September Spotlight: WACO Air Museum

Q: WACO is celebrating 100 years with the fly in on September 15th-17th, what are you excited for people to see/do at this event?

A: I am excited about seeing families walking around the WACO field where together they can touch, feel, and experience aviation together; where flight seems closer than ever before; and where they are making memories and forming foundations for the future Be sure and look for the reenactors dressed in period clothing such as WACO owner Clayton Brukner, test pilot Freddie Lund, and Hattie Myers Be sure and ask Hattie about her marriage to both the WACO Co-founder Buck Weaver and WACO Co-founder Sam Junkin

I am also excited to see people on the dance floor at the Swing Dance & Dinner on Saturday night as the 17-piece Tom Daugherty Orchestra, in full WW2 uniforms, recreate the sounds of the Glen Miller Air Force Bandandtohearthe“AndrewSisters”singBoogieWoogieBugleBoy!Thisissomethingwehaven’toffered before and It will be very festive. Tickets are on sale now in our gift shop or by calling the museum ($47 andincludeacateredmeal,livemusic,anddancing)

Q:The WACO Air Museum has been open to the public since 1997, what was your mission when you first opened your doors? And how does that compare to your mission now?

A: The original mission was simply to preserve the past (the history of the WACO airplane, the factory, and its employees). Shortly after its founding, the mission grew to include the desire to inspire the future. Collections of aircraft, tools, photos, and memorabilia are preserved and on display at the museum, while the WACO learning center focuses on inspiring the future. For 25 years the learning center has offered aviation education, and the offerings have continued to grow. At WACO, youth can learn the old techniques of wood and fabric airplane construction. We are a place that gives students a place to experience things that are normally not available at home or in school.

Q: How many employees/volunteers does WACO Air Museum have?

A: WACO employs 2 full-time and 4 part-time employees and is blessed with some of the world’s best volunteers! In an average week,wehaveabout12volunteerswhoarehelpinginthemuseum and learning center. These people become great friends and love working side by side with one another. We have room for more people to join our growing WACO family. Especially as we approach the 100th anniversary. We are in need of all types of volunteers: parking attendants, selling tickets, answering phones that continuously ring during the event, and more. If you are interested please contact admin@wacoairmusuemorg or the museumat937-335-9226

Q: You offer many services/events throughout the year at the Museum, how many events would you say on average that you run each year?

A: The Fly-In event is our biggest every year. Next year we look forward to celebrating the solar eclipse in April. WACO will have availability for people to fly in and camp for eclipse viewing. WACO is also a popular location for Boy Scout aviation merit badge campouts. Most people don’t realize that our entire grounds are available to rent for large festivals and events.

Q: What challenges has the Museum had to face and overcome?

A: We all had the challenges of navigating through COVID, and figuring out how to come out of it successfully. As a non-profit, we have the challenge of finding enough volunteers to help run a nearly 100-acre campus which includes a runway that needs to be mowed frequently, and multiple facilities that need maintaining. We do not receive regular city, state, or federal dollars and therefore have a need for outside funding. We are grateful for Collins Aerospace, and other corporate sponsors, who subsidize our learning center programs.

Q: What are WACO Air Museum’s long-term goals?

A: Our main goal for 2024 will be to complete the learning center budling in order to offer the community more extracurricular educational offerings as well as a place to gather for a unique event venue. As you enter the new building, a partial quote by Ohioan John Glenn will be our guide as it reads “The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of....” We will leave the quote incomplete because the next generation will take us to the next level of the unknown…the next level of whatever the next phase could possibly be.

Q: What elements of your Museum do you think makes you so unique and so vital to the Troy/Miami Valley community?

A: I think incorporating teachings of the past and future together makes us unique. We truly are preserving history while also inspiring the future at the same time and in the same place. We have the unique opportunity to teach kids to set a long-term goal and complete it in small bite-size pieces. For example, we have kids working with skilled mentors to restore airplanes to flyable condition. That doesn’t happen in a day; it takes years. For the most part, our society wants a quick fix now, but there is great value in learning the patience required for a long-term project. Here one will find a blend of vintage hand-crafted techniques while also offering more modern courses such as robotics and drone camps. All of our courses are designed to be hands-on learning because research shows that the brain learns when the hands are in motion.

Q: What is something new that the WACO Air Museum has to offer?

A: Debuting at the 100 Anniversary celebration will be the new driving tour which will guide people to see all the original WACO factory sites in town. People can get a brochure in the gift shop, and complete the driving tour on their own while using QR codes to give them the information.

Q: Are there any needs that Museum has not met in the community, that you would like to serve in the future?

A: We would love to partner with the school systems, to use aviation in science classrooms. We live in an area well acquainted with aviation and could continue to grow the aerospace community by better preparing young minds for this field.

Q: What is something about WACO Air Museum that you think people would be surprised to learn about?

A: I think people would be surprised to know that WACO was the number one employer, not just in Troy or Miami County, but in a five-county area in the 1940s. It employed about 2,500 people throughout the war, including both men and women. You could say it was a base for Rosie the Riveters who made the gliders used during WW2. WACO was extremely important to the economic growth of Troy.