Escape The Museum
Offerings at Chanute Air Museum
Visiting museums is always a great past time. Museums teach many things since they can be centered on whatever the originator wants to show to people. If a person has a collection of marbles he would like to show, he can start a marble museum. Just viewing the marbles educates visitors as to colors, types, sizes etc. The Champaign area is full of great local museums. Some are funded through the University of Illinois, but others are funded mostly by donations and admission charges. Museums need to have buildings that are in good repair in order to protect the collection. Clothing, books, and documents are especially easily destroyed by moisture and insects. The Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul, IL, is a museum that is rich in educational opportunities focusing on the former Air Force Base as well as the village of Rantoul.
A tour of the museum begins with a lesson in air flight, something man had been trying to achieve since ancient times. Octave Chanute was one of those people fascinated with the possibility of being able to fly with the birds. An engineer, Chanute made his fortune constructing bridges throughout the country. He also designed and built gliders in his spare time, creating a reputation that came to the attention of the Wright Brothers, also trying to build a successful flying machine. It was after consulting with Chanute that the brother’s design was successful and flight became possible, in 1903. In 1917, the US government honored his memory by naming its third Army Air Field after him.
Construction was completed in just ninety days during that summer and the first plane to land was on July 4. As visitors leave the flight history exhibit they enter a hallway lined with photographs of the base from the early days to the closing days. These photos depict special events such as the second visit by Charles Lindbergh in 1939 and the presidential visit of President Johnson in 1965. They also show museum visitors everyday life on a military base. Parades, baseball games, construction projects, important people and everyday people are all together on the wall tracing the time of operation.
Other exhibits the visitor will see include a barracks room, mess hall operations, uniforms through the years, water operation life support system sewn into a parachute, flight simulator machines, maps of the US missile sites during the cold war, and how planes were fueled in mid flight. Visitors will also have the opportunity to learn about how Chanute was an instrumental part in the development and success of the famous Tuskegee Airmen.
As a training facility, the base was the place where pilots came to learn instrument reading, navigation skills, communication techniques, weather forecasting abilities as well as aircraft maintenance and repair. The Airmen, part of the 99th Pursuit Squadron had original members that were recruited in Rantoul and stationed there for training before being sent to Alabama.
Early aviators are biographed with particular attention to the Afro-American aviators of the time. Bessie Coleman, first black American (man of woman) to attain a pilot’s license, Cornelius Coffey, the first black to open a flight school, are both memorialized on the wall of the exhibit.
At a museum about an Air Force Base, visitors would expect to see airplanes as well and Chanute has plenty. Over thirty planes, both large and small, are on or near the premises. An exhibit depicting early aviation’s lack of rules, barnstormers, wing walkers and planes built in barns, includes four planes and a hot air balloon. Fighter planes, such as the P-51H Mustang, which was able to reach speeds over 400 mph, and cargo planes like the huge C-130 Hercules with a wing span of over 132 feet, sit waiting for visitors to express awe at the progress made in aviation in such a short time.
Also on display is the missile silos used to house the Air Force’s Minuteman Missiles during the program in the1960s. These silos were used to train the men and women who would have been responsible for launching them if so ordered, resulting in a nuclear war. The original missile program included the AG-28A Hound Dog Missile which was an air launched missile, meaning that it was launched from a plane. The later LGM- Minuteman Missile was launched from an underground silo. The Strategic Air Command website explains, “The missiles are deployed in “circular” flights of ten missiles controlled by a single, centrally located launch control center (LCC) manned by a Missile Combat Crew. The LCC contains all equipment needed by the crew to control and monitor the missile and the LFs. Each LCC is separated from the others by a minimum of 14 miles and is buried at a depth of 40 to 100 feet below grade.”
Education is important to the Aviation Museum leading to the use of videos in some of the exhibits. The POW/MIA exhibit, as well as the one on the Tuskegee Airmen, uses a continually looping video to explain details that can’t always be expressed in just reading information on the wall. In this video, survivors of the Great Escape in World War II recount their experiences as POW’s in German Concentration camps. Visitors to this exhibit feel emotion while viewing personal effects and stories of some of the lost. Newspapers line the wall and triumph the victory over Japan with recounts of the loss of life on both sides.
Another form of education offered by the museum is in its programs. Offered this summer are two especially important programs. One is Aviation Camp happening June 13-17. It is aimed at kids (boys and girls) in the 7th – 12th grades. The museum press release describes the program’s activities as including hot air balloon demonstrations, building and flying rockets, and hands on experiences with the plane restoration crew. Also included is a trip to the Challenger Space Center in Bloomington IL to experience a simulated space mission.
The second upcoming program is aimed at adult women and girls who are interested in aviation. The second annual Women of Wings will be held on June 25 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Included will be a history of women in aviation, panel discussions, hands on activities, and in introduction to aircraft. A tour of the museum will also be included.
Fees are involved with both programs. For more information and directions, visit the museums website at aeromuseum.org.
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Astronomical regulator, face Photo Mugs An eight-day long case regulator clock by Kullberg, numbered 7473. This weight-driven clock employs a dead-beat escapement with jewelled pallets and the escape wheel runs in jewelled bearings. The pendulum is compensated for temperature changes using the zinc and steel method. The clock is fitted with three sets of electrical contacts capable of giving out signals at intervals of one minute, one h… |
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Astronomical regulator, movement back Photo Mugs An eight-day long case regulator clock by Kullberg, numbered 7473. This weight-driven clock employs a dead-beat escapement with jewelled pallets and the escape wheel runs in jewelled bearings. The pendulum is compensated for temperature changes using the zinc and steel method. The clock is fitted with three sets of electrical contacts capable of giving out signals at intervals of one minute, one h… |
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Astronomical regulator, movement back Photo Mugs An eight-day long case regulator clock by Kullberg, numbered 7473. This weight-driven clock employs a dead-beat escapement with jewelled pallets and the escape wheel runs in jewelled bearings. The pendulum is compensated for temperature changes using the zinc and steel method. The clock is fitted with three sets of electrical contacts capable of giving out signals at intervals of one minute, one h… |
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Photo Jigsaw Puzzle of The yacht Royal Escape close-hauled in a breeze from National Maritime Museum $24.99 Photo Puzzle, The yacht Royal Escape close-hauled in a breeze. The royal yacht Royal Escape is shown in the right foreground, in a lively sea among other shipping. The Royal Escape was a coasting collier previously known as the Surprise, in which King Charles II escaped to France after his defeat by Cromwell at Worcester in September 1651. On his restoration in 1660 the King purchased the ship, co… |
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Photo Jigsaw Puzzle of Medal commemorating the galleys escape from the plague at Marseilles; reverse from National Maritime Museum $24.99 Photo Puzzle, Medal commemorating the galleys escape from the plague at Marseilles; reverse. Counter commemorating the galleys escape from the plague at Marseilles. Obverse Youthful bust of King Louis XV with long curls, in armour (right). Reverse Four sea maidens throwing themselves into the water from a sinking galley. Chosen by National Maritime Museum. 10×14 Photo Puzzle with 252 pieces. Packe… |