Warbird Information Exchange

Who / What organizations in the midwest U.S. operate flyable warbirds? Are there many groups?

These are 2 organizations that come to mind. Warbird Heriatge Foundation http://www.warbirdheritagefoundation.org The Commemorative Air Force has wings in the midwest. http://www.commemorativeairforce.org Also check out http://www.warbirdalley.com/museum.htm for potential other sites of interest.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

There's Chuck Greenhill in Kenosha, Wi.

The Fagen Fighter Museum in Granite Falls, Mn.
http://www.fagenfighterswwiimuseum.org/

There's always the Tri-State Warbird Museum outside Cincinnati, Ohio. (Well, technically 3 of the 'birds are still in resto/repair, but they will be airworthy eventually.) The museum has the second largest collection of airworthy aircraft east of the Mississippi. (I may have a bit of a bias in recommending this one. )

I'm curious why you ask, are you looking for some places to visit?

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

Really? By what criteria?

Just to name a couple that immediately come to mind that are larger......

American Airpower Museum at Republic Field
Warbird Heritage Foundation
Fantasty of Flight
Jerry Yagen's Collection
Tom Duffy's Collection in NJ

Not to take anything away from the great guys at Tri-State at all.....

I was worried that might be the case, here's the problem: the source for the fact that I was quoting is the video we show to visitors. The problem is not that I don't trust the video, it's that the video is a at least a couple years old. The museum opened around '05-'06 so it could be from as early as then. I figured the information might be out of date, but I wasn't sure. Of course, if it still wasn't the second largest even when the video was made, then I have no idea why it might be wrong.

Oh, and one more thing, the guy quoting the fact in the film just happens to also be the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. Not that it adds any more veracity to the claim, just an interesting note.

EDIT: Just talked to one of the guys at the museum this weekend, he said that the video is no more than 3 years old. On the other end of the time frame, we've been showing it since at least this July 2012, as they were already using it when I started volunteering there at that time.
EDIT 2 (20/11/13): Okay, so it took long enough, but I finally got around to posting the information. The label on the front of the disc the video is on states a date of 03-14-2010.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

A couple collections that either AREN'T around or ARE NOT flying anymore:

Kalamazoo Air Zoo (grounded everything but the Trimotor)
Indiana Aviation Museum
Northern Indiana Aviation Museum
Museum of Wings and Things
Prairie Aviation Museum
EAA Museum (grounded everything but the B-17 and Trimotor)
Historical Aircraft Squadron
Will Ward (not doing airshows anymore from what I understand)
CAF Great Lakes Wing
Tom Wood's Collection (very rarely seen)
Mike Keenum
CAF Wright Stuff Squadron

Some that still exist and are still flying:

Yankee Air Museum
American Military Heritage Foundation
Mike George's collection (not sure how much he flies anymore other than OSH and occasionally Willow Run)
Rudy Frasca (Don't fly much from what I understand)
Liberty Aviation Museum
Champagne Air Museum
Jordan Brown's collection
The Al/Dan/Mike Schiffer family and David Folk
World Heritage Air Museum
Scream N'Rebels
Tri-State Warbird Museum
Chuck Greenhill collection

Some that are restoring aircraft to fly:

Desert Rat Group
EAA Trimotor in Sandusky, OH
Hove Aire Inc Trimotors
Midwest Aero
Legend of Aces

Some airshows that had good warbird turnouts that no longer are around:

Muskegon Air Fair
Warbirds Over Kalamazoo
Skyfest Michiana
Elkhart Airshow
Grosse Ile Air Extravaganza
Wings of Victory (Lancaster, OH)
Wings Over Akron/MAPS Aero Expo
Terre Haute Air Fair

This is by no means a complete list, but should give you a rough idea of what there is/was.

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Matt

Thanks for remembering me

Collection can be seen at aircombatmuseum.com

True I fly every year to Oshkosh. 2013 will be number 40 in a row. Lately I have to take the CJ to Sun N Fun since my kids are in high school and they have to miss school to attend, so we have to get there fast and return in just a couple of days. But I do fly a lot, just don't do shows anymore and with a young family I tend to fly the CJ more then the 1 or 2 place airplanes. Each airplane gets about 5 to 6 hours a year at a minimum but the T-34 and CJ get exercised a lot more. I think there is a natural progression where they are flown a lot at first and then less and less as time goes on. Also I do own 12 and all but 2 fly, so none will be flown a lot, unless there is a specific need to have it pulled out. Also we tend to exercise a specific airplane each year more then the rest. This winter we are working on the AT-11 to be ready for the summer flying season.

There's also Wes Stricker's collection in Missouri.

August

My personal favorites, probably due to location proximity:

CAF Minnesota Wing (B-25J, P-51C, BT-13, Harvard, L-5 Sentinel, PT-22, and Navion under restoration to airworthy) located in South St. Paul, MN
Fagen Fighters WWII Museum (2x P-51D, P-40E, P-38L, PT-19, PT-22, PT-26, L-4, with a P-40K, Helldiver, B-25J, and AT-6 under restoration to airworthy) located in Granite Falls, MN
C&P Aviation (B-25J (used to be two), P-51D, Grumman Albatross, L-13, T-6, and a P-51H and F-82 under restoration to airoworthy) located in Blaine, MN

Does anyone have any current updates on Pat Harker's Twin Mustang and the P-51 H he bought a while back? I visited his facility clear back in September 2005 very impressive super clean. From the little tid bits of information I have seen I don't see the Twin Mustang being ready for flight in 2013. But that airplane has to be pretty far along by now I would think.
John Terrell I have seen your post on WIX you seem to know what your talking about do you have any updates or information on either of Pat's aircraft the Twin Mustang and P-51H? Pat is in a unique position that he now has the trio, and could go for the quad the Razor Back Mustang which he doesn't have the D Model and H Model and Twin Mustang which he does have.