Vintage Aero Flying Museum

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Museum

aircraft, Parks keep memorabilia related to the aircraft built in the museum. Some of it came from the association with the Lafayette Foundation, but his father collected quite a bit himself.

“I have some of his memorabilia in the collection and some of it is in Boston American Heritage Museum,” Parks said. “They were too valuable to have here. Boston has a 60,000-square-foot museum building to house the uniforms.”

Lighter Traffic

He couldn’t ask for a better location than the 224-acre air park. A public use airport, Platte Valley Airpark is privately owned. Marilyn Taylor, a member of the ownership group, said it’s a country airport and doesn’t have a lot of traffic.

“It’s a place for students to tour and learn about aviation,” she said.

But Parks said it’s perfect for his uses. The lighter traffic allows him to get his vintage flyers up.

“We need an open area like this one where we can fly and not have a lot of aircraft traffic,” Parks said, noting that the vintage aircraft don’t have radios. “Denver International Airport and other airports know we are here, so people look out for us — it’s old school.”

Parks is not alone in the obsession. A core group helps him keep the museum in the air. Many volunteers are airplane mechanics and pilots who enjoy building their replicas of World War I vintage planes, and multiple generations of families have volunteered at the museum.

“It’s a grassroots operation with people who love to build their own planes,” Parks said. “Most of the