Fayetteville's Arkansas Air And Military Museum Seeks Greater Interest

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas Air and Military Museum, which for years has struggled to make ends meet, is launching a new promotion in hopes attendance will take off.

The museum's 18-member board will host Airport Days the third Saturday of each month, beginning June 21. A pancake breakfast will be served from 8 to 11 a.m. Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., hamburgers and hot dogs will be available for the price of admission. Guests will be able to take guided tours of the museum, and a Wright Brothers documentary will be screened.

The air museum opened in Drake Field's historic White Hangar in 1986. The Ozark Military Museum moved in next door in 2002, moving from Springdale.

The museums, which merged in 2012, showcase aircraft from the Golden Age of Aviation, a period of dramatic air races and around-the-world flights in the 1920s and 1930s. Sam Walton's first airplane, an ERCO Ercoupe 415-C, is featured, as are a variety of gliders and experimental aircraft.

On the military side of the museum, jets, helicopters, trucks, weapons and military regalia from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War and both Iraq wars are on display.

It's too early to tell if Airport Days will have an impact on the air museum's bottom line.

According to Internal Revenue Service filings, the nonprofit museum lost money three consecutive years. It reported about $73,000 in revenue and $137,000 in expenses for 2012, the most recent year information was available.

"The museum is in serious danger of closing its doors," Russ Smith, a board member, said Thursday.

The museum reported about $17,000 in cash and savings at the end of 2012 and $605,000 in total assets.

Warren Jones, executive director, said, if push comes to shove, the museum will sell pieces of its collection.

The bulk of the museum's money comes from admissions, grants, donations, memberships and special events.

Jones said walk-in traffic has never returned to level the museum saw before Interstate 540 (now I-49) opened. He said the museum had as many as 26,000 visitors per year in the late 1990s. Now, attendance hovers between 6,000 and 9,000 people annually.

People don't seem to want to donate to an aviation museum in the same way they support nonprofit groups that focus on social issues, Jones added.

The financial struggles aren't for a lack of effort.

The museum joined forces with the Commemorative Air Force last year to offer rides in a Boeing B-29 Superfortress during Bikes, Blues & BBQ. More than 100 female pilots landed in Fayetteville as part of the 37th annual Air Race Classic, a 2,500-mile transcontinental air race, last June. And museum officials have offered the White Hangar as a venue for weddings and community events.

The Fayetteville Public Education Foundation, for example, has rented the air museum for its Celebration of Excellence in each of the past three years.

Cambre Horne-Brooks, foundation executive director, said the museum is a unique venue that can accommodate large groups.

"It's a location that's just been premium for nonprofits to use," Horne-Brooks said. "And it's fun."

The museum relies mostly on volunteer labor to maintain its collection and give tours. It will save about $37,000 annually when Jones moves to North Carolina later this year. Ray Boudreaux, who retired as director of the Fayetteville Executive Airport in March, will replace Jones on a volunteer basis.

Jones said he hopes Airport Days will appeal to a younger crowd. Most of the museum's attendees are senior citizens.

"It brings a lot of memories back for a lot of people," Jones said. "They say, 'I flew that,' or 'I drove that,' or 'I worked on that engine.'"

The promotion will be held the third Saturday of the month through August. Smith said if it's successful, it will continue after then.