BRODHEAD - The Alfred & Lois Kelch Aviation Museum announced Monday plans to build a $1 million facility to house its collection of vintage aircraft and automobiles.
The new facility will be a 23,000-square-foot hangar that will house every item in the collection, be open to the public and contain a reference library and an art gallery.
Museum curator Pat Weeden said the museum is currently "a museum in name only."
The museum's collection of 12 aircraft dating from 1927 to 1940 are currently housed in several private hangars at Brodhead Airport. The collection is open to viewers by appointment only.
Weeden said the current facilities are not climate-controlled, which can affect the performance of the aircraft. The new facility would reduce the need for climate-related maintenance.
"These are planes from the 1920s, so they take a lot of maintenance," Weeden said.
Currently, the museum is almost entirely funded by the Alfred & Lois Kelch Charitable Trust, a fund set up upon the death of collector Alfred Kelch in 2004. The trustees, however, hope to fund the new facility through donations from private donors, foundations and the vintage aircraft community, Weeden said.
Kelch founded Kelch Manufacturing in 1956, which manufactured, among other things, orange traffic cones. The success of the business allowed him to collect vintage aircraft, for which he had long held a strong passion.
His collection eventually included one of the only two surviving models of the 1932 Curtiss-Wright Travel Air 12W, as well as a 1927 Travel Air 4000 that world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh flew while delivering mail for Robertson Airlines.
Each plane in the collection has been or is in the process of being fully restored to its original condition. While each is airworthy, they are rarely flown except during special air shows.
Weeden said construction on the new facility would ideally begin by the end of 2017.
The fundraising process allows donors to sponsor parts of the building - for example, a donation of $25,000 can sponsor the main hangar door. Alternatively, smaller donations can elicit a personalized traffic cone (for $250), the donor's name on a wall of the facility ($1,000) or an engraved Charles Lindbergh statuette ($2,500).
Weeden said he plans to make the completed museum free to attendees.
The new facility will be a 23,000-square-foot hangar that will house every item in the collection, be open to the public and contain a reference library and an art gallery.
Museum curator Pat Weeden said the museum is currently "a museum in name only."
The museum's collection of 12 aircraft dating from 1927 to 1940 are currently housed in several private hangars at Brodhead Airport. The collection is open to viewers by appointment only.
Weeden said the current facilities are not climate-controlled, which can affect the performance of the aircraft. The new facility would reduce the need for climate-related maintenance.
"These are planes from the 1920s, so they take a lot of maintenance," Weeden said.
Currently, the museum is almost entirely funded by the Alfred & Lois Kelch Charitable Trust, a fund set up upon the death of collector Alfred Kelch in 2004. The trustees, however, hope to fund the new facility through donations from private donors, foundations and the vintage aircraft community, Weeden said.
Kelch founded Kelch Manufacturing in 1956, which manufactured, among other things, orange traffic cones. The success of the business allowed him to collect vintage aircraft, for which he had long held a strong passion.
His collection eventually included one of the only two surviving models of the 1932 Curtiss-Wright Travel Air 12W, as well as a 1927 Travel Air 4000 that world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh flew while delivering mail for Robertson Airlines.
Each plane in the collection has been or is in the process of being fully restored to its original condition. While each is airworthy, they are rarely flown except during special air shows.
Weeden said construction on the new facility would ideally begin by the end of 2017.
The fundraising process allows donors to sponsor parts of the building - for example, a donation of $25,000 can sponsor the main hangar door. Alternatively, smaller donations can elicit a personalized traffic cone (for $250), the donor's name on a wall of the facility ($1,000) or an engraved Charles Lindbergh statuette ($2,500).
Weeden said he plans to make the completed museum free to attendees.