EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) – Hoosier Spirit Two is one of the newest and most recognizable exhibits at the Evansville Wartime Museum, but soon it will be recognized by more than just people in the tri-state. That is thanks to the filming of an upcoming documentary airing on the Smithsonian Channel.
The Smithsonian’s film crew was on site to film ‘Hoosier Spirit Two’, detailing Evansville’s contribution to World War II, and highlight a local hero.
“We were surprised,” explains Richard Kuhn with the Evansville Wartime Museum. “We got a phone call from them and said, ‘We want to photograph your P47 and we want to have an interview with your 99 year old fighter pilot Allen Sanderson, who flew P47s during World War II.”
Sanderson is a founding member of the Evansville Wartime Museum and, according to Kuhn, is the perfect subject for this episode. Sanderson flew missions in Corsica during World War II in a P47, according to Kuhn.
The history of Evansville’s wartime contributions, such as manufacturing the P47 and LST 325, was likely a deciding factor for the film crew choosing the city and museum as their subject.
“Their interest in filming our P47 probably has to do with the fact that we built nearly 6,700 P47s at the Republic factory, which most of us know as the Whirpool plant,” explains Kuhn.
Kuhn hopes the broadcast will help attract visitors to the museum. The episode is expected to air sometime in 2022 as a part of Smithsonian’s ‘Air Warriors’ series.
