Plane buffs enthused by museum plan

Standing at the base of a B-25 Mitchell, retired Air Force officer Bob Chaplin described how the stately bombers descended on Tokyo in the first American bombing raid on Japan during World War II before rattling off the kill records of famous fighter aces.
Elsewhere in the hangar, 2-year-old Conner Gillin held a model B-17 aloft and spun circles beside his father, Jon Gillin, shouting, "Airplane! Airplane!"
Enthusiasm flared in aviation buffs young and old Saturday over news of a World War II aviation museum being planned for Colorado Springs.
They turned out for an afternoon preview of some of the planes planned for the proposed museum at a gathering hosted by WestPac Restoration Inc., in the company's recently completed hangar and restoration shop at 765 Aviation Way.
"I think this is a major, first-class operation and it'll be a great attraction," said Chaplin of Colorado Springs, who couldn't pass the vision tests required to be military pilot but satisfied the "raging furnace" of his love of airplanes by learning to fly as a civilian.
The National Museum of World War II Aviation - to be run by a private nonprofit organization - will share space with WestPac on a sprawling campus near the Colorado Springs Airport and is due to open to the public in a year.
In the museum's first phase, three hangars will be erected to host a variety of functioning World War II aircraft, including a P-38 Lightning and a P-47 Thunderbolt.
Personal histories from Colorado Springs pilots will be incorporated into the exhibits, along with aviation artifacts and paraphernalia, organizers said.
"It's not just about airplanes. This is going to be an education experience telling what happened during the war and why it was vital," said Bill Klaers, president of WestPac and a board member of the private, nonprofit organization developing the museum.
The company relocated from Rialto, Calif., to be a part of the museum.
Long-term plans call for a parade ground, additional hangar space for new acquisitions and an administrative center housing a school to train airplane mechanics and an aviation library.
Spectators will be able to visit the WestPac restoration shop as part of the price of admission, where they can watch airplane mechanics work with authentic manufacturing equipment dating to the 1930s.
"You can come through here and watch us slam rivets or paint parts or whatever it is we'll be doing," said Alan Wojciak of WestPac, who donates time to get planes shipshape for the museum, including the P-47, of which he's a part owner.
The museum has been a labor of love, requiring hours of work on weekends apart from his role at WestPac, he said. Flying has been in his blood since he was a child, though he's not exactly sure how that happened.
"I fell out of a truck as a child," Wojciak joked.
The museum is the brainchild of Jim Fry, a Minneapolis businessman and aviation buff, and the nonprofit has already raised $1.5 million to build the first phase. A fundraising drive will be launched soon, organizers said.