Kelch Aviation Museum


The Kelch Aviation Museum is an aviation museum located at Brodhead Airport in Brodhead, Wisconsin focused on the Golden Age of Aviation.

History

Background

The idea for the museum came from Alfred Kelch, the founder of Kelch Manufacturing and former president of the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association. Over the years, he had assembled a collection of a number of vintage aircraft at Broadhead Airport. After he and his wife, Lois, died in 2004 and 2009, respectively, a trust was formed to create a museum.

Establishment

Fundraising for the museum began in April 2016. A major financial donation in 2017 funded the construction of a new building. It broke ground on 19 July 2019 and opened three years later on 23 July 2021.
The museum announced plans to build a new atrium in January 2022.

Facilities

The museum is located on at Broadhead Airport, which was founded in 1946 by a returning B-24 pilot named Bill Earleywine.
The museum is made up of the Bill & Sue Knight Memorial Vintage Airplane and Automobile Hangar and the Kent Joranlien Memorial Fellowship Hall. An additional building, the Dick and Bobbie Wagner Atrium, is under construction.
The Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame, composed of 22,000 photographs and negatives and 10,000 books, is also part of the museum's collection.

Exhibits

Exhibits at the museum includes Comet 7E, Curtiss OX-5 and Fairchild-Caminez engines. A recreation of Bernard Pietenpol's aircraft workshop is also on display. The museum also has a flight simulator.

Collection

Aircraft

Ground vehicles

Events

The Midwest Antique Airplane Club holds their annual Grassroots Fly-In at the airport. It also hosts an annual Pietenpol reunion.