At the Champaign Aviation Museum, you'll get a close-up look at historic aircraft—particularly from World War II—that soared great heights to preserve freedom. More than stationary museum pieces, these warbirds have been or are being restored to fly again—to thunder to life, taxi down a runway and take off from our home base, Grimes Field in Urbana, Ohio. Whenever you visit, you'll witness history in the remaking. Our corps of volunteers (you're welcome to join them) will continually be at work reconstructing a plane, such as our current project, the Champaign Lady B-17G Flying Fortress (#44-85813). Piece by piece, volunteers are returning the B-17 to flying form, right in the museum.

The Champaign Lady was used by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation as a test bed for experimental turboprop and turbojet engines. It also was flown for propeller research and eventually was modified as an air tanker. In 1980, while fighting a forest fire, the plane crashed in Bear Pen, N.C. The Champaign Lady will be painted in the scheme of the 401st Bombardment Group (H), 1st Air Division of the Eighth Air Force, which flew 155 missions out of Deenethorpe, England, from Nov. 26, 1943 to April 20, 1945. A section from another B-17, being used in the restoration, was used in filming Twelve O'Clock High, starring Gregory Peck.

Other aircraft on display include: the B-25 Mitchell, a C-47 Skytrain, an A-26 Invader, a T-6 Texan, and a replica of a 1910 Wright Flyer.