Airport Museum to Welcome Visitors Every Weekend

By A.J. Panian, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Since attracting about 300 visitors in just one weekend recently, the KLBE Air Museum will be open every weekend this summer.

More volunteers are being sought for the facility dedicated to aviation history at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, said board member Don Rossi at a meeting Tuesday of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority.

“We’re looking for anyone with artistic ability and a love of aviation history … anybody capable of working with displays,” said Rossi, a pilot who owns the hangar housing the museum.

The museum opened for the first time to a throng of onlookers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 29 and May 30. It will continue to operate during those hours Saturdays and Sundays, starting this weekend. There is no charge for admission, but parking is limited.

Volunteers are needed to sift through a large number of photographs and memorabilia and coordinate the items into presentable exhibits.

“The more volunteers we get that are capable of doing the work, the more exhibits we can complete,” Rossi said.

In official flight-tracking terms, “K” means airport, and “LBE” means Latrobe.

The museum features “Old Blue” — a vintage, single-engine Stinson Reliant — along with a life-sized MiG15 UTI, a 1967 Cessna 150, and a Great Lakes Co. aircraft. It has a 24-seat theater outfitted with airline seats, where audiences can watch aviation-related films.

The facility is on the airport’s east ramp, along Route 981, across from Kennametal.

Those interested in volunteering are asked to call the airport authority office at 724-539-8100.