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I have a bunch of disjointed and loosely connected thoughts to share on this, including some of my own perceptions which may or may not even be accurate for the aviation community at large.
Even though I grew up spending a lot of time at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, the idea of owning, flying or even working on warbirds never felt accessible to me. Warbirds were "rich boy's toys" and, right or wrong, it always felt like there was a clear difference between the people who were involved in warbirds and me. The idea of even being involved in aviation in any capacity felt like a long shot for someone like me. Looking back, those feelings were probably fueled by a combination of ignorance and the economic realities of my home situation. I could have used a mentor who was involved in aviation and could have provided guidance on how to get started. When I attended college I considered an aviation career, but even with the scholarships I had, the amount of debt I would have had to take on to cover flight costs was well beyond what I considered reasonable (and after talking with military recruiters, that was clearly not a good choice for me).
When I graduated from college, I moved across the country and started my career. During this time, I became involved with a small local museum. The collection didn't contain any warbirds, but it was rewarding to be a part of and I was starting to learning skills that could translate to a warbird museum. When I moved back to the Midwest, I wanted to continue volunteering somewhere if I could find a situation that was within a reasonable commute. I contacted a local organization and made arrangements to meet with them and start. When I showed up to work, not only was nobody there, but repeated attempts to make further contact with the organization went unanswered. To say that this was discouraging would be an understatement. I have volunteered working at events for another organization.
About six years ago, I joined EAA. Aviation has never felt more accessible and being an EAA member breaks down a lot of the barriers I have perceived over the years. As I've cleared away debt from school, I've worked on formulating a plan to pursue a light sport license. It appears to be the best avenue that balances what I can afford with the type of flying I'm interested in. Unless I sell my work soul to the corporate world (fat chance of that), I'm unlikely to ever be able to afford to own, rent, fuel, etc. a high-performance aircraft - and I'm totally ok with that. EAA has given me the tools to find something that should be sustainable for me and I'm well on my way to achieving that goal. I wish I would have gotten involved and learned about opportunities offered by EAA at a younger age. My goal is that one day I can own and fly a LS-qualified tailwheel warbird and hopefully live somewhere I can volunteer with a warbird organization in some way, whether that's working in a gift shop, turning a wrench, or whatever.
I can look back at all of this and think of a bunch of things I could, or maybe should have done differently. This is just to illustrate one person's situation and how I've perceived things at various points in time.
Making warbirds accessible is something I feel strongly that museums and organizations should be focused on. Find the young people who show an interest or aptitude for working, flying, learning the history, etc. Mentor them, encourage them and give them the opportunity to perform meaningful work. Programs such as Warbirds of Glory's Kittyhawk Academy are a gold standard for how to do this. The students who work on the B-25 learn tangible skills and their work directly results in a tangible impact on the restoration. They can go over to the aircraft, point at something and say "I did that." Being able to do that means something and I don't think it's possible to overstate how important a program like that is. There are other organizations and partnerships that are doing equally great things, such as the Air Zoo partnership with the West Michigan Aviation Academy.
EAA captures a lot of young people interested in aviation through its many programs. I can foresee these programs having a positive impact on warbirds as these young people build their knowledge and ability to work on aircraft systems. Warbird museums and organizations just have to find a way to capture these people and get them involved in an engaging way. If the local EAA chapter is letting them buck rivets, learn fabric, etc. and the warbird museum is having them fetch coffee or sweep, it isn't going to be difficult for those people to decide where they spend their time. Yes, everyone has to put in their time on the less pleasant tasks - that's part of any venture and there is no denying that - but there has to be opportunity to learn and do something meaningful along with that. Empowering people with responsibility has been a feature of every successful venture I have ever been a part of and I think it would behoove some organizations to consider how meaningful doing so can be.
Like it or not, there is a growing disparity in wealth in this country. You can all find your own reasons and beliefs for why that is, but the existence of that disparity is a fact. It is also a fact that young people are graduating with an unprecedented amount of debt. Again, you can all have your opinions on why that is, but it is undeniable that debt plays a major role in spending habits. I worry about how this will affect aviation and warbirds.
There has nearly always been individuals with large collections of warbirds. Who those individuals are have changed over the years, from Doug Champlin to people like Rod Lewis, the Friedkin family or the late Paul Allen. I think the historical and recent evidence suggests that collections like this will persist, even if individual collections do get broken up from time to time. It also seems apparent that there is sufficient interest in L-birds, Yaks/CJs and NATA types. I do wonder about the viability of the T-6 owner progressing to fighter ownership though. While it does appear true that many warbird pilots continue to become qualified in fighters, I personally don't see as many individuals moving from trainer ownership to owning a fighter. This might be a local anomaly, but my personal observation is that the population of individual owners with a stable of aircraft consisting of, say, a P-51, T-6 and Stearman is shrinking. There still seems to be plenty of people at the T-6 or Stearman level who have the ratings to fly the P-51, but they're flying the P-51 for a museum or organization rather than owning one themselves. It's great to see those people fulfilling their goals of getting that type rating and flying a fighter, but I do wonder whether there is a shrinking number of people who can afford to make that jump from owning a T-6 to owning a P-51. I could see that shrinking number having an effect on the number of airworthy aircraft.
Just some disjointed thoughts. As always, feel free to criticize.
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Matt
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