Champaign Gal headed to AirVenture

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DAYTON — Elements of the National Aviation Heritage Area will be on display next week at AirVenture, the world’s biggest fly-in at Oshkosh, Wis.

The Champaign Aviation Museum, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park will celebrate the heritage area’s rich aviation history in the air and on the ground at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture 2017 at Wittman Regional Airport.

All are partners of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA), the Dayton-based nonprofit that is chartered by Congress to manage the heritage area.

The Champaign Aviation Museum at historic Grimes Field Airport in Urbana will fly its restored, World War II-era B-25 “Champaign Gal” to Oshkosh to take part in EAA’s 75th anniversary commemoration of the Doolittle Tokyo Raid. It will be the airplane’s debut appearance at AirVenture. Dave Shiffer, the museum’s executive director, said the organization is taking part in the commemoration at EAA’s invitation.

Wright-Patterson will call attention to its 100th anniversary—and the Air Force’s 70th—with a special display, sharing space with Dayton’s national park in the AirVenture Federal Pavilion. Every year, rangers and volunteers from the national park and Wright-Patterson coordinate the exhibits of federal agencies in the pavilion.

Aviation enthusiasts consider AirVenture the premiere general aviation event of the year. Combining EAA’s annual convention with daily air shows and trade expos, the week-long event typically draws 500,000 or more visits, many by people flying their own aircraft.

Paul Woodruff, Wright-Patterson’s historic preservation officer, said the AirVenture exhibit is intended to educate a national audience about America’s largest and oldest air base. “We go back to 1905,” when the Wright brothers began using Huffman Prairie for flying experiments, said Woodruff, who will present a speaker’s program at AirVenture. Huffman Prairie is now a part of Wright-Patterson.

Under an agreement between the Air Force and the National Park Service, Wright-Patterson makes the prairie accessible to the public as a unit of the national park. The national park also also operates the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center at the Wright Brothers Memorial, which overlooks the flying field.

Wright-Patterson is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year because its roots are in three installations the U.S. Army created in 1917 as the United States entered World War I—McCook Field, Wilbur Wright Field and the Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot.

The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park was established in 1992 to preserve and share the world-changing history of the invention, development and commercialization of the airplane by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Dayton.

The Champaign Aviation Museum honors World War II veterans by flying and displaying World War II-era airplanes, and volunteers are building a Boeing B-17 bomber from parts of several other airplanes, but with many parts built from scratch based on original Boeing drawings.

About NAHA

The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is a nonprofit chartered by Congress in 2004 as the management entity for the National Aviation Heritage Area, a region of national historical importance. It includes Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Warren, Champaign, Shelby, and Auglaize counties in Ohio. The Heritage Area is one of 49 National Heritage Areas in a program administrated by the National Park Service, and the only one dedicated to aviation heritage. Visit aviationheritagearea.org for more information.

The Champaign Gal is headed to Oshkosh, Wis., for AirVenture.
https://www.urbanacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2017/07/web1_20170624-DAS-18-press.jpgThe Champaign Gal is headed to Oshkosh, Wis., for AirVenture. Timothy R. Gaffney | Contributing photographer
World’s biggest fly-in headed to Oshkosh

By Timothy R. Gaffney

Contributing writer

This story was submitted by Tim Gaffney on behalf of the Champaign Aviation Museum.

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