Abe Lincoln's Air Force
This page was most recently updated December 3, 2011
Abe Lincoln's Air Force is a special group of aviation entusiasts who support AeroKnow Museum by contributing their money, their material or their time to help the Museum grow.
Join Abe Lincoln's Air Force! Dues are $15 per year, and the first year begins after we recruit 50 members. As soon as you enlist, you will soon receive, via First Class Mail, your membership card and certificate, suitable for framing. Each certificate is individually numbered and
printed. When we reach our membership goal, your year of membership officially begins. We will send you our bi-monthly e-newsletter that tells you about Museum activities, includes "want" and "for sale" ads, members and affiliated aviation organization activities.
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Send your name, address and dues. Please include a nickname or handle, similar to what military pilots and CB radio fans use.
 I am building presence on Flickr that will be accessible only to "Friends" who are members of Abe Lincoln's Air Force. In November 2011, a flight of four AH-64 Apaches visited Springfield, and I was allowed to photograph their time on the ground and departure. Today, you don't have to support AeroKnow Museum to view Flickr aviation pictures of Job Conger. Look for the change in January 2012. In the meantime, this is the perfect time to enlist in Abe Lincoln's Air Force. |
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This is the view most airport visitors have. With AeroKnow Museum 150 feet from this fence, we can take AeroKnow supporters more than this close. |
We can take you beyond the fence with on=scene photographs like you won't bring home from a typical airport. |
Notice the separation of the tail rotor blades which move as one rotor. They are not counter-rotating. |
This picture shows the display before it was completed in the summer of 2011. We had not yet placed 1/144th scale models on the top shelf. |
This slightly retouched photo of a Cessna Citation III was taken November, 2011. |
Above: some of the material displayed in the glass case in the WELCOME! Office downstairs. |
In compliance with the law, the photo of this Citation III would not have been taken without permission of the flight crew member in charge. Many aircraft owners -- companies, individuals -- do not want pictures taken of their flying machines. AeroKnow respects that. |
The metal surrounding the windsheld of the CIII is not painted and is electrically heated to prevent ice and loss of visibility. |
Apaches departied the ramp in hover taxi mode. |
The Model Kit Room displays kits of plastic, resin wood, static display model aircragft from all over the world, some produced as early as the mid-30s. |
A visitor from Canada, at the airport to pck up a renovated Cessna Citation III, enjoyed his visit to the Periodicals Room. |
This is the photo processing computer in the Ups Ops Room. To the left of it is a scanner for processing negatives of most sizes, transparencies and prints. |
Close examination of this reveals the interesting airfoil shape at the port wing tip, natural metal leading edges. a leading edge, vortex generators mid sman and leading edge airflow spoilers. |
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The precision of the painted horizontal stripes is amazing! |
This fabric token of appreciation awarded to Springfield Air Rendezvous in 2004 by fighting men and women in Iraq ins now proudly and gratefully displayed at AeroKnow Museum. |
AH-64 crew members visited AeroKnow's upstairs Research Room and spent about 10 minutes looking through our Apache files before their associates called them to the pre-flight briefing in the pilots lounge downstairs. |
 Another view of the Research Room. |
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Kits include many Comet solid wood productions, probab ly the best solid kits of the war years and a respectable number of Heller, Delta, Tamiya and others. |
Part of the collection of solid model kits. |
Key to the success of this display are two factors. !. Consistency of scale. No 1/72 scale model is placed lateral to a model of another scale. This way visitors understand and appreciate the size differences between, say, a Dornier Do-17 and a Handley Page Victor. 2. We will never display models that are grossly mis-assembled and finished. We won't display the 1/32 scale Revell P-40 your 8-year-old nephew made. Visitors appreciate AeroKnow Museum does more than fill shelves without regard to accuracy of color and quality of workmanship. |
The Upstairs Operations (Ups Ops) room is home to the model work area as well and the photo processing computer and scanner. There are more than 100 models in final assembly, being restored or repaired here and in a non-public storage room. If you are a reasonably skilled |
The bulletin board in the Ups Ops Room displays tickets from many Springfrield Air Rendesvous air shows, airplane postcards from Notthwest Air Link and other items too nice to hide in a desk drawer or shoe box. |
Kits from Monogram, Revell and Academy are displayed on the tops of filing cabinets in the Research Room. Also displayed in November was the flying model "Atomic Bomber" kit manufactured in 1945. |
 Signing up our newest member. The pictures that follow this were taken during the summer, 2011, ab about a year after we moved most resources from home to new quarters at the airport. |
 1/72 and 1/32 models Unless stated otherwise all models pictured were built by Job Conger or anonymously donated . |
 We need more shelves and blocks. |
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 Debbi and Gage were the first mother with child to visit AeroKnow Museum. The date: August 18, 2010 |
 Mark Hanna is executive director of Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, Springfield, Illinois, seen here with a 1/144 scale model Boeing 747, |
 Tom Fitzgerald is the second member of Springfield Chapter, Illinois Pilots Association to join Abe Lincoln's Air Force. The first was Bill Copp. They live five houses apart. |
 These are 1/72 scale models of a Messerschmitt Me-263 rocket fighter and Anatra Anisal World War I Russian scout. |
 Below these 1/48 scale models of a Douglas Havoc, Douglas Skyhawk, Ford Flying Flivver, DeHavilland Vampire and General Dynamics F-111A are boxes of airplane photographs 4" x 6" and smaller. Larger photos are maintained in archival plastic pages in three-ring binders. Due to space limitations, transparencies (slides) are stored off premesis. |
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 This US Marine Corps F/A-18C pilot recently visited while refuelling at the FBO. He gave us some stickers of his unit insignia. |
 Early into the launch, wood shelves displayed 1/144 scale models on the top and 1/48 scale models below. We have better shelves now, but we don't have enough. |
 View from AeroKnow Museum's Operations Central looking into the pilots' lounge and weather room across the hall. This picture was taken during June, 2010. |
Thanks for your consideration!
