Monday, August 15, 2011

Flight museum to fly north to Ellington, Texas.

GALVESTON — The Lone Star Flight Museum, a fixture at the airport on the island for 23 years, appears set for take off for a flight north to Houston’s Ellington International Airport.

The Houston City Council is set to approve a lease agreement with the nonprofit museum on Tuesday.

If approved, the museum would move its display of 30 vintage aircraft — many from World War II — and its Texas Aviation Hall of Fame to Ellington Field, which is being expanded and renamed.

The expansion includes a $17 million building to house the Lone Star Flight Museum, according to records from the Houston Airport System, which oversees the operations the Ellington International Airport, Hobby Airport and George H.W. Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Ellington is also building a new terminal and air traffic tower to be able to resume domestic and noncommercial international flights at the former Air Force base, according to a report in the Houston Business Journal.

Larry Gregory, the flight museum’s executive director, could not be reached for comment.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike flooded the museum with seven feet of water and destroyed many of the displays.

“We discussed with the flight museum what it would take to make them stay,” Hud Hopkins, manager of Galveston’s Scholes International Airport, said. Hopkins and Galveston Economic Development Partnership President Jeff Sjostrom met with museum officials.

“Bottom line, it was about elevation,” Hopkins said. “(The museum) could not let what happened during Ike happen again.”

Hopkins said that the Galveston Park Board of Trustees also got involved in an attempt to keep the popular tourist attraction on the island. But the answer was always the same — the museum needed to be in a more protected place.

Hurricane Ike flooded the museum, but not all of the planes were submerged. Volunteers were able to fly 10 planes, including the B-17 Flying Fortress, a Douglas DC-3 and a B-25 Mitchell bomber to safety just before Ike made landfall. The Texas Aviation Hall of Fame was washed away. All that remained were two model planes that hung from the ceiling.

After the storm left 400 cubic yards of debris in the museum, it took about a year to clean up and repair what could be fixed. Volunteers and members of the USS Nassau helped with the cleanup.

Rumors started that the museum’s board wanted to find a safer place for its displays, some of which are considered priceless.

“Personally, for me, it’s difficult,” Hopkins said. “The museum has been at the airport since 1988; it’s a world renowned museum. It tugs at the heartstrings a bit with them leaving.”

The timetable for the move was not clear.

Construction on the facility at Ellington is scheduled to be done in about 18 months, and Hopkins said he was informed that the museum was going to need to raise funds for the facility and the move.

The museum’s lease with the Galveston airport has 20 years remaining. The museum owns the building, but leases the land it sits on for about $2,000 a month, Hopkins said.

“I’ve told (Gregory) we will work with you on getting a new tenant in there that’s mutually beneficial,” Hopkins said.

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