Liberty Aviation adds new hangar

Port Clinton, OH — Liberty Aviation Museum has been open for less than two years, but it’s already in the midst of a major expansion.

A large new hangar, about 22,500 square feet, is being built behind the existing museum and hangar building.

 

It will free up space in the existing hangar, a 120-by-100-foot facility that has become crowded. It’s currently being used to house the museum’s B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, the TBM Avenger torpedo bomber that’s loaned to it by a museum supporter, and the Ford Trimotor being built by volunteers.

 

The new hangar, being constructed by Janotta & Herner Inc., of Monroeville, was scheduled to be finished in mid-May, but repeated snowstorms have slowed construction.

 

“We are probably behind a month,” said Jeff Sondles, operations director of the museum.

 

The hangar will cost a little more than $3 million, said Ed Patrick, CEO of the museum.

 

Plans call for moving the Ford Trimotor project to the new hangar, Sondles said.

 

“They are running out of space. They need to join the wings,” Sondles said, pointing out that the wings have taken shape and need to be attached to the plane’s fuselage.

 

The new hangar also will allow the museum to be a better host when it brings in vintage airplanes, such as the B-17 bomber, the “Yankee Lady,” which has been booked to offer rides several times over the summer at Erie-Ottawa Regional Airport, the museum’s home.

 

Now, when the bomber comes in from Michigan, it flies back every day so it doesn’t have to sit out in the elements.

 

“If they know they can stay in the hangar, they might stay two or three days” Patrick said.