A full-size replica of Nebraska’s first airplane, the Curtiss Pusher, is on display at the Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward. The replica will be on display for the museum’s dedication at 9 a.m. on July 4.
Visitors to Seward on the Fourth of July will have the opportunity to see something special. The Nebraska National Guard Museum now has a full replica of Nebraska’s first airplane suspended from its ceiling. It is one of the first features that visitors will see when entering the museum. The plane was installed June 24 in preparation for the museum’s dedication at 9 a.m. on July 4.
Daws Trucking transported the piece into Seward and when it got to the outskirts of Seward June 23, they were met by a police escort to bring in the centerpiece to the “Century of Nebraska National Guard Aviation (1915-2015)” – The Curtiss Pusher. The plane represents the birth of aviation in the Nebraska National Guard and will be unveiled to the public at the dedication.
Once the Daws truck pulled up to the museum, a crew of volunteers led by Ken Meyer and his nephew, Nathan, showed up to offload the cargo.
Wing struts and the main fuselage area were carefully hauled up the south loading door to the main floor for assembly. Dave Claussen of Durango, Colorado, was the lead designer for the replica plane, and his partner Mike started the eight-hour process of putting the plane back together.
This is the second Curtiss Pusher that Claussen has built, the first being a centerpiece exhibit at the narrow gauge railroad museum in Durango for the 100th Anniversary of the Flight of Captain Ralph McMillen (Nebraska National Guard aviator). Aviation experts claim that the Seward plane is the best replica of a Curtiss Model D “Headless” Pusher, outside the original one in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
“When Nebraska ordered up an airplane, it came from the Curtiss Airplane Factory in San Diego. It came through Durango in 1913 on its way to Nebraska, and they talked the pilot into taking it off the train and flying it,” Claussen said.
Claussen said the replica is a traditionally built airplanee with a wooden canvas.
“The engine is something that I built from scratch. It’s called an OX5,” he said.
Claussen said he wanted to make every piece of the plane realistic which included building molds for the engine parts based off of exact parts.
“This is an actual scale of the original airplane. It is 26 feet from nose to tail,” he said.
Claussen had about five part-time employees and four senior citizen volunteers help him with the piece. They began building it in March.
“So the youngest person on the build crew was 15 and the oldest person was 84,” he said.
He has been a sculptor for about 25 years and then moved into metal before he became interested in working on museum pieces and replicas.
“It’s nice to have a piece like this. It’s going to be here for a long time. It’s a part of me, it’s some way to give back a little bit. I’ve got a lot of history. My family came from Nebraska,” he said.
On June 24, from 8 to 10 a.m., donors and sponsors were treated to a sneak peek of the assembled plane on the main floor before it was lifted to its final resting place above the John W. Cattle, Sr. Exhibit Area in the front of the museum. Virginia Cattle, one of the first major sponsors of the plane, was given the christening honor of sitting in the cockpit and testing out the controls.
Dr. Brian Friedrich, president of Concordia University, and several staff members visiting the museum to observe the plane and check out the new improvements. The daughter of Captain Erle Smiley, Marilyn Schulz, and her family joined the celebration by posing with the World War I aviator and barn-stormers’ oil painting in front of the plane. Mayor Josh Eickmeier and his father, Jerry, stopped in for a visit as well. Clark Kolterman also brought in students and out-of-town visitors to see the plane.
After the visitors left, work began to raise the plane up and over the front wall and hang it from the ceiling. The work of attaching the plane was done by Mark Forster of the Nebraska Air National Guard, the project leader for the Curtiss Pusher. Dave Geis of Geis Steel Tech, brought his Scorpion Crane to do the honors of lifting and putting it up on the ceiling. The process of moving it from the main floor and placing and turning and tilting from the ceiling took about five hours. Volunteers like Dale Wallman and his wife JoAnn assisted with prepping the plane for hoisting, Forster and his son, Will, worked on the scaffolding to put the plane in the proper alignment, and Dave and Mike, the builders, kept the plane looking good before and after the lift.
The plane was placed exactly where the marks were staked out on the floor so the plane appears to be in a slight bank and dive towards the docent station.
With the plane in place, the museum will now move exhibits celebrating a century of Nebraska National Guard Aviation into the John W. Cattle, Sr. Exhibit Area. The shrouds of the exhibit area will get coverings featuring: “The World’s Greatest Aviator” poster of Captain Ralph McMillen, a tribute to Gen. Butler Miltonberger, a reflection on the origin of the “All Hell Can’t Stop Us” motto, and a façade of the old State Arsenal (former home of the Nebraska National Guard Museum located on the State Fair Grounds). This, along with donor signs and room descriptor plaques and a 75-inch Smart TV monitor, will complete the room and exhibits for the July 4 dedication.
“The addition of the Curtiss Pusher above our exhibit area is incredible and reflects the great relationship the museum has built with the people of Seward and Seward County and we are so thankful for the tremendous support that has been shown to us,” said Darin Krueger, president of the Nebraska National Guard Museum Historical Society.
The museum dedication is Monday, July 4, at 9 a.m. and is open to the public.
