It’s the worst kept secret on the planet that I’m a little bit ga-ga about airplanes, especially “warbirds”, as old military planes are known. Airshows, flying demonstration, air museums – I love em!
When visiting Virginia three weeks ago for my niece’s graduation, The Long-Suffering Sister-In-Law was wonderful enough to take Ronnie and I out to an aviation museum she had found locally. She thought that I might find it a neat place. I found it to be a fantastic place. The Military Aviation Museum has five hangers full of restored planes from WWI and WWII, and almost all of them are in airworthy condition!
The planes were amazing, the docents were all knowledgeable and friendly, and the work they’re doing there to continue to find & restore planes was just a joy to see.
Here are pictures I took showing maybe a third of the planes we saw:
WWII Navy Hanger
WWII Army & British hanger, with B-25J
Junkers JU-52 German transport
WWI German Fokker Dr.I replica triplane
WWII German Focke Wulf 190 “Dora” fighter
NAF N3N “Canary” seaplane
AD-4 “Skyraider”
TMB-3E “Avenger”
N2S-3 Stearman trainer
PBY-5A “Catalina” bomber & sea plane (you can see it in full at the back of the very first picture above)
WMF-5 Waco Classic (they’ve started making these again with modern avionics and so on, I hear they’re extremely tasty & shiny, should anyone be wondering what to get me for my next birthday…)
P-51D “Mustang”, probably my favorite plane in the universe. (What I said above about the Waco? Well, they’re not making any more of these at all, but I’ll still take one if you don’t have a Waco to give me!)
Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXe
Their B-17 “Flying Fortress” is undergoing restoration.
FG-1D “Corsair” – think “Black Sheep Squadron”
There were so many other planes where I either didn’t get a good picture or where the plane was off to the side in the repair hanger where we could see it from a distance but not get up close – they have a British de Havilland Mosquito bomber that they’re restoring!!
We got to spend a few hours here – I could go back again and again and spend days there.
They have grass airstrip out behind the hangers where they have airshows – I would get my pilot’s license current again just for the chance to fly into there.
They have airshows at their airstrip and museum and they fly their aircraft to other airshows – I would take a job on the East Coast just to go to airshows and see these planes fly.
Fast forward to this week…
I’m a proud member of AOPA, the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association. One of my member benefits is a daily e-mail of news about aviation. On Thursday, the lead story was this, from the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot: “Virginia Beach Museum Owner Selling Plane Collection”.
The planes are being sold and the museum is being shut down. The man who built the collection and owned it all, Gerald Yagen, financed his passion for warbirds with his ownership of a series of trade schools, which are now being acquired by another company. Two of the planes have already been sold (the B-17 and the Focke Wulf 190) while other groups and individuals are looking at all of the other planes.
This is terrible, sad news. I’m glad that I got a chance to see the museum and all of the planes together, but it’s really a tragedy that others won’t be able to see them that way and we won’t be able to go back again the next time we’re in Virginia.
Enjoy the pictures and if you’re in the Mid-Atlantic states, maybe plan a trip quickly to Virginia Beach to see the museum while it’s still open. If you miss that opportunity, watch for the individual planes at an airshow or in another museum near you.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 
Hey Paul,
Isn’t it fun making the family go to aviation museums when you’re on holiday…? Okay – even more fun to go by yourself while they visit the local ladies’ weaving guild or whatever. Anyhoo, you’re definitely one of the lucky ones to see this amazing collection before it gets scattered to the four points of the compass. Your pics may be as close as I ever get. Thanks.
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Quiete unfortunate to see so many european aircrafts ( this fw for instance) belonging to the History stored in usa , first because they are usualy restored but the american way, making them like brand new toys , without taste and without the idea of just leaving them into their genuine paint even if they are not “flashy enough” – as they won’t fly anymore. It is anoying to see american people pretending to buy History, why don’t they study it, this may save them from many many wars.
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For what it’s worth, many aircraft museums in the US, including this one, restore the planes to flying condition. I believe that all of the planes here (except for the handful that are currently undergoing restoration) are airworthy and flown regularly.
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