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Celebrating One Year of Flight …

LSFM Friends and Family, It’s hard to believe but we celebrate our first year at Ellington this month and are grateful to all of you for making this year a great one.

The rains of Hurricane Harvey welcomed us to Ellington validating that higher ground is a good thing and our Board of Directors were wise.  While our celebratory spirit was dampened and many of our friends and neighbors impacted greatly, we joined the Houston Strong effort and opened in mid September to those needing respite from relief efforts.  A subdued but elegant grand opening followed on September 30th.  

From that day forward we’ve been on mission to celebrate achievements in Texas aviation history while inspiring and educating young people in the STEM disciplines related to flight.  What does that look like?

We had well over 100 schools visit us in the past year…over 8000 students have participated in field trips and Aviation Learning Center activities.  Some 3000 of those young people filled our spaces through the summer months as we catered to programs offered by churches, community centers, YMCAs and other youth groups.
We held our first summer camps as well to the delight of parents and campers alike. 

We hosted “Eyes Above the Horizon,” “Sisters of the Sky,” “Girls in Aviation,” and one I wouldn’t have thought of, “DEA’s Youth Can Fly” program…all of them bringing aviation and STEM to our youth in a way that is exciting and impactful.

The Scouts invaded our weekend nights as we provided an overnight museum experience they will remember for years.  Watching parents and kids bond at the controls of our simulators is a wonderful sight especially when the kids outfly mom and dad. 

We went out to all parts of the Houston region carrying the mission of the museum to schools and community events to let all know we are here. And, they came and continue to come.  Thousands have attended public and private events from birthdays, to galas, to town halls to weddings.  We welcomed them all.

We flew over 200 visitors in our airplanes and welcomed new additions to our collection like the TBM Avenger, the Sikorsky S-76A++ and our newest aircraft the AG-14 built in 1951 right here in Houston.  We welcomed, Congressman Sam Johnson, Astronaut Jim Lovell, Azellia White, Colonel Noel Parrish and the Braniff Brothers into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.

We are thankful to our volunteers who have collectively worked over 21,000 hours in service to the museum.  They are our docents, gift shop, ground crew and maintenance and other volunteers that enhance our visitors experience and help keep our aircraft flying.  We appreciate them greatly. 

Our staff is committed and professional as we continue to grow in experience and skill. We are here to make the visitor experience meaningful and exciting.  Working along side our volunteers, we want to showcase our world-class collection of aircraft and education programs so that word goes out that we are the place to be.

We’ve made great partners to support our efforts like Phillips 66 that sponsored 25 schools to come visit us, United Airlines and the Houston and Pasadena Independent School Districts and all the others who value our education programs and engage with us on site.

To all those that have given financially and in kind to support our efforts, we thank you as well.  Ours is a significant undertaking that relies on the generosity of those that believe in what we do. 

We opened and began a wonderful endeavor to benefit the Bay Area and greater Houston region one year ago.  We celebrate that year now but look with excitement toward the future as we soar to new heights in service to our community, city and region. 

“Blue Skies” ahead…

Doug Owens, Lt Gen (ret) 
President and CEO

LSFM By the Numbers

Total Admissions: 48,636
Visitors have come from 47 states and 18 countries including China, New Zealand, Scotland, UK and Brazil.

Passengers flown on warbird rides: 281
LSFM vintage aircraft have flown: 177 hours and used 14,678 gallons of fuel and/or oil. Our 20 volunteer pilots, XX volunteer crew, XX mechanics literally keep us flying. 

Students participating in Field Trips: 5,881
An additional 2,268 students have experienced our Aviation Learning Center and 143 Scouts have spent the night in one of our hangars.

Paper Airplanes folded in Flight Academy: Over 6,000

Total planes on display: 25
LSFM has acquired four aircraft n first year of operation at EFD: TBM-3E Avenger, Sikorsky S-76A++, Anderson Greenwood-14 and Mooney-18 Mite. 

Simulator Flights Flown: 5,158

New artifacts, documents and photographs acquired: 774 
Items join more than 5, 000 artifacts including, 80 linear feet of archives and 2,000 photographs. There is a collection of more than 2, 000 aviation and history books in the research library.

Volunteer Hours: 21,692
200 volunteers annually lead tours, maintain aircraft, clean airplanes and greet visitors.  

Aviator Sunglasses sold in the giftshop: 113

Most Popular Facebook Post
It’s no surprise our crowd-pleasing B-17 Flying Fortress ended up being our top Facebook post! Have you liked it yet?

Most Liked Photo
In July we were visited by WWII B-17 pilot Mr. Ed Clarac. Ed shared stories about the B-17 and even snapped a photo with the iconic plane in our most liked Instagram photo!

Marriage Proposals on the Ramp: 1

Weddings in Hangars: 4

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