Champaign Aviation Museum
Champaign Aviation Museum
Mission Statement
The mission of the Champaign Aviation Museum is Touching Lives by Restoring History with guiding principles to honor our Veterans and their families, to educate the public about the experiences of past generations that flew in combat (focusing on the World War II era), to educate the public about aircraft construction and maintenance techniques, to restore and maintain our aircraft in flying condition for public appreciation, and to keep and expand the unique hands-on learning experiences available at the Museum for future generations.
Why Donate to Champaign Aviation Museum?
The Champaign Aviation Museum (CAM) is a growing World War II aviation history organization offering its visitors a rare, hands-on opportunity to experience the personal stories, aircraft, and artifacts of the era, and to engage with Museum volunteers as they work to restore a B-17 Flying Fortress to airworthiness. At CAM, visitors can get closer to the restoration process than in most other museums, and our volunteers try to ensure everyone is welcomed and given personal attention. We also have operational WWII aircraft and provide Living History Flight Experiences with our B-25 Champaign Gal, giving passengers the experience of flying like a WWII Crew Member.
Our B-17 Champaign Lady restoration, started in 2006, is now in the last few years of work before completion to airworthy status. In that time, the Museum has grown to include additional historic aircraft, a restoration workshop, exhibits about air crew Veterans, WWII women pilots, and the airplane workers who built these aircraft. More exhibits are planned, and we need more space to make them a reality. To continue to meet our mission of Touching Lives by Restoring History, the Museum must expand its organizational capacity through the construction of an additional hangar building, and we have embarked on a $1.8M Capital Campaign to raise the necessary funds.
The new building will provide an essential area for the imminent wing attachments of the Museum’s B-17 Flying Fortress restoration and new opportunities to create educational programming about aircraft metalworking techniques and machining done by the hard-working men and women of the 1940’s. We will also be able to add new educational displays highlighting WWII Veterans and their experiences while fighting to preserve our freedom, as well as the experiences of those on the home front during WWII. Additionally, the new hangar building will provide more storage area for future donations of historic aircraft, and increased workspace for the maintenance of our operational vintage aircraft in a public space so that Museum visitors can observe and learn directly from our Volunteers, free of charge.
We invite all who are passionate about the Museum’s mission to invest in its growth, ensuring the unique hands-on learning opportunities at CAM will be available for future generations. Thank you for your support!
TAX ID: 26-1321535 • 501(c)3 • USA
raised!
Total donations include contributions form Impact Index Funds – all USD amounts are estimates based on exchange rate at time of transaction and are not reflections of the current value of any cryptocurrency at time of viewing.
