AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2019 - 69

THE CURTISS FLEDGLING (left) was a two-seat trainer commissioned by the U.S. Navy and powered

by a Wright Whirlwind engine. A vintage style sign (above) greets visitors to Eagles Mere. The
aviation museum's collection includes 31 rare engines, such as this Wright R-1820-80 (bottom left).

Turner's airplane-and 30 others
with fascinating backstories-are on display at Eagles Mere Aviation Museum in
Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. The collection
includes a 1917 JN-4C Curtiss Jenny that
flew in Howard Hughes' epic film Hell's
Angels; a 1929 Curtiss Fledgling-the only
one flying; and a 1928 Travel Air 3000,
one of two in existence-and completely
original. Then there are three climate-controlled rooms that house engines and a vast
assortment of parts to ensure the airplanes
continue to fly. On summer weekends, local
pilots fly the airworthy pieces of history
off a grass runway for the entertainment
of anyone who comes by.
The pre- and post-World War I aircraft
were acquired by George Jenkins, a private
equity advisor who said he fell in love with
Eagles Mere when he started spending summers here in 1988 (see "A Summer Retreat,"
this page). Jenkins built the museum, which
encompasses about 40,000 square feet of
hangar space, as well as a runway (Merritt
Field, 4PN7) where visitors can see these
unique airplanes fly on weekends from May
through October. Jenkins convinced his
business partner, Mark Stitzer, to build a
car museum on the property. The two-story
Eagles Mere Auto Museum is home to more
than 75 cars from the 1950s and 1960s, and

A summer retreat

Eagles Mere has a rich history
The tiny hamlet of Eagles Mere
in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania-population 120-once was
known as a summer vacation
destination for Philadelphians.
Five large resort hotels served
the area from the 1880s to the
1940s, offering amusements
such as tennis, swimming, and
boating on Eagles Mere Lake,
as well as an ice toboggan slide
that you can still ride on when
the weather gets cold and snow
covers the ground. The resorts
are gone, but the town's reputation as a weekend getaway
remains.
Eagles Mere still draws as
many as 2,000 visitors each
weekend when the weather
turns warm; there's plenty to do
outdoors, including many of the
same amusements people
enjoyed back in the resorts'
heyday.
-JWT

Stitzer rotates the selection regularly from
his collection of 320 vehicles (see "Hot Rod
Heaven," p 70).
What is it about the post-World War I
era that intrigues Jenkins? "There was a
massive progress in World War I that led to
a functional awareness of what you could
do with an airplane," he said. "The world
was full of visionaries. The pilots came
back from the war; they became barnstormers, and entrepreneurs were trying
to sell the public on airplanes."
IT STARTED WITH A STEARMAN

Jenkins became intrigued with antique
aircraft after he learned to fly a Stearman.
He'd been gifted a copy of Alan Lopez's
book, Biplane Odyssey, a chronicle of the
author's quest to land at every U.S. state
and Canadian province.
"I thought, I have to have a Stearman,"
Jenkins said. He didn't have a tailwheel endorsement at the time. He'd
heard Van Sant Airport in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, was the place to go for tailwheel training. He discovered Lopez had
an airplane based at Van Sant, and met
the author. "I got introduced to guys playing with old airplanes, and that was the
death knell-you can't stop with just one,"
Jenkins said.
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2019

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