Looking for Information on Closed/Renamed Aviation Museums

[Noha307]

And here's the list of aviation museum previous names. The introduction and explanation in the previous post also applies here.

Previous Names of Aviation Museums

• 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum <-- National Warplane Museum (?) *Unknown order?
• Aerospace Museum of California <-- McClellan Aviation Museum
• Air Force Flight Test Museum <-- Air Force Flight Test Center Museum
• Air Mobility Command Museum <-- Dover Air Force Base Museum (?) <-- Dover Air Force Base Historical Center
• Air Zoo <-- Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum
• Alaska Aviation Museum <-- Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum (?)
• Barksdale Global Power Museum <-- Eighth Air Force Museum
• Delta Flight Museum <-- Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum
• EAA Aviation Museum <-- EAA AirVenture Museum
• Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum <-- Captain Michael King Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Center and Museum <-- Evergreen AirVenture Museum <-- Evergreeen Museum (?)
• Fantasy of Flight <-- Weeks Air Museum
• Florida Air Museum <-- International Sport Aviation Museum <-- Sun ‘n Fun Air Museum <-- Aerospace Discovery at Florida Air Museum
• Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum <-- San Diego Aerospace Museum (?) *See SDASM
• Greater Saint Louis Air & Space Museum <-- St. Louis Aviation Museum
• Mid-America Air Museum <-- Liberal Air Museum
• Museum of Flying <-- Douglas Museum and Library
• National Air and Space Museum <-- National Air Museum
• National Museum of Aviation and Technology at Historic Willow Run <-- 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 <-- Air Force Technical Museum <-- Army Aeronautical Museum
• National Naval Aviation Museum <-- National Museum of Naval Aviation <-- Naval Aviation Museum
• New England Air Museum <-- Bradley Air Museum
• Niagara Aerospace Museum <-- Ira G. Ross Aerospace Museum
• Oakland Aviation Museum <-- Western Aerospace Museum
• Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor <-- Military Aviation Museum of the Pacific <-- Pacific Aerospace Museum (?) *Related, but not same museum
• Pima Air & Space Museum <-- Tucson Air Museum <-- Pima County Air Museum *Unknown order?
• Pioneer Air Museum <-- Alaskaland Pioneer Air Museum
• Planes of Fame Museum <-- Ontario Air Museum <-- The Air Museum
• Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum <-- Fred E. Weisbrod Museum/International B-24 Museum
• San Diego Air & Space Museum <-- San Diego Aerospace Museum (?) *See FLAM
• Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum <-- Strategic Air and Space Museum <-- Strategic Air Command Museum <-- Strategic Aerospace Museum
• Texas Air & Space Museum <-- English Field Air & Space Museum (?)
• Travis Air Force Base Heritage Center <-- Jimmy Doolittle Air & Space Museum <-- Travis Air Museum
• Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum <-- Valiant Air Command Air Museum (?)
• Vintage Aero Flying Museum <-- LaFayette Escadrille Flying Museum
• Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum <-- Lowry Heritage Museum

[T J Johansen]

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.

And Paul Polidori himself was killed in the crash of that Taylorcraft together with a photographer near the field in Mundelein on June 30, 1985.

Another museum with aviation content was Silverwood themepark in Athol, ID. Owner Gary Norton based several vintage aircraft there in the 80/ 90s. I think the original name was Henley Aerodrome.

T J

[raconnel]

The Virginia Aviation Museum closed in 2016. Most of the aircraft are now on display at the new Shannon Air Museum in Fredericksburg, VA.

Richard

[JohnB]

About the Henley Aerodrome...
Gary Norton stated it as a Old Rhinebeck-like place with weekly airshows. Circa 1974. It had a hangar and a restaurant that looked like an old airport building.
It wad owned by Norton but run by Henley...who was famous for having three aircraft with the same registration number: N5050 (albeit with different suffix letters).
You could buy rides in J-3s and Tiger Moths...N5059R was the Cub, the two months were N5050 and 5050C. I flew in a Cub and Tiger Moth there...I didn't write down the N numbrts, but based on the camouflage scheme, I believe it was 5050C.
Henley had a nice house across the runway And was well known for building WWI reproductions.

Later Norton expanded and got a P-51, however a hangar fire destroyed it in the late 70s-early 80s. He had a piece of melted aluminum on the restaurant wall. He later got a P-40.

Later in the 80s, he built the theme park...on the old runways. The old restaurant is still in use and the house/hangar is also still there.

Last edited by JohnB on Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris Brame]

Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum - Closing Rantoul, IL

Closed as of November 1, 2015.

[k5083]

Great info about the old Henley/Norton enterprise. I recall being taken there in 1975 on a family camping trip when I was but a sprog. I did save this photo my dad took of N5050. It did not burn in the fire and today is N17440 with a Wisconsin owner. It is an Aussie Tiger Moth, A17-440.



August

[T J Johansen]

Later Norton expanded and got a P-51, however a hangar fire destroyed it in the late 70s-early 80s. He had a piece of melted aluminum on the restaurant wall. He later got a P-40.

Norton actually had two P-51s over the years. Both with connections to the late Max Hoffman. The first was the original "Boomer", N6310T which had been sold to Ward Wilkins and flew in a partly repainted 4th FG color scheme. Wilkins then sold it to Norton, but it was not to be a long, prosperous ownership as the 51 burned up at Henley Aerodrome on July 28, 1981.


As "Boomer" with Max Hoffman at Oshkosh in 1973.
From http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... f=3&t=9218


Repainted while owned by Ward Wilkins.
From http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 74832.html




Hoffman had managed to buy the old E.D. Weiner race Mustang #49 N335J and he raced it at Reno 79. It was then sold and ended up as Norton's replacement for N6310T. At that stage it had been given the same 4th FG colors as "Boomer" with the blue anti- glare panel and canopy rail. A paint job it kept into Rene Bouverat's ownership in France.


As "Boomer II" with Max Hoffman in Reno 1979.
From http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/su ... l/44-74506


With Gary Norton in the same scheme as "Boomer" had in the 70s.
From http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/su ... l/44-74506


T J

[Noha307]

Anyone know anything more about the North American Warbird Museum/North American Museum of Flight? Apparently there was a plan to found a museum at the Allegheny County Airport in mid-1988 by a Mr. Thomas E. Bridge. I found two articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about it:

Planning tribute

Pittsburgh may someday become the home of an aviation museum. Thomas E. Bridge, founder and director of the Richland-based North American Warbird Museum, says the region has made many contributions to aviation, especially during World War II. To get started, the museum is changing its name and the group backing the effort has made a few acquisitions of aircraft for possible display. Page 23.

(PG North, 7 July 1988, page 1)

Museum planned to mark air contributions

During World War II, H.J. Heinz Co. was doing more than canning rations for fighting men and women at the front.

The food-processing company also made a little-known, but very important, contribution to the war effort. It manufactured wings for glider aircraft used in the D-day invasion of Normandy and elsewhere during the war.

Thomas E. Bridge, founder and director of the Richland-based North American Warbird Museum, said the unusual effort by Heinz was just one of dozens of local contributions to the war effort, particularly in the field of aviation.

"Gun turrets, bomb sights, wings, fuselages ... the list is endless, but they were all made by companies in this area," Bridge said.

The story of Pittsburgh and its contribution to aviation goes far beyond the infamous air battles over Europe and the Pacific Ocean 45 years ago, according to Bridge.

Samuel Pierpont Langley carried out many of his experiments in lift and drag on a plane while he was director of the Allegheny Observatory on the North Side between 1867 and 1887.

Pittsburgh was a pioneer and test city for the first air mail and early passenger flights.

Bridge said the logic was that if mail and passenger planes could make it over the Allegheny Mountains without the benefit of sophisticated weather information and navigational equipment, the two air services eventually would fly, so to speak.

With Pittsburgh's rich heritage in aviation as a drawing card, Bridge and about 200 other area aircraft enthusiasts are attempting to establish a two-site museum of flight here.

Bridge, 57, of Hampton, said, "We want to create something worthy, something that will reflect the tremendous role this area has played in the field of aviation."

The museum in name only at this point was incorporated about four years ago and is in the process of changing its name to the North American Museum of Flight, because its collections will not be limited to military aircraft.

The organization has made several aircraft acquisitions, including a Lockheed P2V "Neptune" submarine chaser and bomber. The aircraft was introduced during the Korean conflict and was used in Vietnam.

Courtesy of the Allegheny County commissioners, the Neptune is parked at Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin. It was a big hit during the recent county air show there, Bridge said.

The oganization also has a World War II T-50 "Bamboo Bomber" and several other older aircraft parked at out-of-state airfields.

Bridge said members are negotiating with county officials for space at the county airport to park 15 to 20 vintage planes, which they plan to purchase or acquire on loan from the Air Force and Smithsonian Institution.

Additionally, museum organizers have hired James L. Swauger, curator emeritus of anthropology of the The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, as a consultant for establishing a model museum of flight at Station Square, South Side.

Swauger said the model museum of flight would fit in with the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation transportation museum there.

Swauger said the Station Square facility would "tell the story of flight from the mythological flight of Icarus to beyond the space shuttle program."

Swauger said the museum also, will tell the story of famous people involved in the history of flight, including local people and the contributions Pittsburgh has made in the development of air travel.

"We're not asking for any public monies," Bridge said. "We're just asking the county to give us a helping hand with a little space at the airport to park some of our aircraft."

He noted that Howard Lovering, founder of the now successful Museum of Flight in Seattle, started with a little "in-kind" help from Seattle officials 10 years ago.

"They [Seattle officials] told Lovering he was crazy but gave him some space at their municipal airport anyway," Bridge said. "From practically nothing, Seattle now has a $30 million museum of flight, which draws thousands of visitors annually and employs dozens of people."

(PG North, 7 July 1988, page 23)

Aircraft enthusiasts hope to land museum

Aircraft buffs who hope to establish an aviation museum at the Allegheny County Airport have launched a petition drive to convince county officials that the project enjoys widespread support.

Thomas E. Bridge, president of the North American Warbird Museum in Gibsonia, said organizers of the petition drive have garnered the names of nearly 5,000 area residents.

"Our goal is 10,000 names," Bridge said. "If it takes more than that to convince the board of commissioners and other county officials there is genuine local interest for the museum, then we'll get more."

He and others want the county to donate space at the West Mifflin airport to park 15 to 20 vintage aircraft for public display.

The county is not in the business of giving away valuable public lands "to every person or organization with a dream," said Scott O'Donnell, county aviation director.

"Nobody here is saying there is anything wrong with the museum idea In fact, the county Department of Development said it would be willing to work with Mr. Bridge in getting some federal assistance," O'Donnell said. "But it is essential he meets some basic criteria to assure us and the public his idea is feasible."

The county first would require a market study to determine whether there would be enough interest to' support such a facility. Secondly, county officials want Bridge to submit a preliminary financial statement showing that he has enough private funding to get the project off the ground.

"We simply cannot allow someone to haul in 20 old aircraft and park them on valuable airport lands without some kind of plan. ... It wouldn't he fair to our tenants or the citizens. ... We're challenging Mr. Bridge to put something in writing," O'Donnell said.

Bridge said it is his organization's hope that the petition drive will serve as a preliminary market study.

Joining the North American Warbird Museum in the signature campaign are the Pittsburgh chapters of the Air Force Association and the Vietnam Veterans Association, Bridge said.

The museum was incorporated about four years ago and is in the process of changing its name to the North American Museum of Flight, because its collections will not be limited to military aircraft.

The organization has acquired several aircraft, such as a Lockheed P2V Neptune submarine chaser and bomber used in Korea and Vietnam and a World War II T-50 Bamboo Bomber. Many are parked at airfields outside the state.

The county granted museum officials space at the airport to park the Neptune while it is undergoing repairs.

Bridge said the plane was toured, by thousands of visitors during the recent Allegheny County Air Show[.]

"This alone proved to us that there is genuine public interest in vintage aircraft," he said.

(PG East, 25 August 1988, page 6)

EDIT (22-05-16): Apparently, according to a newspaper article, the collection ended up going to a man named Gino Lucci who tried to start his own "North American Air Museum" at the Fitch H. Beach Airport in Charlotte, Michigan.

Last edited by Noha307 on Mon May 16, 2022 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Noha307]

Just a quick addition to both the closed and renamed museum lists:

• The Roosevelt Field Historical Museum, as covered in a different thread, closed in the 1950s.
• The Aerospace Museum of California, before it was called the McClellan Aviation Museum, had the short lived and rather awkward name of "Air Force Logistics Museum of the West".[1]

[aerovin]

Regarding Planes of Fame on Orangethorpe Blvd. in Buena Park:

It was co-located with Cars of the Stars. I don’t know what the business arrangement was between Movieworld, which contributed the Cars of the Stars collection, and Ed Maloney of The Air Museum, but all (or most) of the aircraft displayed were from The Air Museum. It was all indoors, though the wings of B-17F 42-3374 were photographed on a trailer behind the building one day. (The Air Museum had the fuselage of that B-17F at Chino at the time.) There was a significant number of aircraft on display including the Sole Survivor B-25J (44-30979, later scrapped) in a diorama, a PB4Y-2 fuselage, and a Zero. I believe this was the first application of the name Planes of Fame to The Air Museum collection. The joint venture did not last more than a few years and the museum soon enough closed. A google search on Cars of the Stars in Buena Park provides more information about the museum.

Regarding the Beale Air Museum:
Among the aircraft displayed was the, sadly, never identified (by me, anyway) nose section of a B-29 mounted on the side of the museum building. Also, the cleaned up remains of a derelict B-25 air tanker that came from Grass Valley: B-25J 43-28222 (N5256V). Also, A-26C 44-35724 (N7954C), C-47A 42-23668 (N7252N) and that old Maloney B-17F, 42-3374, that had come from MGM Studios in the early 1970s. Also, an AT-11 and a BT-13 that I never identified.

[Noha307]

Regarding Planes of Fame on Orangethorpe Blvd. in Buena Park

Thanks for the information!

On the subject of Planes of Fame, I just learned that they used to have a location called the "Planes of Fame East Museum" at Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, Minnesota thanks to Bob Pond.[1][2] Apparently, its closing in 1997 - and the move of all the aircraft to the Palm Springs Air Museum - was the catalyst for the foundation of Wings of the North.[3]

[kalamazookid]

Regarding Planes of Fame on Orangethorpe Blvd. in Buena Park

Thanks for the information!

On the subject of Planes of Fame, I just learned that they used to have a location called the "Planes of Fame East Museum" at Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, Minnesota thanks to Bob Pond.[1][2] Apparently, its closing in 1997 - and the move of all the aircraft to the Palm Springs Air Museum - was the catalyst for the foundation of Wings of the North.[3]

I never visited Planes of Fame East, but I did get to see some of the aircraft at airshows when I was young. The Planes of Fame P-38, then painted as "Joltin' Josie" visited Kalamazoo for the airshow one year, and I specifically remember seeing what is now the Palm Springs Air Museum F6F Hellcat at Muskegon. I may have seen the Corsair at some point too, but that was probably 30 years ago now.

There are some more photos from the museum and museum activities here:

https://live-fts.flickr.com/photos/alpi ... 7690435462

[bdk]

There was a significant number of aircraft on display including the Sole Survivor B-25J (44-30979, later scrapped) in a diorama...

Was this the King-9 airframe from the Twilight Zone episode? If so, Aero Trader owns parts of that airframe including the nose. Was the Sole Survivor aircraft scrapped or parted out?

[aerovin]

If my memory is any good, Jim Farmer (who was there and involved later with Planes of Fame) told me the B-25 from Sole Survivor (44-30979) was scrapped. Not always a big difference between scrapping and parting out, though. It was on display as a diorama at the Buena Park Planes of Fame buidling.

This is the display I recall...this image is floating around in the cybersphere:

[Chris Brame]

Now if someone could find a pre-Sole Survivor shot of '979... even the Farmer book didn't have one. Always wondered how this plane wasn't bought for Catch-22 first - maybe because it never (IIRC) had a civil registration?