Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome: America's First Flying Museum

Just off Route Nine near Red Hook sits one of the most unusual museums in the United States. The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a living collection of aircraft from the Pioneer era, the First World War, and the Golden Age of aviation, and its central philosophy is that an airplane that does not fly is not really an airplane.

Cole Palen founded the aerodrome in nineteen fifty-eight with a handful of antique planes and held its first air show in nineteen sixty. Palen built it into a world-renowned institution housing dozens of aircraft, many of which still take to the sky during weekend shows from June through October. The performances blend genuine flight with theatrical characters, including Sir Percy, Trudy Truelove, and the Evil Black Baron, whom Palen himself played for decades. Palen had bought his first six World War One era airplanes from a museum at Roosevelt Field in nineteen fifty-one, and England's Shuttleworth Collection helped inspire him. The nonprofit was incorporated in nineteen sixty-six. In nineteen sixty-seven he built a Fokker triplane reproduction with a rotary engine, and the collection includes a restored nineteen oh nine Bleriot that is believed to be the second-oldest airworthy airplane in the world.

Palen died in nineteen ninety-three, but the nonprofit institution he created carries on his conviction that history is better understood moving through the air.