Aug. 15—The Niagara Aerospace Museum has been flying in circles for decades in pursuit of a permanent landing spot.
The museum is ensconced in the old terminal building at Niagara Falls International Airport, where exhibits and displays celebrate and preserve the heritage of Western New York in the development of aviation and aerospace. The museum has long sought a larger, more accessible permanent space, and hopes its current search will be the charm.
Two auctions being held Aug. 23 and Sept. 1 will support that effort.
"As much as we love this location — and the NFTA have been good and gracious landlords — there is no air conditioning and the building leaks," said Don Irwin, the museum's president.
It is also not nearly large enough, Irwin said. A 60,000-square-foot building — three times the current space — is needed, he said, to accommodate large displays and artifacts the museum cannot show. Also on the wish list: a location that attracts foot traffic and offers ample parking.
Three locations in Erie and Niagara counties are under consideration that could meet display space and location needs without requiring a large capital investment, Irwin said.
Once a site has been chosen, a capital campaign will seek to raise the necessary funds. With that in mind, the museum has recently brought on board members with nonprofit and business backgrounds.
Parking is minimal at the present site, but the need isn't great because the museum, which is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, only draws 3,500 to 4,000 people annually, Irwin said. That is expected to change if the museum can exhibit more of its collection of planes, helicopters, model planes and other products of the aviation industry in a location where more people will see them.
The museum has 30 large exhibits and 300-plus smaller artifacts, many locked away in storage waiting for the display space to be properly presented.
One of the items that can't be displayed because of its size is the Bell X-22, an American experimental tilt fan aircraft from the 1960s, on loan from the U.S. Navy.
The one at the museum is the only remaining Bell X-22.
"It can take off like a helicopter, turn the rotating propellers around and then go forward like a plane," said Allison O'Connor, the museum's vice president, who is also a rocket scientist.
O'Connor said the museum also would like to have a larger exhibit on the space industry than is possible now.
There are still many historic gems on view.
Among them is a 1917 Curtiss JN-4, commonly known as the "Jenny," made by the Curtiss-Wright Corp. in Buffalo. The two-seat biplane was the first plane to be mass-produced, with 6,813 made, and was the principal American training craft in World War I. After the war, thousands were sold to civilians as "barnstorming" planes.
A 1910 Curtiss Pusher and a 1929 Curtiss F-1 are also on view.
So is a P-39 Airacobra, one of 10,000 "lend lease" aircraft built locally by Bell Aircraft and sent to Russia in 1943 to combat the Nazis. The plane disappeared in 1944 after crashing into a lake in the Arctic Circle. It was recovered in 2004. Now, it is displayed less than a mile from where it was built.
Under the panels are penciled signatures of women who worked on the plane.
"It's as clear as the day they signed it," O'Connor said. "It gives me the heebie-jeebies."
Irwin said there is much to learn at the museum about aerospace contributions made by Western New York companies.
"Our motto is, 'The road to the moon went through Western New York,' because so much of the hardware that got people to the moon and, more importantly, back, were made here," Irwin said.
"The three big ones were Moog, Scott Aviation and Bell, but there were others, as well," he said.
Moog continues to play a major role in NASA missions, including the 2020 mission to Mars.
Four locations
The museum, founded in 1995, has led a bit of a vagabond existence. It has had four locations — three in Niagara Falls and one at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
The museum receives no government funding and relies on support from the aerospace industry, notably Moog, Calspan and foundations set up by Curtiss-Wright and Bell Aircraft, though the companies are no longer in the area.
The nonprofit organization has two part-time employees and a volunteer executive director.
The goal, Irwin said, is to become a year-round attraction for families, and to do that will require new exhibits.
"We have a wonderful collection that is historical, and for those of us who are airplane nerds, that's great," Irwin said. "But kids lose interest pretty quickly when they're here.
"We need to invest in the kinds of exhibits that are more interactive, more engaging, more geared toward people of any age, and if along the way we can interest them in Western New York aviation, that's a win for us," he said.
Upcoming auctions
On Aug. 23, Lodge Auction House will hold an international online auction of museum artifacts. For more information and to preregister, go to thelodgeauction.com.
Airplane parts, including an antique Kinner engine and parts from a Jenny, will be auctioned along with photographs, books, magazines, lithographs, models and advertisements.
The item expected to bring the most interest is a watercolor by Buffalo-born painter Robert N. Blair. The painting, which depicts flying clubs in the 1920s at what is now the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, starts at $4,000. The clubs were at Burgard Vocational High School when it offered an aviation mechanic program.
On Sept. 1, the museum will hold a silent auction. Items include a signed X-1 model by Chuck Yeager, a display wood propeller clock, World War II leather pilot helmets and gloves and vintage jewelry that includes a lapel pin and a tie tack made of rubies from Bell Aerosystems and a keychain embedded with diamonds from Bell Aerospace.
The live auction, from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the museum, 9990 Porter Road, Niagara Falls, is being held with the annual Commemorative Air Force History Tour. There will be guided tours of aircraft, including B-29 and B-24 four-engine bombers and the P-51 Mustang. Tickets are $150. RSVP by Aug. 18 to [email protected].
The auction kicks off five days of tours of the museum from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a chance to ride on the historic B-29.
Nominees in a drawing for the B-29 ride must be current or past members of the U.S. military. A winner will be chosen on Aug. 24 for the Sept. 3 ride, the museum said. For more information, go to niagaraaerospacemuseum.org/b29ride/.
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