WAPAKONETA — A brief celebratory groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum on Friday, April 29, at 3 p.m. to mark the start of construction on the new Learjet 28 outdoor exhibit. The ceremony will include remarks from the Armstrong Board president, executive director and other local officials associated with the project.
The outdoor exhibit space will be located on the southwest lawn of the museum grounds near Apollo Drive, running almost parallel to the F5D Skylancer, the aircraft currently on display. The project is anticipated to take approximately one month to complete. After completion, museum officials will then initiate moving the historic Learjet 28, currently housed at Neil Armstrong Airport in New Knoxville. The aircraft will be partly disassembled, loaded onto trailers, and hauled 12.5 miles to the museum for final installation. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for the museum’s 50th anniversary on July 20 of this year.
“Our organization is very excited to see all our hard work finally put into action,” says Dante Centuori, executive director of the Armstrong Museum. “This new outdoor area will allow the museum to continue the story of Neil Armstrong beyond Apollo 11 and show guests a side of Armstrong that is seldom examined or discussed.”
The design and construction of the projected is headed by Garmann Miller and Baumer Construction, both located in Minster, Ohio. Other project participants include Spectra Jet, an Ohio aviation company tapped for the decommissioning of the plane, and Sandy’s Towing of Dayton, which will be undertaking the transportation and craning.
This event is free and open to the public and the museum encourages anyone interested in the project to stop out to witness this milestone event.
