CLINTON, Ill. (WCIA) — People in central Illinois have a chance to explore the stories and history of DeWitt County at the Prairie Flyers exhibition.
Most of the exhibits are about local pilots that grew up in the county. Edith Brady-Lunny, a volunteer with the DeWitt County Museum, said it’s important to make sure people know the history of how we got to where we are today.
“I think my favorite piece is Donna Anderson, and she was someone who learned to fly at just 14 years old,” Brady-Lunny said of her favorite exhibit.
Anderson was considered one of DeWitt County’s first female pilot with the dream of eventually becoming a commercial pilot.
“She had her license by 18 and worked at Decatur Airport.”
But the reason Anderson is Brady-Lunny’s favorite is because of the odds she defied during a time when women did not have as many opportunities. When Anderson turned 18, she applied for a position with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), but she was cut short the opportunity because of politics.
“She had her letter in hand to go to school in Sweetwater, Texas to be a military pilot,” Brady-Lunny said. “Unfortunately there were male pilots at the time who were jealous of women getting into aviation, especially in the military, and so they convinced Congress to shut down the school. So Donna never got to be a military pilot and that meant she never got to be a commercial pilot.”
Anderson’s stories was just one of many historic stories put on display. Throughout the month, Prairie Flyers held special events like drone racing, with the Illinois Multirotor Club holding those.
“You qualify all day and by the end of the day, we’ll do some bracket racing and win some money I hope,” said chapter president Chris Meier.
Meier said the races can get exciting and bring everyone to the edge of their seats.
“As they go along, the brackets are going to get closer together and the people are going to race closer together and you have more collisions and, yeah, it gets pretty intense,” he said.
While the drones were racing, people got a chance to look at what the racers see from their drones. Meier said the racing will go for a majority of the day and they can be found next to the DeWitt County History Museum.
The festivities will last for one more week.