The historic hangar at Albany Municipal Airport was wide open for the open house Saturday.
Sunday is the second day of a two-day open house in the historic hangar at Albany Municipal Airport. Don’t miss it if you want to get a look at aviation history along with some interesting private planes.
The hours are 10-4 on Sunday, the same as today. Admission is free, of course. Parents are encouraged to bring their kids.
Because it’s an airfield, they make you sign a waiver to get in even though there’s no chance of being hit by any flying objects.
The hangar dates from 1929, and it was a hotbed of aviation activity in the 1930s and ’40s. Now it’s part of the National Historic District that covers the airfield.
This happens to be National Historic Preservation Month, and that’s the occasion for the open house.
My interest was drawn to a display by the Willamette Modelers Club. The array of models, from gliders to planes powered by rubber bands or tiny motors, rang a bell with me.
As a boy of 13 or 14, I once built a rubber band-powered plane that had exactly one ill-fated flight. When I launched it across a cow pasture, it headed straight for the other side and was shredded by a barbed-wire fence.
Glenn Grell told me that experience, flying just once, is not uncommon for those balsa and paper models. Grell staffed the display, and his house near Tangent is where the modelers’ club meets.
Glenn Grell stands behind a table covered with model airplanes of different types.
There are other things to see in the hangar. Here’s a sampling.
A display shows the Albany airport in its very early days.
Students from several valley high schools built this plane from a kit over four years, finishing in 2015.
Isn’t this a fitting symbol of general aviation?
There’s more to see at this open house at the Albany airport. Check it out Sunday if you have the time. (hh)
THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING UP AFTER MY EMAIL. WELL DONE AS USUAL.
Love the picture of the Albany Airport in its early days…before corruption and ruination of the environment caught up with this country. Look at those tall fir trees!! Those are long gone. Also, the cars seem to be mostly 30s models, but I spot a couple of Model As or Ts from probably the 1920s.. A lot of cars are there. The picture must have been taken about 1929, when the hangar was built, and probably before The Stock Market Crash hit that October. If after The Depression, it may be during the War. What are those piles near the entrance to the hangar? Are those tarps? Or is that dirt and the hangar isn’t yet completed? That would date the picture in 1929 for sure. Maybe the planes are all parked outside because the hangar is not yet finished.
Hi, Hasso. I have been a member of the Willamette Modelers club since 1960. Glenn Grell is our current president, and the club sponsors many indoor and outdoor flying events each year. We have members all over Oregon and a few from other states as well. Your experience with a rubber powered model has been shared by all of us, and for some, like me, many times.
Thanks for the article. It’s nice to have the club recognized.