  Location within Indiana | |
| Established | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Location | Evansville, Indiana |
| Coordinates | 38°02′30″N87°32′13″W / 38.0416°N 87.537°W |
| Type | Military museum |
| President | Mike Tiemann |
| Curator | McKay Miles |
| Website | www |
The Evansville Wartime Museum is a military museum located at the Evansville Regional Airport in Evansville, Indiana.
During World War II, Evansville was the site of a Republic Aviation factory that built Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. [1]
Plans to obtain an aircraft for display in the city began as early as 1986, when a former supervisor at the plant, Frank Whetsel, purchased the wreckage of a P-47D, serial number 42-8320, that had crashed in Lake Kerr in Florida and founded the P-47 Heritage Commission. [2] [3] [4] The airplane arrived in Evansville the following February and was delivered to the University of Southern Indiana. [5] [6] The Commission attempted to raise money by holding a bingo game in 1991, but was accused of violating state gambling laws. A group called the P-47 Foundation, led by Andy Easley, purchased the project from the commission. [7] [8]
Following Frank's death in 1992, his son Jim took over the project. The intent was to display it in the airport terminal that was under construction at the time. However, the airframe was destroyed on 18 March 1997 in a fire at the Franklin Industrial Center where it was being restored. [9] [10] Immediately following the fire, the foundation attempted to obtain an example from the Air Force Museum System, but was unsuccessful. It was also forced to return an engine that had been on loan. [11]
In 2013, plans were announced to open the Freedom Heritage Museum at the Evansville Regional Airport. [12] The museum opened on 27 May 2017, shortly after changing its name to the Evansville Wartime Museum. [13] [14] It was finally able to acquire a P-47, Tarheel Tal, from the Lone Star Flight Museum in 2020. [15] [16] The airplane was repainted the following year as Hoosier Spirit II, to represent the first P-47 built in Indiana. [17] [18] Following an effort by the foundation, the P-47 was designated the official state aircraft of Indiana in 2021. [18] [19]
The museum was significantly damaged by a storm on 2 April 2024. [20]
The museum has a number of galleries focused on World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War as well as three flight simulators. [21]
Evansville is a city in and the county seat of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in Southern Indiana, and the 249th-most populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Evansville metropolitan area, a hub of commercial, medical, and cultural activity of southwestern Indiana and the Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area, which is home to over 911,000 people. The 38th parallel north crosses the north side of the city and is marked on Interstate 69 immediately north of its junction with Indiana 62 within the city's east side.
The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter, and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bomber in the ground-attack role. Its primary armament was eight .50-caliber machine guns, and it could carry 5-inch rockets or a bomb load of 2,500 lb (1,100 kg). When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to 8 tons, making it one of the heaviest fighters of the war.
The Republic Aviation Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Farmingdale, New York, on Long Island. Originally known as the Seversky Aircraft Company, the company was responsible for the design and production of many important military aircraft, including its most famous products: World War II's P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, the F-84 Thunderjet and F-105 Thunderchief jet fighters, as well as the A-10 Thunderbolt II close-support aircraft.
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The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science is a general-interest museum located on the Ohio riverfront in downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1904, it is one of Southern Indiana's most established and significant cultural institutions, with comprehensive collections in art, history, anthropology and science. It has a permanent collection of over 30,000 objects including fine arts, decorative arts, historic documents and photographs, and anthropologic and natural history artifacts. Also on the museum's campus is the Evansville Museum Transportation Center, featuring Southern Indiana transportation artifacts from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Metropolitan Evansville Transit System (METS) is a public transit system consisting primarily of bus service in the city of Evansville, Indiana.
The Refrigerator Bowl was an American college football bowl game played annually from 1948 until 1956 in Evansville, Indiana.
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WSWI is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Evansville, Indiana, United States, carrying an alternative rock format known as "95.7 The Spin". Owned by the Board of Trustees of the University of Southern Indiana (USI), the campus radio station has studios and a transmitter site that are both located on the USI campus in Evansville. WSWI operates during the daytime hours only, thus in addition to a standard analog transmission, the station's format is broadcast continuously via a simulcast over the HD2 digital subchannel of WPSR and a relay over low-power analog translator W239CI, along with being available online.
The Ford Center is a multi-use indoor arena in downtown Evansville, Indiana, with a maximum seating capacity of 11,000. It officially opened in November 2011 and is mainly used for basketball, ice hockey, and music concerts. It is home to the Evansville Thunderbolts minor league hockey team in the SPHL and the Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball team, representing the University of Evansville. The UE women's basketball team also played at Ford Center from the venue's opening, but moved its home games back to its campus starting with the 2017–18 season.
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The history of Evansville, Indiana spans hundreds of years, with thousands of years of human habitation. The area's geography and location on a bend in the Ohio River attracted people from the earliest times. The city was founded in 1812 and was named by its founder, Hugh McGary, after Col. Robert M. Evans. Because of its position on the river and surrounding natural resources, Evansville grew to become a commercial, industrial and financial hub for the tri-state area.
The Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles are the athletic teams that represent the University of Southern Indiana, located outside Evansville in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, in NCAA Division I intercollegiate sports. The Screaming Eagles compete as members of the Ohio Valley Conference. Southern Indiana had previously been a member of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference from 1978 to 2022, when the school announced it would reclassify to NCAA Division I.
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