SEWARD, Neb. — A new museum exhibit highlights the role of paratroopers in the National Guard.
The Nebraska National Guard Museum formally unveiled its "Airborne!" exhibit Tuesday to celebrate National Airborne Day, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
The exhibit includes a 30-by-10-foot replica of one paratrooper already diving, another waiting to jump and a foam model of a C-130 Hercules.
"The museum wanted a display for parachuters, and they didn't just want to hang a guy from the ceiling," said Dave Jenkins, an Omaha artist and sculptor, who helped create the exhibit. "They wanted to have something that was realistic — something that was exciting and different."
Jenkins toured a C-130 at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in St. Joseph, Missouri, and took hundreds of photos in order to replicate the plane.
He worked with a commercial insulation company in Mead to produce seven foam blocks that would become the model plane. The finishing process included coating the foam with a hardener as well as painting and sanding it.
Jenkins also covered the foam C-130 with photos of the real plane and replicated the texture of the plane's thousands of rivets with 3,000 deck screw covers.
Museum historian Jerry Meyer said the model aircraft highly resembles a plane, but weighs a lot less.
"I've jumped out of a C-130 before, so I know what I'm looking at," Meyer said. "It looks really real."
It cost about $20,000 to create the exhibit.
The museum opened in a former armory last year. The building was most recently used to pack parachutes for the Nebraska National Guard.
The Guard plans to spend the next 10 years filling the museum with interactive displays, such as a virtual drill sergeant and a 3-D replica of a French hedgerow.
