From a 3/6/2006 Star-Gazette (Elmira NY) story, "Museum Sells Prized Plane" by Jeff Murray:
Eagles Discovery Center is selling one of its most prized possessions.
But museum officials say the sale of the Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina flying boat to the American Airpower Museum on Long Island will be a much greater gain than it is a loss.
In December, the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center sold its centerpiece attraction, the Boeing B-17 bomber "Fuddy Duddy," to Martin Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company based in Orange County, Calif.
The sale enabled the museum to pay off its crippling $3.1 million debt.
The transfer of the World War II-vintage PBY to the American Airpower Museum will continue the museum's trend of focusing on smaller, more economical aircraft, said Wings of Eagles Executive Director Mike Hall.
"It fits in the same category for us as the B-17, which is a tremendous expense and not something we can prudently bear when you look at expense versus reward," Hall said. "We will continue to fly our collection of smaller aircraft, which are much more affordable and more economical to operate. The American Airpower Museum is on Long Island. They have a much different market and circumstance. It's a good fit from their standpoint."
The state provided the American Airpower Museum with a $250,000 grant.The Long Island museum used that money to provide an unspecified sum of cash to the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center in exchange for the PBY Catalina and other benefits.
The sale of the PBY Catalina, which was the museum's second most popular attraction behind Fuddy Duddy, will do more than save the museum some operating costs, Hall said. It will also help the two facilities forge an alliance that they hope will mean more attractions and more visitors to the Southern Tier.
"We've been trying for the last couple of years to develop some upstate-downstate connections. There's obviously a huge market down there," Hall said. "This is a very positive thing for us. We can't sustain flight operations with those kind of aircraft on an ongoing basis. We can share with them so we don't lose the uniqueness of seeing those assets from time to time...
Gary Lewi, executive vice president of the American Airpower Museum, echoed Hall's sentiment that the transfer of the PBY downstate, part of a reciprocal relationship between the two facilities, will be as much of a benefit to the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center as it will be to his museum...
The American Airpower Museum was also set to buy the Fuddy Duddy when it first went up for sale in 2002. A $1 million state grant helped the local museum keep its centerpiece at that time..."
From a 3/6/2006 Star-Gazette (Elmira NY) story, "Museum Sells Prized Plane" by Jeff Murray:
Eagles Discovery Center is selling one of its most prized possessions.
But museum officials say the sale of the Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina flying boat to the American Airpower Museum on Long Island will be a much greater gain than it is a loss.
In December, the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center sold its centerpiece attraction, the Boeing B-17 bomber "Fuddy Duddy," to Martin Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company based in Orange County, Calif.
The sale enabled the museum to pay off its crippling $3.1 million debt.
The transfer of the World War II-vintage PBY to the American Airpower Museum will continue the museum's trend of focusing on smaller, more economical aircraft, said Wings of Eagles Executive Director Mike Hall.
"It fits in the same category for us as the B-17, which is a tremendous expense and not something we can prudently bear when you look at expense versus reward," Hall said. "We will continue to fly our collection of smaller aircraft, which are much more affordable and more economical to operate. The American Airpower Museum is on Long Island. They have a much different market and circumstance. It's a good fit from their standpoint."
The state provided the American Airpower Museum with a $250,000 grant. The Long Island museum used that money to provide an unspecified sum of cash to the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center in exchange for the PBY Catalina and other benefits.
The sale of the PBY Catalina, which was the museum's second most popular attraction behind Fuddy Duddy, will do more than save the museum some operating costs, Hall said. It will also help the two facilities forge an alliance that they hope will mean more attractions and more visitors to the Southern Tier.
"We've been trying for the last couple of years to develop some
upstate-downstate connections. There's obviously a huge market down there," Hall said. "This is a very positive thing for us. We can't sustain flight operations with those kind of aircraft on an ongoing basis. We can share with them so we don't lose the uniqueness of seeing those assets from time to time...
Gary Lewi, executive vice president of the American Airpower Museum, echoed Hall's sentiment that the transfer of the PBY downstate, part of a reciprocal relationship between the two facilities, will be as much of a benefit to the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center as it will be to his museum...
The American Airpower Museum was also set to buy the Fuddy Duddy when it first went up for sale in 2002. A $1 million state grant helped the local museum keep its centerpiece at that time..."