After five years of fundraising, planning, talking, and dreaming,The Kelch Aviation Museum will celebrate with a takeoff party on July 23rd! Our Grand Opening celebration is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., with a formal ribbon cutting, special tours, and maybe even a speech or two. More details to come, but mark your

Lights, camera, action! The latest in our continuing series of virtual aircraft tours, “Airplanes With Ami!” has been published. Join Collections Manager Ami Eckard-Lee & Archivist Hannah Schickles as they rig and balance the wings on a Travel Air 4000 Biplane.

Air Mail pilots like William “Wild Bill” Hopson faced many dangers, but none so menacing as being cut out of foam board with a sharp knife by our Archivist, Hannah. Wild Bill is featured in the museum’s Air Mail exhibit, curated by Hannah. You can see him when we open

What do you do when you can’t find authentic 1920s Air Mail sacks for your new museum? You make your own! Collections Manager Ami and Archivist Hannah researched and fabricated these U.S. Air Mail bags from authentic materials and inking processes. They look awesome! We’re one step closer to opening

The Kelch Aviation Museum has received a $2,000 challenge grant in memory of the late LeRoy T. “Bud” LaBarre, longtime Brodhead Airport manager and aircraft builder. A challenge grant means the museum will receive $2,000 from a generous local donor if we can raise an equal amount from the public.

The latest in our continuing series of virtual aircraft tours. Join Collections Manager, Ami Eckard-Lee as she works on a historic wing from a Hollywood Travel Air 3000 and gets it ready for display.

Hannah is busy painting our second hand display cabinets. We’re one day closer to opening!

Watch this awesome video from EAA about our good friend Rick Hansen and his Travel Air restoration. (We’re keeping Rick’s airplane in our museum hangar for the winter and we get to admire the craftsmanship every day!) Congratulations, Rick!

Long-time museum supporter Frank Gattolin stopped in this morning to drop off a hand-made scale model of the Phase I building. Since moving full-sized planes is unrealistic, this 3D model will save us a lot of pushing and pulling! This is wonderful proof that any kind contribution to the Kelch

You might be cool, but you’re not “Shorty” Lambert cool. Here we see Stafford Lambert with his Sirius 8A, probably NC16W, at St. Louis’ Lambert Field in 1930.Photographer is unknown, but possibly Rudy Arnold. This image is part of the Leo Kohn collection of some 20,000+ historic aviation images that