Around the Museum

Mildew Repair

One small corner of our Museum was attacked by mildew most probably as a result of our leaky roof in the hangar. One of our coolers located on the roof above this area was a contributing factor. Hopefully we have the mildew situation under control but the leaky roof remains a problem we are working on.

Rich Carr, our Monday docent, designed and patched the area aided by Rich Beaubien.

Other Facility Concerns

Our funding concentration recently has been directed towards Museum operations and building up the Museum’s endowment fund, which is important for our long term survival. This funding concentration has been at the expense of our ever increasing need for museum maintenance funds as well as for our displays and docent support.

Major Maintenance Matters

The hangar has 20 skylights made of fiberglass and they are showing their age. They’re not only discolored but the individual fibers are separating making a clean-up a trade-off with erosion. Replacement and resealing is the only solution here.

Our main electrical power coming into the hangar has reached its capacity with the growth in usage through the years. It has become necessary to upgrade our entrance wiring and breaker panel from 50 amps to 100 amps. Additionally, new circuits need to be added to relieve overloads.

The hangar floor needs repainting. We have been using a one part epoxy paint on our concrete hangar floor with good results. Age and heavy traffic has again taken its toll and repainting is now necessary.

Other maintenance items such as toilet and carpet replacement must be accomplished in the near future.

Traffic flow through the Museum is a major concern. The theater is remotely located from the normal path taken through the museum and there are many additional artifacts we would like to display. Eventually we will have to change the entrance from the current south side to the east side of the building. This will be expensive and we are currently studying a variety of alternatives.

Displays

POW/Evadee
The Veterans Association has undertaken design and financing of a Prisoner of War/Evadee display. The final design will be subject to approval by the staff and Board of the Museum. This is now in the conceptual stage.

Ball Turret Gunner
When our visitors enter the Museum, the B-17 is usually their main initial interest with the most inquisitive feature being the ball turret. We have in the works a Ball Turret Gunner display that will answer many common questions of our visitors, such as:

All will be answered with an illustrated poster.

Marienburg Display
The Marienburg mission of 9 October 1943 was the most successful mission the 390th participated in. A conceptual display has been on exhibit for some time now and finalization is awaiting its turn after completion of the Ball Turret display contingent on funding availability.

Your continued support with donations and contributions of ideas will assure us of success in resolving these and other issues we work with regularly.

Andy Anzanos
Director Facility and Operations