Cooperative Living March 2022 - 32

FIELD TRIP
Taking Wing
by Steven Johnson, Staff Writer
Virginia museum offers history
of civilian, military aviation
T
he Shannon Air Museum near
Fredericksburg, Va., might not
have the recognition or the
renown associated with the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum 60
miles to the north.
But it has a Ping-Pong ball.
Specifically, on display is an
autographed Ping-Pong ball from the
first transatlantic roundtrip flight in
aviation annals. Expert tour guide
" Butch " Cover, an air enthusiast since
he first took the controls of a Piper
Cub 64 years ago, can tell you all
about it.
Standing next to an all-metal Vultee
V1-A, an eight-passenger plane built for
American Airlines, Cover tells how
pioneer pilot Dick Merrill and showman
Harry Richman fl w one edition, called
Lady Peace, to London and back in
1936. The cargo: 41,000 buoyant PingPong
balls that could keep the plane
afloat if it went down in the Atlantic.
" Therefore, it became known as the
Ping Pong Ball Flight, " Cover laughs.
" Fortunately, they didn't have to test that
theory, but when they got back, being
the entrepreneurs they were, they pulled
the balls out, signing them and selling
them for two bucks apiece. "
The museum showcases one of the
signed balls near its gleaming V-1AD,
the only known
surviving example
of the aircraft,
named Lady Peace
II in tribute to
Merrill and
Richman.
THERE AND BACK AGAIN
Th inspiration for the museum is
Sidney Shannon Sr., who opened an
30 ● Cooperative Living ●
March 2022
airstrip around 1927 at what is now the
site of the Fredericksburg Fairgrounds.
With fighter ace Eddie Rickenbacker,
Shannon started Eastern Airlines.
His son, Sidney Jr., founded Shannon
Airport in 1950 and started collecting
rare aircraft as a way of honoring
his father. The younger Shannon
opened a museum with one-of-akind
pieces in 1976. When he
died, the collection moved to
the Virginia Aviation Museum
at Richmond Inter-national
Airport. That museum, which
housed about 38 aircraft, shut
down in 2016.
By then, the husband-and-wife
team of Luke and Kim Curtas
had purchased the Fredericksburg
airport, and started retrieving items
from the Shannon collection. Th
revamped museum opened in 2017
and has been growing ever since.
It is located in a converted hangar
and boasts of planes dating from World
War I dogfights, along with memorabilia
related to Charles Lindbergh and
Amelia Earhart, as well as a wall
Vultee V-1 AD
honoring the Virginia Aviation Hall
of Fame.
" The goal is to be more interactive,
especially for youth, because we feel
aviation is a great thing for young people
to get involved with. In the future, we
" Butch " Cover
could see adding on a theater to the
museum to watch something before
the tour - lots of interactive elements, "
says Kristen Curtas, assistant executive
director at the airport.
What's unique at the museum is
that many of the planes, even ones
nearly a century old, are currently or
co-opliving.com
PHOTOS BY STEVEN JOHNSON
http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living March 2022

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