Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum: A Base That Trained a Million Airmen

Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois trained hundreds of thousands of American military aviators and ground crews from its founding through the Cold War. When the base closed in nineteen ninety-three as part of post-Cold War defense cuts, a local committee fought to preserve its history. The Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum opened on the former base grounds in nineteen ninety-four, named for the aviation pioneer whose glider experiments in the eighteen nineties influenced the Wright Brothers.

The collection reached more than forty aircraft, most on loan from the Air Force Museum. It was never fully funded. The museum closed permanently on November first, twenty fifteen.

Many of the aircraft went to other museums, and several were later scrapped. The base's runways remain, quiet now.