[Milsurplus] Chicago Museum U-505

[Thomas Adams]

The time frame for the Last Great Stuka Attack 
would have been perhaps 1973 or 1974 I guess.


At 13:39 24-08-12, Hue Miller wrote:
>Mr. T, what was the year? I was in Chicago when, 
>around 2000 or so? and it was hung up in the air 
>then. I thought it was a rather poor way to 
>display a rare aircraft. At this time, there 
>were some things about the museum that struck me 
>as rather time-worn and bedraggled, like this 
>historic train, I think it shook or made some 
>kind of noise when you were on it, to simulate 
>real travel? The coal miner simulation was also, 
>I thought, real 1950. The U-505 was I thought, 
>pretty dark and faded inside, and I saw tons of 
>garbage dropped thru the floor grates by 
>visitors. Of course, a museum has to at least 
>partly pay its own way, there’s fewer sugar 
>daddies around to just ladle out the money. I 
>can appreciate given limited space and income, 
>the museum manager has to come up with a best 
>solution. But sending U-boat parts to the dump ­ 
>that’s jjust ignorant. A contrast is Bill 
>Allen’s (of Microsoft riches) aviation museum 
>in Everett WA. You can see that it’s not a 
>money maker at all but a labor of love, and 
>luckily, it has big bucks behind it. ­Hue From: 
>Thomaas Adams Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 
>10:39 AM To: Ray Fantini ; Hue Miller ; 
>milsurplus at mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: 
>[Milsurplus] Chicago Museum U-505 All these 
>comments about Museum of Science & Industry and 
>the handling of U-505 brings up something I've 
>wondered about for a while. When I was a kid, 
>the ceiling of the main hall of the museum was 
>used to display a number of WW2 aircraft; I 
>imagine they're probably still there. I 
>especially remember the Spitfire that hung over 
>the model railroad layout, and the Rolls Merlin 
>engine on display on the 2nd floor balcony next 
>to it. Over the main entrance, there hung a VERY 
>rare bird indeed; a real, Honest To Gawd, Stuka 
>dive bomber! Not many of those made it to 
>museums. Even hangng on display in a museum, 
>that airplane made history...  she executed the 
>last Stuka attack ever made! One morning in the 
>1970s, just before the museum was about to open, 
>the cables holding it let go, and she dropped, 
>one last time, about 25 feet in a sort of 
>Kamakaze attack...  scoring a direct hit that 
>demolished an information booth! I was in 
>college at the time, and saw an item about the 
>incident in the Chicago Sun Times (mailed to my 
>dorm daily). GREAT photo of the plane sitting 
>there amid the splintered wood of the booth!!! 
>The museum director at the time said that the 
>damaged airplane would be repaired and put back 
>on display. A couple of years later I happened 
>to be at the museum, and I asked about the still 
>missing Stuka. I was told she was still being 
>put back together for display. Does anyone know 
>if the airplane was ever repaired and put back 
>in her place of honor over the main doors? Mr. 
>T.  W9LBB At 11:50 24-08-12, Ray Fantini 
>wrote:   Fairly serious charges, I have worked 
>with some people involved with archival and 
>research activities and find that almost 
>imposable to imagine in a museum director. 
>Thought that the U boat was one of that museums 
>biggest draws?  Have known of cases where due to 
>economic problems or by transferring part of a 
>collection things get lost, or where corporate 
>collections get disposed of by management's 
>actions at levels above the curator or local 
>management but this story on the surface appears 
>to be a little over the top to me. I did a 
>simple search about Vic Danelov and the museum 
>and other then the links that are directly 
>traced back to the Shark hunter's web site found 
>no other material supporting there 
>statement.   RF 
>______________________________________________________________ 
>Milsurplus mailing list Home: 
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus 
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: 
>mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net This list 
>hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help 
>support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html