See inside the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, celebrating Kansas’ famed aviator

The glistening, brightly polished metal of the world’s last remaining Lockheed Electra 10-E, a twin engine, American-made aircraft named Muriel, is the centerpiece of the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum opening Friday in Atchison, Kansas.

The airplane is the same make and model that Amelia Earhart, an Atchison native, was flying in 1937 when she disappeared.

“The Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum was a vision, actually, of my husband,” said Karen Seaberg, the founder and president of the Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation. “He ( the late Ladd Mannan Seaberg) met the restorer of the plane in the eighties, and his vision was that it would come back to Atchison,” Seaberg said. The plane belonged to, Grace McGuire, a pilot, who had worked on the Electra’s restoration for more than 30 years.

In 2016, that vision became a reality as the aircraft was acquired for just two cents over $1.2 million by the foundation and then transported by truck from El Cajon, California, to Atchison. The foundation then began a capital campaign to raise funds to build the new 17,000 square-foot hangar museum in which to showcase the airplane.

The plane is said to be identical to the one famed aviator Amelia Earhart, who was born and spent part of her childhood in Atchison, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were flying when they disappeared in 1937 over the South Pacific. Seaberg said the restorer of the aircraft named the plane after Earhart’s sister, Muriel, with whom she was friends. She felt Muriel was always in the shadow of Amelia.

“Amelia chose this plane because it could go higher, faster than any other plane built,” said Seaberg, “She chose it so that she could get around the world, but even with this plane, she had to load it with fuel tanks. She was a flying fuel tank,” she added. Lockheed Aircraft Company, the plane’s manufacturer, only built 14 of the Lockheed L-10Es.

More than six years in the making, the hangar museum showcases 14 state-of-the-art STEM exhibits that are combined with hands-on history lessons that surround the aircraft in the museum.

Dimensional Innovations, an industrial design company based in Overland Park, created the interactive and storytelling exhibits that explore the life and accomplishments of the famed Kansas aviator and other female pioneers in aviation. Seaberg said she thought they would have to go to L.A. or New York to find someone to design the exhibits and the building, but a referral to Dimensional Innovations led the museum to design with the company in nearby Johnson County, Kansas. “They started with us on the what, where, how, why, all the way to design, build and install,” Seaberg said of the company . “They are amazing.”

Visitors to the museum have the option to experience the museum through a variety of exhibits which include a metal riveting challenge, 85,000 metal rivets were used to make Muriel, feel the excitement of sitting in full-size replica cockpit of a Lockheed Electra 10-E, or strap on a virtual reality headset and fly a recreation of Earhart’s 1932 historic transatlantic flight.

One exhibit encourages visitors to explore and theorize about Earhart’s final flight, in which at age 39, she was attempting to circumnavigate the globe at the equator. Visitors may cast votes on what they believed happened that fateful July day in 1937 when the plane carrying Earhart and Noonan disappeared.

Field trips to the museum are already planned and the museum is ready. All of the exhibits in Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum are built out to meet Kansas, Missouri and National Curriculum Standards. “We have created an elementary school guide and a middle school guide to go with the exhibits that educators can use both in the classroom or here on a field trip,” said Mackenzie Burghart, director of operations.

A bronze statue of Earhart stands outside of the entryway of the new museum and terminal. The statue, created by George and Mark Lundeen of Loveland, Colorado, depicts the famed aviatrix in her pilot’s attire complete with a Kansas sunflower adorning her belt buckle. The statue is a replica of the Earhart statue unveiled last July in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Dignitaries, school children, politicians and aviation enthusiasts will be on hand Friday as the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum celebrates its’ grand opening. Family-friendly events will continue Saturday and Sunday at the museum, which is located at the Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport, 16701 286th Rd., in Atchison.