Public museum lands antique aircraft
By Lynn ZerschlingCopyright 2008 Sioux City Journal | Posted: Tuesday, November 04, 2008
This Kari-Keen airplane, restored and donated by former Sioux Cityan Ralph Graham of Mendota Heights, Minn., will hang in the new Sioux City Public Museum.
SIOUX CITY -- A Coupe 90-A will soar in Sioux City once again -- not beneath blue skies, exactly, but inside the new Sioux City Public Museum.
The Sioux City-built Kari-Keen aircraft has returned to its hometown more than 75 years after it was built at the Kari-Keen Aircraft Corp. It is one of only three known to exist out of the 40 to 50 Kari-Keens that took to the skies in the early days of aviation.
"From our standpoint, this is one of the most significant donations we've every received," Steve Hansen, museum director, said. "It would sell for $85,000 to $100,000 on the open market, but for us it is priceless."
In the early 1930s, the plane sold for $3,365. The coupe 90-A was one of several models built at the plant on Plymouth Street. The company started manufacturing the Kari-Keen Coupe in 1929, discontinuing its aircraft building operation four years later.
The Graham family, who have been involved in aviation in Sioux City since 1929, donated the restored aircraft. Ralph Graham, now of Mendota Heights, Minn., bought the plane in the 1980s from Wayne Risk of Sioux City.
In 1955, Risk found the plane in pieces inside an icehouse in Mason City, Iowa. In a 1973 interview with the Journal, Risk said the plane had not been flown since 1942. However, Risk did not complete the restoration and sold the plane to Graham, who rebuilt the aircraft, painting it a vivid crimson with gold accents.
At the aircraft manufacturing plant, "They had a couple of different color schemes," Grace Linden, museum curator, noted. "Sometimes they used whatever paint was the cheapest."
"Ralph was the last man known to fly a Kari-Keen," in 2004, Hansen noted of the two-passenger, single-wing plane.
Hansen said he talked to Graham for a couple of years, encouraging him to donate the plane to the museum. He finally agreed. In September, the plane's unique cantilever-type, 30-foot-long wing was removed in preparation for its trip to Iowa.
"There were only four bolts holding the wing," Hansen noted. Because it is cloth-covered, "It took at least eight people to carry the wing because it is so fragile."
The wing was placed on top of mattresses on a flat-bed truck. The rest of the plane, including its wooden propeller, was rolled into place for the trip to Sioux City last month. The plane, its wing and the detachable gas tank are stored in a warehouse.
While the museum's new home undergoes construction next year in the former JC Penney's department store, the Kari-Keen will be reassembled and suspended from the ceiling by its fuselage. An architectural drawing of the interior of the museum shows a small plane hanging from the ceiling. Hansen admitted it's the Kari-Keen -- or a replica if he couldn't land the original.
He said the Kari-Keen will provide a link to Sioux City's rich aviation history that includes the arrival of aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1927, stories of the families who operated flying fields and the 6,000 airmen stationed at the former Sioux City Airbase during World War II.
Kari-Keen planes:
* Iowa Aviation Museum, Greenville, Iowa.
*Air Museum, Regina, Saskatchewan
* Sioux City Public Museum, in 2010.
The Sioux City-built Kari-Keen aircraft has returned to its hometown more than 75 years after it was built at the Kari-Keen Aircraft Corp. It is one of only three known to exist out of the 40 to 50 Kari-Keens that took to the skies in the early days of aviation.
"From our standpoint, this is one of the most significant donations we've every received," Steve Hansen, museum director, said. "It would sell for $85,000 to $100,000 on the open market, but for us it is priceless."
In the early 1930s, the plane sold for $3,365. The coupe 90-A was one of several models built at the plant on Plymouth Street. The company started manufacturing the Kari-Keen Coupe in 1929, discontinuing its aircraft building operation four years later.
The Graham family, who have been involved in aviation in Sioux City since 1929, donated the restored aircraft. Ralph Graham, now of Mendota Heights, Minn., bought the plane in the 1980s from Wayne Risk of Sioux City.
In 1955, Risk found the plane in pieces inside an icehouse in Mason City, Iowa. In a 1973 interview with the Journal, Risk said the plane had not been flown since 1942. However, Risk did not complete the restoration and sold the plane to Graham, who rebuilt the aircraft, painting it a vivid crimson with gold accents.
At the aircraft manufacturing plant, "They had a couple of different color schemes," Grace Linden, museum curator, noted. "Sometimes they used whatever paint was the cheapest."
"Ralph was the last man known to fly a Kari-Keen," in 2004, Hansen noted of the two-passenger, single-wing plane.
Hansen said he talked to Graham for a couple of years, encouraging him to donate the plane to the museum. He finally agreed. In September, the plane's unique cantilever-type, 30-foot-long wing was removed in preparation for its trip to Iowa.
"There were only four bolts holding the wing," Hansen noted. Because it is cloth-covered, "It took at least eight people to carry the wing because it is so fragile."
The wing was placed on top of mattresses on a flat-bed truck. The rest of the plane, including its wooden propeller, was rolled into place for the trip to Sioux City last month. The plane, its wing and the detachable gas tank are stored in a warehouse.
While the museum's new home undergoes construction next year in the former JC Penney's department store, the Kari-Keen will be reassembled and suspended from the ceiling by its fuselage. An architectural drawing of the interior of the museum shows a small plane hanging from the ceiling. Hansen admitted it's the Kari-Keen -- or a replica if he couldn't land the original.
He said the Kari-Keen will provide a link to Sioux City's rich aviation history that includes the arrival of aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1927, stories of the families who operated flying fields and the 6,000 airmen stationed at the former Sioux City Airbase during World War II.
Kari-Keen planes:
* Iowa Aviation Museum, Greenville, Iowa.
*Air Museum, Regina, Saskatchewan
* Sioux City Public Museum, in 2010.
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