Piper Aviation Museum Hosts a Festive Christmas Open House Event
By Emily Wright
LOCK HAVEN – Over 100 guests attended Piper Aviation Museum’s special open house Christmas party event on Wednesday evening. Attendees were treated to tours of the museum, where they could see the full aircraft collection, including new exhibits, all while enjoying holiday snacks and beverages to celebrate the Christmas season.
Piper Aviation Museum President Ron Dremel and museum manager Ed Watson organized the event and provided The Record with an in-depth tour as well as insight into what’s in store for the museum in 2024.
The Aviation Museum has attracted visitors from every continent on the globe with the only exception being Antarctica. To illustrate the distance visitors have traveled to see the museum, a map hangs in the gift shop where they insert a pin on the country or U.S. state that they’ve flown in from. Astoundingly, in 2023 alone, over 3,000 visitors have come to the Piper Aviation Museum.
Among the many exhibits the museum offers, there is one standout feature that many may not be aware of. On the bottom level of the museum, there is a workshop where students in the Aviation Manufacturing and Engineering program at Penn College are getting a hands-on learning experience.
A partnership between the museum and Penn College was formed when Roger Bohner Jr. of Montoursville, a former pilot, aviation engineering student, and veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 21 years, presented the idea to the college. The program allows aviation students to come to the Museum on Saturdays and he guides them as they work together to build an aircraft. The students are currently working on rebuilding a Piper PA-8 Skycycle.
The story behind the PA-8 Skycycle that Penn College students are working on began in 1944, when A. Hanford Eckman, Piper’s superintendent and production manager, proposed a small, single-engine aircraft with a price tag under $1,000 for post-war production. The Skycycle underwent various test flights and was turned over to the sales department for promotion in June 1945. Unfortunately, the aircraft was later shelved due to high projected costs and a fire at the Johnstown Vocational Technical School in 1948.
Before the pause that had been put on the PA-8 Skycycle, a 14-year-old boy named Robert Erdman happened to see a Skycycle and was inspired to build his own. In 1993, roughly 48 years after he began to dream about building a Skycycle, he began to research how to build the aircraft and started his own project. At the age of 89, Mr. Erdman donated his unfinished Skycycle to the Piper Aviation Museum. Mr. Erdman sadly passed away this year, but the legacy of the dream for the project he began continues through Roger Bohner and the students from Penn College.
Another highlight of the museum is its flight simulator, which allows visitors to enjoy a simulated flight inside a Piper Tomahawk. A well-known and respected trainer aircraft, the Piper Tomahawk is one of the most popular choices for flight instruction. The museum purchased the Tomahawk, which required custom-made equipment in order to be transformed into an authentic flight simulator. Through fundraising, the museum was able to create a fully functional flight simulator.
Museum President Ron Dremel along with Museum manager Ed Watson spoke about upcoming plans they have for the museum this winter while it’s in its off-season. They currently have plans to upgrade the flight simulator to make the experience even more realistic and immersive.
In addition to upgrading the flight simulator, Dremel and Watson are looking into the possibility of significantly expanding the museum’s display area. Dremel and Watson hope to be able to add enough space to the museum to be able to display 10-15 more planes. The space would be added to the back of the building, and they’ve already had the property surveyed to get an estimate of how much the project will cost before beginning the next phases of planning.
The Piper Aviation Museum preserves the history and legacy of the Piper Aircraft Corporation and its founding family, and it also offers a unique opportunity to explore a piece of aviation history at the birthplace of the Piper J-3 Cub, the official State Airplane of Pennsylvania. It regularly sees visitors from all over the world, which has a significant economic impact on the local community, as visitors often stop in local restaurants, hotels, and shops. It serves as not only a place for aviation enthusiasts to gather and celebrate their shared interests, but it also functions as a valuable educational resource for students. With its ongoing projects and new developments, the museum continues to grow and preserve the legacy of Piper Aviation for generations to come.
To learn more about the Piper Aviation Museum, visit its website and social media pages:
Website: www.pipermuseum.com
www.facebook.com/piper.aviationmuseum
www.twitter.com/PiperMuseum
www.instagram.com/pipermuseum
To support the museum and its future endeavors, proceeds can be sent through a GoFundMe that has been set up. Visit: www.gofundme.com/f/PiperMuseum
