The Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum will be hosting an open house Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday May 24th and Sunday May 25th.

There will be free admission to the museum for all military, active or retired. Also, ALL Florida residents will be admitted free. ID is required.

In addition to our collection of vintage aircraft, we will be featuring plastic modelers and radio controlled modelers, and a visit from Jungle Jim with his Florida wildlife. If you have a classic car that you would like to show on Saturday and/or Sunday, please contact the museum.

The hours of the open house will be 9AM-5PM, Saturday and Sunday. Food and refreshments will be available.

The museum is located at 6600 Tico Road at the Space Coast Regional Airport. Our phone number is 321-268-1941.

Please consider bringing a canned good for donation to a local charity.

 

Selby Burch, a native Floridian, who previously owned the P-51 “Dixie Boy”, passed away on 17 April 2014.

Selby owned 4 different Mustangs over the years.

Here are a couple of great articles about him:

Stallion 51: Whistling Dixie

West Orange Times: Local Story

The airshow at the New Syrmna Beach had a nice turnout of warbirds. Photo credit to Bill Scheuerman.

Back in late February, American Aero Services held one of its monthly Winter Open Houses to allow aviation fans to visit the going’s on at their shop. The restoration and maintenance rooms were open for all to walk about to include the tarmac which had the two biggest draws for the crowd. This is where the Collings Foundation’s B-17 and B-24 were sitting.

The day was dreary but the crowd was large, probably the most I have seen at one of the open houses. Visitors were asked to bring a donation for the local animal shelter and there was a lot of dog food being dropped off. The grills were cooking hamburgers and veterans telling stories.

It seemed to be a good time had by all.

American Aero Services performs the winter maintenance on the Colling’s fleet of airplanes before they do a short tour around Florida and they come back to New Smyrna for one last maintenance stop before heading across America.

Maintenance was being done on the B-17 “Nine O’ Nine”, the B-24 “Witchcraft” and P-51C “Betty Jane”.  Restorations being done includes the Colling’s P-51D, F6F Hellcat and Fw190, as well as Stinson L-1 and a F-86 Sabre.

Other aircraft at the shop included the Collings F4U-5NL Corsair, a TBM and T-26 Trojan along with a lot of boxes and frames with parts.

If you are in town during one of the winter months, watch for the open hangar day announcements.