BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM
Pacific Aerospace Museum maintenance manager Warren Chee points out debris from the demolition of the museum at Honolulu International Airport. The globe in the background is wired with fiber-optics connected to a computer display that illuminated Pacific air routes.
Aerospace Museum items
go to new Ford Island site
The Pacific Aerospace Museum in Honolulu Airport, grounded for the past two years, will take off as part of the planned Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor on Ford Island in 2006, said Donn Parent, director of the aerospace museum.
The Pearl Harbor museum will trace the history of aviation in the Pacific from the 1920s to the present, focusing on Pan American Airways' "crucial role" in Pacific aviation and military aviation during World War II, he said. The museum has a target opening date of Dec. 7, 2006, the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Pacific Aerospace Museum had been located on the second floor of the administration tower building in the main terminal since 1991. It closed in 2001 after it was prohibited from selling gift items under an administration plan initiated to renovate the airport and make Duty Free Shoppers the sole retailer at the airport, Parent said. The gift shop grossed $25,000 each month and covered expenses, Parent said.
When the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred, priorities at the airport shifted, and the museum was closed a month later for the construction of a security concourse, he said.
The museum has been used as storage space for the exhibits since it was closed.
Airport Manager Ben Schlapak said the former museum space is being renovated into a centralized security entrance for departing overseas passengers. It will provide six lanes in addition to the existing eight lanes in the main overseas terminal, he added.
The renovations, which include modifying the roof and creating an area for concessions, are expected to be completed by early December.
Schlapak said some of the museum memorabilia will be used to decorate airport bars and restaurants, and the various concourses. The bullet-ridden Aeronca 65TC plane, last flown by Gambo Flying Services on Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, will be hung over the atrium in front of the administration tower in the main terminal, he said.
