In short, our focus is two fold where our expertise learns from our historical past through our artifacts, airplanes by teaching new generations as well as looking to the aerospace future of NY.
Our History
The Wings of Eagles Discovery Center traces its heritage to the National Warplane Museum (NWM), founded in Geneseo, NY in 1984 by a passionate group of members who celebrated the lore of WWII aircraft. NWM was a flying museum, by the New York State Department of Education. The flag ship artifact was a B-17 “Fuddy Duddy” that toured throughout the flying season, offering a unique flight experience for paying customers.
In addition to offering unique flight experiences, the National Warplane Museum also staged the annual Wings of Eagles Airshow, a major event on the airshow circuit featuring a host of flying historic warbirds.
In the mid 90’s, the Board of Trustees decided to move the Museum to a larger venue and posted a Request for Proposals. Chemung County was the preferred new site and the Museum moved to the Elmira Corning Regional Airport. The new location provided much higher visibility, but also significant challenges. As Federal Aviation Regulations governing airshows and warbird rides tightened, the founding business model became outdated and a re-branding of the organization was needed.
While charting a viable future, the museum changed its name to The Wings of Eagles Discovery Center and while continuing to honor the past, began focusing on preparing a new cohort of aerospace capability among youth in our community. Our futures theme shifted to NASA and space exploration, culminating with the establishment of the Mars Base Eagle display, which captures essential elements of life in a human colony on Mars.
Built around the aerospace challenges illustrated by our displays is an extensive education outreach program, focused on project based education to promote STEM based critical thinking skills to meet the increasing demands of our technology based economy.
Our Present Board Members
Wings of Eagles Discovery Center prides itself for a well-established and actively working board that works hard to help keep our mission going forward. We go forward toward the future with each and every board meeting, function, and idea for our visitors and area youth. Our STEM class focus is Aerospace training to help with the growing skilled worker deficit in our state.
| TRUSTEE NAME | POSITION | AFFILIATION |
| Mike Hall | Chairman | Retired USAF |
| Joe Panzarella | Vice Chair | The Hillard Corporation |
| Todd Egan | Secretary | Elmira College Faculty |
| Jody Scott | Treasurer | Branch Manager for Chemung Canal Trust Company |
| Bill Cantando | Member | The Hilliard Corporation |
| David Genitz | Member | Owner Total Recall Message Center |
| Cynthia Haigh | Member | Retired School Superintendent |
| Maureen Nicolo | Member | Retired ESD Middle School teacher |
| Frank LaViola | Member | Retired Owner, Cameron MFG |
| Karen MacCartney | Member | Tioga School District Teacher |
| Tracy Yaffee | Member | Space Defense Contractor |
| Michelle Beiling | Member | Marketing Manager for Chemung County Chamber |
| Allen Fusco | Trustees Emeritus | Retired Hotel Owner |
| Don Keddell | Trustees Emeritus | GST BOCES Board of Directors |
| Paul Flagg | Trustees Emeritus | Retired Aerospace Executive |
| Robert Pfuntner | Trustees Emeritus | Owner, Pembrook Pines Media Corp. |
| Van Harp | Trustees Emeritus | Retired FBI Agent |
| William Brown DO | Trustees Emeritus | Retired General Surgeon |
“A good Board Of Directors team is one where ideas are flowing fluidly - and where each idea is met with an initial welcome, an intellectual challenge, an expression of gratitude, a rigorous scrutiny and a readiness for action.” ― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr
“A strategic board has a view of looking ahead, an insight to look deeper, and competency to look beyond.” ― Pearl Zhu
Current Staff
Nicole Burt – Interim Executive Director & Director of Education
Karen Curtis – Business Manager
Beth Clark – Director of Development
Dave Harkness – Facility Manager