Wings Of North Searching For New Home

Wings of the North, the aviation history non-profit that's based at Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, hit unexpected organizational turbulence this summer.

"We were informed just before July's AirExpo by the building owners (Bearpath Investment Group, LLC), that our lease was not going to be renewed, effective Aug. 31," said Wings of the North Board Chairman Gary Applebaum.

Applebaum and Museum Director Bob Jasperson told the Minnesota Flyer the organization has secured its collection and moved it off-site.

"We are not sure what the airplane owners are going to do," Applebaum added, referring to the Stearman N2S-1, Sierra Sue II P-51D Mustang, F4U-4 Corsair, AT-6D Texan, and TBM-3E Avenger that previously used the museum's hangar space.

Wings of the North was founded in February 1998. The organization arose from the vacuum created when Planes of Fame East Museum's aircraft relocated to California.

In its wake, several volunteers chose to ignore this setback and form a new museum. In less than six months, the group coordinated Mustang Roundup '98, a major event.

Wings of the North moved into new offices during the fall of 2009. Those offices were located at 14801 Pioneer Trail, Suite 200 in Eden Prairie.

In 2012, the non-profit purchased Hangar 72D in Sierra Lane at Flying Cloud Airport. The hangar is the current home of Wings Restoration.

In 2015, Wings of the North began leasing space for a new museum, and in August 2016, the museum was moved to 10100 Flying Cloud Drive, Suite 100, a new facility on the airport's southeast corner, near the end of runway 36 and the control tower.

"We had a standard occupational lease," Applebaum said. "We've been there for four years, and the owners of the building decided they were going in a different direction. I have no idea what the back end of what they are doing will look like, and what they will have to do with the Metropolitan Airport Commission."

The Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame space in the Flying Cloud building is separate from Wings of the North. It is not affected by the museum gallery and hangar loss.

"The building was perfect for us, because it's one of the few on Flying Cloud where you don't have to go through an entrance gate to park," Applebaum said.

Wings of the North's relationship with Bearpath Investment Group LLC has always been very good, and it continues to be good, Applebaum explained. "They have been very kind and very accommodating, but they are just going in a different direction at this point. We feel that we had created one of the finest museums in the area, and we just came off of our most successful AirExpo by far." News of the closure shocked many volunteers and museum's sponsors, but at this point, Applebaum said the organization is moving in a new direction.

"Right now, we are going to draw on our volunteer base to pack everything up, and some of it will go into our restoration hangar at the airport," he said. "We are looking for secure off-site storage until we can find a new, permanent home, as well as sponsorship support that will help determine where we can go and remain on the field. We are a very healthy organization (financially), but we don't have a home."

The city of Eden Prairie, the Metropolitan Airports Commission, and Flying Cloud airport management have pledged strong support to the museum's next steps.

"This is forcing us to find a home where we won't be dependent on the lease of someone else," Applebaum said. "This is a bump in the weather we'll overcome."

Jasperson said his biggest concern at the start of August was packing and securing the museum's artwork collection. Jasperson's ties to the Eden Prairie airport are deep; he started flying there in 1962 and he and his wife, Judy, moved to the city to be closer to the museum.

"The plan is everything is just going to go into storage for a while until we can find a new location," he said. "We were going gangbusters until we received the note from our landlord that they wanted the space back. We'll find a new spot."