Mon, Jun 30, 2008
Museum Will Move To Buffalo And Get New Name
An aviation museum in Western New York is nearing a positive end
to its turbulent struggle after eviction from its location in
Niagara Falls in January.
Thanks to a $1 million bequest from a longtime trustee, the
Niagara Aerospace Museum will be getting a new name and a new
location for its collection of aircraft and artifacts outlining
aviation history in the region. Reported by the Buffalo News, G.
Wayne Hawk, president of the museum, announced Friday the museum
will be relocated to the city of Buffalo and will be now known as
the Ira G. Ross Aerospace Museum.
An exact location in Buffalo has not been officially chosen for
the new museum, but the museum board is focusing on a possible
location on the waterfront near the Buffalo & Erie County Naval
and Military Park according to museum director Jacek
“Jack” Wysocki.
For museum supporters, the announcement provided closure to
recent troubles placing the museum’s future “up in the
air.” The museum originally began its life in vacant space in
shopping mall in Niagara Falls, but had moved to rented space on
the first floor of a former office building downtown in recent
years to draw more tourists visiting the popular waterfalls the
city is known for. In 2004, the building was taken over by the
Seneca Gaming Corp. as part of its casino complex and the museum
was forced to close on January 8, 2008. Museum aircraft such as a
1917 Curtiss JN4 Jenny, a Bell X-22A VSTOL prototype, and a Bell
P-39 Airacobra along with artifacts were placed into storage
following the closure.
The move to Buffalo and the renaming are the terms of a $1
million endowment from the late Dr. Elizabeth Olmsted-Ross, an
aviation pioneer and former member of the museum board of
directors, who died in September.
The new name is in memory of Ross’s husband, a pilot and
pioneering physicist and engineer who oversaw Curtiss-Wright
Corporation’s flight research department in Buffalo and later
headed Calspan, the Cornell University Aeronautical Laboratory.
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