Chanute Air Museum in trouble....

[DaveM2]

All

Just got this in my inbox, so thought I would make it known.....



From Norm Meyers – Mustang Restoration Project – Chanute Air Museum

PLEASE Take a moment to read this email.

This is a plea for help for the Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul Illinois.
Everyone knows times are difficult with the slow economy here in the U.S. It affects all of us in many ways. Now, the Chanute Air Museum is struggling for its very existence and needs your help.

Without immediate assistance, this, the largest aerospace museum in downstate Illinois may soon close its doors, and we the people will lose a large part of our history.

This is more than a plea for donations, although any help is gratefully accepted. The museum needs the help of individuals, organizations and businesses to not only help it through these tough times, but help to build its long term future so it may never find itself in jeopardy again. It needs the expert advice and contacts of business and community leaders and aviation history enthusiasts to find financial help. Volunteers are always needed and professional help is greatly appreciated.

If you wish to help, first, forward this message to your friends, elected officials, co-workers, acquaintances and relatives. Then, if you can, come visit the museum. Your admission will help. If you know of an organization, individual or business that can help in any way, please send this email to them.

If you can help, contact the museum by phone, mail, or email at the addresses below.
If not, please forward this email to as many in your email address book as you can.

CHANUTE AIR MUSEUM
1011 Pacesetter Dr.
Rantoul, Illinois 61866
(217) 893-1613

curator@aeromuseum.org
volunteers@aeromuseum.org

To learn more about the Chanute Air Museum, visit http://www.aeromuseum.org

This email was written and launched by Norm Meyers. I am the Project Director of the Mustang Restoration Project, which is working as a volunteer group restoring the P-51H Mustang located at the Chanute Air Museum. Our project is funded by donations and is conducted at no cost to the museum. Should the museum close, our project would come to an end before it is complete. More information on our project can be found on the web at… http://p51h.home.comcast.net/~p51h/index.htm

Last edited by DaveM2 on Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[PJ]

There was a NOTAM out last year around Labor Day that the field was closed. Is it open so folks can fly in to see the museum?

PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
http://www.amhf.org

[Django]

Oh no!

We were trying to move our car show there, but we just couldn't work out the details.

Someone else is having a car show there the weekend of Sept 24/25.

I just reposted a couple places.

[Pat Carry]

It would be sad if they had to lock their doors. I'm surprised there are not more museums talking about closing up shop with the horrid economy we are in.

[SPANNERmkV]

TEXAS RAIDERS is slated to fly in there this Friday.

Come support both the Museum and TR getting up to Thunder if you can.

SPANNER

[the330thbg]

Their website is in trouble as well.

Horrible!!!

need to farm it out to the local High School so they can modernize it into 2010 and not 1999.

[67N20]

My wife and I visited there on July 4th, got there shortly after they opened. We were there about 2-1/2 hours and saw only 8 other people and two of them were volunteerrs. Most of the aircraft outside are in pretty sad shape, it looked like the C133 had moved and its right wing made contact with the tail of the C130. I took pictures of all the planes and will post them next week or so.

[Jarink1]

TEXAS RAIDERS is slated to fly in there this Friday.

Come support both the Museum and TR getting up to Thunder if you can.

SPANNER

Any chance of TR stopping by Peoria for the airshow this weekend?

[PJ]

I flew along to Chanute last Sunday with WIXer IndyJen and buddy Pete. We had flown past the previous week in the Harpoon on our way to Peoria and decided we needed an up close look.

The field is huge and the town of Rantoul nestles right around the former base , with flat farmlands surrounding all.




The planes that are the outdoor exhibits are in sad shape due to the affects of the harsh Midwestern climate. You can see them as you taxi onto the FBO ramp.



The museum itself is fairly large and contains exhibits about the early days of Chanute , base life,training programs (including the Tuskegee Airmen-99th Pursit Squadron- who trained there),ICBM Minuteman, and aircraft and engines in the indoor hangar:




The base buildings are starting to show their age and disuse and some have been torn down. Officers and senior enlisted quarters are now private housing and some businesses have taken over other buildings. Still, the vast majority of the base i buildings are empty and sit as they were left. It is interesting but somewhat eerie to walk down the streets and hear nothing but the rustle of the leaves.










In a grassy area behind the former base hospital stands this monument





Here is the former HQ building



and base hospital




One of the buildings is being torn down and in the background is the huge building that was known as Buckingham Palace. At one time it was the largest military building in the U.S. until the Pentagon was built. It contained classrooms, barrack, commissary, mess hall, and rec areas and has a huge central court yard.




PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
http://www.amhf.org

[Chief]

PJ.
Thanks for posting the photos. Brings back a lot of memories. I was there at school three times during my career. Our daughter was born in the base hospital. We took her back to look at her "birthplace" enroute from Travis AFB to the east coast to start her freshman year in college in 1976. In 1976, there appeared to be more Iran students than USAF students.

[Enemy Ace]

What a nice place.....why did the Air Force give it up??? Runways look plenty long enough for most of the Tactical inventory??
It kills me to see places like this torn down while billions are spent on new facilities that are half as good located in some awful location.

[gary1954]

What a nice place.....why did the Air Force give it up??? Runways look plenty long enough for most of the Tactical inventory??
It kills me to see places like this torn down while billions are spent on new facilities that are half as good located in some awful location.

Government and Consolidation

[Robbie Roberts]

What a BEAUTIFUL base- sure is a darn shame Congress and BRAC decided to kill it... Here is an idea- consolidate several aircraft restoration and flying museums onto the post, and sell the housing to interested aviation buffs, and start a real Warbird Community! I would love to have a house near where I can go work on WWII aircraft on a beautiful old school USAF base!

(I am an A&P, you know, and I don't mean the supermarket!)

Robbie

[IndyJen]

Gary, I swear I spent entire time we were there being pissy about what a waste it all was, closing that base. All that history and tradition, sliding the long slide into neglect and disrepair and oblivion. I'm with you.

I thought I'd chime in on PJ's post, with a few more pictures.



Here's the majority of the intrepid aviators, on our way out. Pete, there, had a bit of a quease going on for a while, but getting up on top in the smooth air helped, and he was good to go. PJ rode in her customary Grumman location, in the right seat.



Parked at the FBO, with the museum's outdoor portion in the background. We could already see that the outdoor birds are suffering, even from across the way.

The Octave Chanute Museum of Aviation is hurting, you can tell. The volunteers are doing their best, but it needs a lot of hands to take good care of even one airplane that's outside, let me tell you. Too few people and not enough dollars will take its toll.



For example. The C-47 parked out there is flaking away right before your eyes.



The A-7 is having its troubles, too. But it's not as though nobody is taking care of anything out there. No, what my eyes were seeing while we were there was a small group, battling as best they can against deterioration of a very large collection. And doing a real good job sometimes, too:



There's a nice F-105, in good clean paint. Thuds didn't stay in the Thunderbird scheme for long, I don't think.



And a big old Whale (B-66/A-3), hanging in there pretty well. But it had a weird nose/radome. I don't know what that was all about, but it didn't look like Whales of yore that I'd been up close with.



Indoors, there's a gigantic hangar-full of planes, vehicles, engines, missile gear, memorabilia, displays, and you name it. And another F-84, also in Thunderbirds paint. Looming above it is a B-25, in the early stripped=down stages of restoration.



PJ and I put a few bucks in the bin for them. We know how it is. Looks like they have a pretty good shell for their restoration, from what I could see.



And there goes Pete, looking over the Hustler. Engines seem to be mostly gone, like most of the jets that I could see, but it sits there like a great big thundering smoky screaming beast of yore.



A pretty F-86, there.



And a shiny T-33, just beyond it. F-100 and F-4 and Huey in this area, too, some in more sorrowful condition than others.



I wonder if this Wild Weasel F-105G was indoors till recently, among those birds. It was a little faded and all, but not too bad. She'd clearly been around, back when.



Anyone know anything about this plane?



There were some boys at the P-51. It was pretty clearly their project, and it's looking good. They were having some serious discussion about it.



I always gravitate to the engines, when I see 'em. I do like those powerplants. There's a motorized cutaway R-4360. It squeaks and moans when you hit the button, but it still turns over. What a beast. It must weigh a ton and a half, at least. Heck, our R-2800's weigh a full ton, and they're half the size of this corncob.



If you're not going to keep your engines installed in your planes, there's a good use to put 'em to, right there. Show the people what they're made of. It's a J-57, I think, and that looks like a low-pressure turbine spool right there, shaft still attached. That's got to be the high-pressure wheel at the left of the pic, if that is the case.

The place is chock full of plenty of other stuff, too--models, memorabilia, photos, films, uniforms, simulators, dioramas, recreations ... there's even a Minuteman silo, part of the missileer training apparatus of days gone by.

It's all right, the Chanute Museum. They need money pretty desperately, and if only they could get one of those other enormous hangars to go with the one they have, maybe the deterioration of those outdoor birds could be got under control.

Go see 'em if you can, while you can, is my recommendation.

[kpu]

Lots of memories for me also, I was there from November 1979 to April 1980 going to the Heavy equipment school there, the B 36 was the one that I found most impressive