“The Ohio Historical Society is pleased to be able to make these items available to the WACO Historical Society,” said Burt Logan, executive director and CEO of the Ohio Historical Society. “It is an excellent opportunity to be able to partner with a local organization to interpret materials related to Ohio's great history of aviation.”
The Ohio Historical Society and the WACO Historical Society have been working for more than a year to arrange the transfer of artifacts to the museum for public display.
All of the artifacts that WACO Historical Society received on Saturday from the Ohio Historical Society collection were part of the former Ohio History of Flight Museum founded by Foster Lane, himself a WACO owner and pioneer aviator. Included in this collection are a 1926 WACO 9 “Miss McKeesport,” a 1928 WACO 10, a Ford TT Aviation Fuel truck, a Saxon Roadster, numerous aircraft engines and a collection of propellers.
"The WACO Historical Society Air Museum is grateful to the Ohio Historical Society for providing the opportunity to display two historically significant WACO aircraft that helped place the WACO Aircraft Company of Troy, Ohio on the aviation map in 1926,” said Andy Heins, curator and vice president of the WACO Historical Society Board of Trustees.
The WACO Model 9 was the first successful aircraft completely designed by the Advance Aircraft Company to obtain an approved type certificate with more than 250 sold during the production run from 1925-27.
The WACO Model 10 was the second, completely new design that outsold all other models of WACOs during the entire production run with over 1000 built during 1927-1930.
The WACO Air Museum is temporarily closed in order to transition the current museum collection and create new exhibits in preparation of the arriving artifacts that will be exhibited in time for the grand opening of the new Museum & Aviation Learning Center in the spring of 2010.
Construction of the new building and additional site improvements were completed in September 2009, thanks to grants from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, The Troy Foundation, The Miami County Foundation, The Hartzell-Norris Charitable Trust, The Paul G. Duke Foundation and generous WACO donors.
The WACO Historical Society Inc., founded in 1978, is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, that operates the WACO Air Museum and Historic WACO Field, an authentic grass airstrip and 79 acre site, located at 1865 S. County Rd. 25A. For more information, visit www.wacoairmuseum.org.