Geneseo Warplane Museum

My husband rarely actively expresses an interest in a tourist activity when friends visit, so when my college friend Parker and her family were here this weekend, and Charlie volunteered that he’d always wanted to visit the Geneseo Warplane Museum, who was I to deny him? Especially since it would be close to Letchworth Park, which was on our agenda for the afternoon. I would take one for the team…

Parker and Connor and the 1942 searchlight

Ours were the only cars in the parking lot, and there was only one other couple of visitors when we arrived on Sunday. Our guide explained that they were still recovering from last weekend’s air show, which had suffered one day of bad weather, as he took us through the restoration hangar, where a 1942 searchlight was in the process of being restored (by him – he actually is working on many of the planes/cars/engines in the museum).

Kitchen in the "America at Home" Exhibit

He was turning on the lights for us as we went, as if we were the first to arrive, something I had also suspected from the excitement our arrival caused. Charlie was very engaged, asking questions, and seeming to understand when the guide showed us a C-this or B-that. I had to smile when the guide said, “Let’s go to the main hangar – this is where all the magic happens.” He definitely loves his job! 

Martha Wadsworth's plane

The main hangar displayed about a dozen planes, including some built from kits, a small plane that had just been donated at this year’s air show, another from the show that was for sale, and several privately owned planes in various states of disrepair, only temporarily in residence. There was even one owned by Charlie’s cousin, Martha Wadsworth.

The tour continued outside, where we were able to enter one of the larger planes, a troop and cargo carrier, parked on the grounds, which sit in a valley just below SUNY Geneseo. We were informed that had we visited the prior day, we would have seen the grass runway, which mimics a European WWII airfield, in active use. I was struck by how much creativity and effort and money goes into designing instruments of war.  If only peace were something that could be waged…