Warbird Information Exchange

Hi everyone,

being from Vancouver, BC I grew up only know a little bit about the CAF and simply understanding that it was a really big warbird organization based out of Texas.

I never really put much thought to what it was all about, until just the other day I realized I didn't know anything about it.

I thought, "How did the CAF get so big?" and "How were they able to afford to buy such an amazing collection of airplanes and afford to fly them?"

It's quite facinating really, especially when I look at my little air museum and how we're flying a few of our planes, but on the whole, we're doing just enough to keep things stable.

I went onto the CAF website for the first time, ever, and read a little bit about the history of the CAF.

And I have these question.

How did the CAF manage to purchase so many airplanes. The website mentions several "major" purchase, but how frequently did acquisitions occur? The website made it sound like a very rapid process.

Even though compared to todays prices, the airplanes were cheap, back then they were not. Who were the people that started the CAF? How rich were they? And was it the actual formation of the CAF that really got the ball rolling to get the money to purchase the airplanes?

The website mentioned that the CAF was the first organization to consider the importance of saving WWII airplanes. Was it the fact that the CAF was "First" that so many people thought it was a great idea and began supporting their cause? And is this how it grew into the amazing organization it is now?

I'm really sorry for the scrambled questions and lack of organization in this post, but I'm just interested to learn about the beginnings of the CAF, the growing phase, and how the CAF is able to continue being a major force in warbird preservation.

I look forward to hearing what you all have to say and really, really hope that my question doesn't spawn any arguments. For the sake of thread stability, let's ignore the part about the organization's name change.

Thanks,

David McIntosh

CAF was started by a man named Lloyd Nolen in 1957 he bought a P40. Soon sold it to buy a P51. He had founded Mercedes Dusting Service and did well. Some of his dusting friends and others became interested and they put forth a set of goals starting with fighters working into bombers after some time. No one ever made any real monetary gain through this organization.

Most of the airplanes in the early days were donated by individual colonels with the agreement that they would fly with the CAF and others were scrounged up by others in the organization. Planes came from all over the world (Nicaragua, GB, Spain etc. etc.) when you could purchase a warbird for a song and a dance compared to todays prices.

There is my little chunk Im sure folks will add some more.

Thank you Cripes!

Well, my little end is that several purchases were made at or soon after auctions where the aircraft were purchased for pennies on the dollar. Back in those days, there wasn't the same "demilitarization" requirements that many aircraft have today and thus they were able to buy the aircraft from the government or a scrap dealer for, many times, less than a thousand dollars (i.e. less than most used cars in those days). As such, they were able to acquire not only planes, but engines and spare parts for modest prices. Because of the way aircraft scrapping works compared to car scrapping, when an airplane is sold for scrap, it isn't impossible to recertify the aircraft for flight whereas once a car is "totalled" or "sold for scrap", you can't get a title to drive it on the road as a registered car anymore.

My former employer got several aircraft as USAF surplus the same way and as a result has been able to maintain flying piston Convairs as a profitable business even today because of the fact he was able to acquire not only the airplane, but a LOT of spare parts (enough to run them for 30 or 40 years) for less than the plane would have cost on the private market. Now he incurred cost converting the airplane and certifying it for civilian use, but the point was the initial cost made it possible to not only buy the plane but fly it for a long time, this is much what happened with many of the CAF's airplanes that were purchased (vice donated). If the CAF didn't have the spares that it does for many of its planes, it's entirely possible that most of the fleet wouldn't still be flying.

While alot of opinions are expressed here about what the CAF does sometimes, no one can say that they were not among the first if not the first to start the warbird movement.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

The majority of CAF planes were acquired after the "early" days. The main reason that there is so many is the cadre of dedicated people who beleive in our cause. Donations, purchase with money from T-shirts, caps, cold drinks, what have you all lead to the monies required. Bottom line is that take the planes away and you still have a group of dedicated people who can make most anything happen. Yeah we have had our differances and growing pains, but were still here. Why don't you join us?

Worth mentioning two features which mean that the CAF works well in the USA but not elsewhere is the concept and management of a 'Chapter' system, and the US tax breaks for museum donations etc. Chapters don't have the same status outside the US, and most other countries don't have the structure to support the US' tax break system. For instance the UK has the government funded and RAF run Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - who celebrated their half-century last year ( http://www.bbmf.co.uk/history.html ). We still await the USAF Memorial Flight, which highlights the differences (not better or worse, just different) between the US and elsewhere...

The irony of the egalitarian nature of everyone being Colonels (even starts with the same letter as 'Comrade') for similar reasons is rich, btw.

Well worth trying to get ahold of 'Colonel Colpepper's Flying Circus' for an independent insight into the CAF in its heyday. Don't ask me where you get one though!

The CAF are, unarguably, one of the most important groups in the warbird movement. As to the concept of flying, preserved warbirds in private hands, they were well up in the list for the early days.

_________________
James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

We don’t take the title/rank seriously, in fact the “Col.” was dropped from the flight suit name tags around 25 years ago, if not longer.

I’ve even found that being in a flight suit with “air force” patches on it caused confusion I would’ve liked to avoid. Check out some of the Airshow Horror Stories threads we’ve had here.

_________________

Commemorative Air Force
Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

What are you waiting for? Join us!

Best way to contact me- email my last name @gmail.com