Museum Grand Re-Opening

May 2007

This May the LaFayette Foundation is proud to announce the re-opening of our new museum, located at Platte Valley airpark (map here). The new museum has been possible due to a grant from the Gates Foundation--as well as the incredible hard and time-consuming volunteer work of many people.

New display cases, newly acquired WW-II material and our latest aircraft addition, a WW-II Vultee trainer (link) are part of our newly launched museum. To the right and below you see a few of our displays.

Also present at the grand re-opening were period reenactors. Along with the flying examples (replicas) of many WW-I planes, a local pilot also had his beautiful Mullicoup on display (bottom-right picture below) (link to more info on this 1930's replica here).

The Foundation's President is Mr. Andy Parks, seen to the left in a period uniform. As a young child, Andy met a number of WW-I pilot's whose memorabilia are now on display at the museum. You'll find Andy at the museum working on various project most days. Ask Andy a question on either the aircraft or individual display and you'll be simply astounded by his depth of knowledge on the subject matter!

One of the museum's current projects is to get our Fokker D. VIII flying soon. With the generous assistance of a number of skilled volunteers, we rebuilt it's Ranger engine earlier this year. A few more details to go...and then we'll test fly it later this summer.