Air Classics Aviation Museum, May 24, 2017
Our club's first driving event of 2017 began with a guided tour of the vintage
warplane collection ot the
Air Classics Museum of Aviation
in Sugar Grove, Illinois. From there we drove west and south, with a rest stop at
Starved Rock State Park, and then east along the Illinois river to Morris for lunch, for
a total of just about 100 miles.
After a rainy week that included the day originally selected for this event, we had
the good fortune of beautiful weather on our fallback date: cool but sunny
with scattered high clouds as you will see in Wally Wright's photos below.
As always, coffee and donuts to prepare for the drive ahead.
photo by Wally Wright
Chuck Schank organized the museum vist and led the driving tour afterward.
To his right is Hank Winkler, the curator of the Air Classics Museum.
photo by Wally Wright
The few. The proud. The 356 pilots and passengers.
photo by Wally Wright
Old cars and old planes just seem to go together.
photo by Wally Wright
The Vietnam-era Huey helicopter was open for visitors to climb aboard.
photo by Wally Wright
Al models his aviator sunglasses at the controls of the Huey.
photo by Wally Wright
Julie takes a turn in the pilot's chair.
photo by Wally Wright
A Republic F-105D Thunderchief. This airplane went into service in 1959,
making it a contemporary of the Porsche 356B.
photo by Wally Wright
The Porsches were not the only German hardware present that morning.
That's a Messerschmitt ME-109 in the background.