Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum
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  Location within Indiana | |
| Established | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Location | Columbus, Indiana |
| Coordinates | 39°15′18″N 85°53′53″W / 39.2549°N 85.8980°W |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Founder | Wendell Ross[1] |
| Website | www |
The Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum is an aviation museum located at the Columbus Municipal Airport in Columbus, Indiana.
Background
In mid-1988, an F-4 was flown to the airport as a sling load underneath a helicopter and was placed on display a few months later.[2][3]
Establishment
The museum's 3,168 sq ft (294.3 m2) building was dedicated on 11 November 1992.[4][5] The restoration of the former base chapel, renamed the Lewellen Memorial Chapel, was completed in 1998.[6] It opened a new exhibit called A Century of Flight in 2003 featuring a 1:4 scale replica of the Wright Flyer.[7]
The museum broke ground on the Bruce Dalton Media Center, the first half of a two part expansion, in July 2009.[8][9] It began construction of a second, 3,700 sq ft (340 m2) addition in July 2013.[10] The addition opened in April 2014 along with a new barracks exhibit.[11][12] Then, in 2017, it announced plans for an 1,800 sq ft (170 m2) expansion to store artifacts and serve as a restoration shop.[12] The Thomas Vickers/John C. Walter Artifacts & Restoration Center was dedicated in June 2018.[13]
The museum acquired a C-119 from Greybull, Wyoming and began disassembling it in 2019.[14] The last parts arrived in July of the following year and it was placed on display in May 2021.[15][16]
Exhibits
Exhibits at the museum include an airport beacon, a reproduction barracks, a CG-4A glider nose section.[17][18][19] Local manufacturers such as Cosco Housewares, Cummins Engine Company, and Noblitt Sparks are also represented with displays of some of their products.[20] Other objects include a motorized cutaway of an R-3350 engine.[21] A collection of five 1:8 scale aircraft models hang from the ceiling.[22][23]
