AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2018 - 71

addition to the historic aspects." So close
to Fredericksburg, the airport is truly a
regional asset, he added.
"If you're going to make money, you
have to invest. That's what Luke has done
here," said Skinner, a Marine who flew
the A-6 Intruder and EA-6 Prowler but
didn't know anything about World War I
and Golden Age aircraft. "I can go [into the
museum] five times a day, and I'm just as
excited the fifth time as the first time."
LOOKING AHEAD

The airport is buying three times the fuel it
used to. Tenants get hangar rent discounts
based on fuel purchases to encourage flying.
Similarly, the airport now buys engine oil in
larger quantities, resulting in lower prices.
In exchange for a five-year lease, Curtas
built a hangar for medevac operator Air Care,
which bases a Bell 407 at Shannon Airport.
While the airport doesn't make money
on its lease to the restaurant, it brings in customers who buy fuel and oil, and visit the
museum. "You've got to keep people flying,"
Curtas said. "That means amenities and services." The Virginia Aeronautical Historical
Society recently moved to the airport; its
Hall of Fame is displayed in the museum.
"The goal this year is to become an aviation campus," Curtas added, with summer
camps and other activities for young people
that tie the museum into the community.
"We're going to create an atmosphere to
get the next generation into aviation."
Several events bring the public to the
airport. It will host a cystic fibrosis walk on
April 21, and a YMCA fun run on the runway June 2. The Harvest Festival Airshow
and Fly-In is October 27. The Navion owners' group had a fly-in at Shannon in 2015,
and Curtas said another group is interested in
having an event at the airport. "We are a great
place to have a regional convention," he said.
Curtas recently bought three small
houses on the southeast corner of the airport, and plans to convert them into an
airport inn where pilots can taxi in and stay
overnight. Privately owned airports tend to
reflect their owners, and Curtas has put his
mark on Shannon.
"It's truly amazing. I didn't think airports
grew that fast," Skinner said. "It's got a great
future. This is just the beginning."
AOPA
EMAIL mike.collins@aopa.org

SHANNON AIR MUSEUM REOPENS

Vintage collection returns to Fredericksburg
The Shannon Air Museum reopened at Shannon Airport in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in June 2017. It's home to 20 rare aircraft from aviation's Golden Age, dating from World War I through the 1940s. The
June 3 event marked a homecoming for some of the aircraft, which
were displayed at the airport before being trucked to Richmond more
than 30 years ago.
Shannon Airport founder Sidney L. Shannon Jr. opened the
museum in 1976, collecting 13 vintage aircraft and many artifacts from
aviation's early history-including the only known surviving Vultee
V-1A; a very rare Standard E-1 biplane, a Spad VII built in 1917 for
service in World War I; a 1927 Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing; and a Bellanca
CH-400 Skyrocket, originally built in 1928 as a CH-300 Pacemaker
and converted to a CH-400 after being salvaged from a glacier.

After Shannon Jr.'s death in 1981, the aircraft became the core of
the new Virginia Aviation Museum at Richmond International Airport,
which was absorbed by the Science Museum of Virginia in 1990. But
the aviation museum closed in June 2016 when its building developed
significant problems, leaving the aircraft homeless.
Current airport owner Luke Curtas remembered the Shannon airplanes from a visit at age 18. "When I saw the artifacts that were still
at the airport, like tool boxes from 1918, I said, 'We need to get these
planes back.'" But he never expected to receive the entire collection.
A new nonprofit, Shannon Air Museum LLC, received the 12 original
Shannon airplanes-and eight others. "We'd like to get some of these
flying again," added Curtas, a pilot who flies a Cirrus.
"What you see today is just a fraction of what we're going to
hope to build-a 25,000-square-foot museum," said Gary Skinner,
a Spotsylvania County district supervisor and the airport manager.
The retired Marine Corps pilot, passionate about introducing young
people to aviation, envisions a partnership between the county government and private sector to build a multiuse facility with a theater,
simulators, and youth activities that also could host banquets and
other events.
The museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and can be seen Tuesdays and Wednesdays by appointment; call the airport office at 540-373-4431. Admission is free and donations are accepted.
-MC

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