Amarillo, TX — The Texas Panhandle has a rich and long aviation history, the story of which a group of individuals is seeking to tell.
Amarillo was home for decades to an Air Force base that flew B-52 strategic bombers. The city was home to two men – Rick Husband and Paul Lockhart – who would fly aboard the space shuttle. Another Panhandle native, Alan Bean, walked on the moon as part of the Apollo 12 mission in 1969.
The Texas Air and Space Museum sits between two major elements of that history: the city’s gleaming international airport and the massive Bell/Textron aircraft assembly operation that produces the V-22 tiltrotor Osprey and other aircraft.
Those who run the museum want to move it to a more suitable location and they are hoping to raise the funds to do so.
Fred Chesser, a retired Air Force master sergeant, is one of the many volunteers at the museum and he remains supremely optimistic about the museum’s future.
“Our objective is to move into the old Attebury grain elevator complex,” said Chesser. “We’ve had 20 acres deeded to us and we’re in the process of breaking ground,” he said, describing the proposed new site as being in “bad shape.”
“We have a good plan,” Chesser said, “but we need $1.6 million to bring it to fruition.”
Chesser said the museum board recently received a $65,000 gift from Amarillo resident Dusty McGuire, the former head of Keep Amarillo Beautiful. “Her concern is that we should clean up the new site and make the new building presentable.” He said “that’s what the $65,000 is going to help pay for.” Chesser said the donation was meant to “get us off dead center and to help us get started.”
The current museum is in a structure run by English Field Aviation. Chesser said the museum has several aircraft on display, many artifacts and photos in a small display room next to the exhibit floor and “a lot of artifacts we don’t have room to display now.”
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