A Perfect Day for Fun Projects

It’s cold and gray outside, but that’s perfect weather for books and coloring projects! What are your favorite aviation books? Our kids area isn’t just for toddlers – we’ve got some great stuff for teens and adults too. Come on out – we are open 10am to 4pm all weekend!

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Travel Air 4000 Project

Ami worked on the exhaust manifold on the Wright J5 engine today, as progress continues on the museum’s Travel Air 4000 restoration! Restoration work is long, slow, and often tedious, but absolutely worth it. We are grateful to have vintage aviation restoration expert Kent McMakin on our team. Donate to

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Blooper Reel

WE DID IT! Thanks to all of you, we met our $3,000 winter fundraiser goal … and you know what that means: The Blooper Reel has been published! So here it is, the long-awaited, often requested, much maligned, and hugely hilarious collection of outtakes from the museum’s video series and promos.

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Rose Parrakeet

We are thrilled to announce that Larry Steenstry of Elkhorn, Wisconsin has donated his original homebuilt Rose Parrakeet to the Kelch Aviation Museum. Based on the 1929 design, Larry built the ship in 1996 and has won numerous award at midwestern fly-ins over the years. Always the brave barnstormer, Larry

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Ami & Hannah’s Blooper Reel Challenge

Day two of our blooper fundraising challenge! Behind the scenes can get a little goofy… Donate $5, $10, or a million bucks and help us reach our $3,000 fundraising goal this week! When we hit that number, we’ll share the whole outrageous outtake reel with you all. kelchmuseum.org/contribute The museum

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Ami & Hannah’s Blooper Reel Challenge

$3K Blooper Reel Fund Drive: Thought Ami’s videos were goofy? Loved Hannah’s outrageous extras? Well, hang on to your hats (and get out your wallets): For our winter fund drive challenge, Ami & Hannah will release their long-awaited, much-requested Blooper Reel – but only once we raise $3,000. Trust us,

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Old Magazines with Michael John, no. 3: Airplanes Earning Their Keep

by Michael John Jaeger What does dropping pens out of an airplane in Europe in the 1930s have to do with the history of aviation in southern Wisconsin? Read on for some thoughts.  Last month I looked at the U.S. air mail system in early 1922.  Air mail was one

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The Untold Story Of Bernard Pietenpol and Westy Farmer

On this date in 1901, Bernard H. Pietenpol was born. Considered the grandfather of the homebuilt airplane movement, BHP designed his 2-seat “Air Camper” in 1928 and powered it with a simple Ford Model A car engine. Watch Kelch Aviation Museum Archivist Hannah Shickles present “The Untold Story Of Bernard

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Photography Archive

Take a peek into the museum’s photography archive with this beautiful unpublished large-format negative, donated by Pat Sparling! Our team first identified the aircraft as a Monocoupe model 70, but records indicate it is an earlier Monocoupe model 22 with a 60 h.p. Detroit “Air-Cat” engine, likely built in 1928.

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Black History in Aviation

John C. Robinson, the Father of the Tuskegee Airmen, poses with a 1928 Alexander Eaglerock at the Waukegan Illinois flight school, Lake County Airways, in 1929. Robinson was a pioneering aviator and activist who went on to form the renowned aviation school for Black pilots at the Tuskegee Institute in

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