at one location. cf. B-36 'City of Dallas', Chino, Fort Worth & Seattle museums) It also counts as having a changed name due to it previously being called the "Palmdale Plant 42 Heritage Airpark".

Third, I am also looking into early warbird collectors like Walter Soplata, but don't know of that many offhand. You know, the men who were eccentric and more hoarders than historians? I do remember the story of one that, IIRC, was in Canada and had a large collection of trainers and engines for them. I think he eventually got into trouble for shooting someone on his property and his collection was auctioned off after he died. Does anyone know who I am talking about and remember his name?

Fourth, I scanned 4-5 pages out of what I can only assume is the June 1987 copy of the magazine Private Pilot that I recently was given. It's a table that is titled "Museums with Aviation Exhibits". If I ever find a good way to host them, I'll upload them here. On that note, hopefully I can get around to firing off a PM to Rauhbatz soon.

Finally, I thought I would list all the museums that have received any mention in this thread thus far - minus the ones I mentioned in my first post. By order of mention, here they are:

Museums Mentioned in This Thread

• Victory Air Museum (Gilmer, IL) - aka "Polidori Air Museum"
• Michigan Military Air Museum (Freeland, MI) - aka "Mid-Michigan Air Museum"
• Pate Museum of Transportation (Fort Worth, TX)
• Florence Air & Missile Museum (Florence, SC)
• CAF Harlingen (Harlingen, TX) - also Rebel Field (Mercedes, TX) not previously mentioned in thread
• Allied Air Museum (Allentown, PA) aka "Allied Air Force Museum"
• Wings and Wheels (Orlando, FL)
• Colonial Flying Corps Museum (Toughkenamon, PA)
• Age of Flight Museum (Niagara Falls, Canada)
• Flying Tiger Museum (Kissimmee, FL)
• SST Museum (Kissimmee, FL)
• Shannon Museum (Fredricksburg, VA) --> Virginia Aviation Museum
• National Automobile Museum (Harrah's Automobile Collection) (Reno, NV)
• J.L. Terteling Collection? (Boise, ID)
• American Air Museum (Oakland, CA)
• Yesterday's Air Force (Chino, CA) --> Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation
• Kenosha Military Museum (Pleasant Prairie, WI) --> Russell Military Museum
• Indiana Aviation Museum (Valparaiso, IN)
• Wagons to Wings (Morgan Hill, CA)
• Ohio History of Flight Museum (Columbus, OH)
• Western Museum of Flight (Hawthorne, CA)
• Beale AFB museum (?, CA)
• Wings & Wheels over Texas (?, TX)

[Chris Brame]

I do remember the story of one that, IIRC, was in Canada and had a large collection of trainers and engines for them. I think he eventually got into trouble for shooting someone on his property and his collection was auctioned off after he died. Does anyone know who I am talking about and remember his name?

Yes, it was Ernie Simmons:
http://www.spitcrazy.com/Simmons-2.htm