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The Yankee Air Museum, business offices are currently found at 2800 Tyler Road, just west of Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. They are unable to accept visitors for guided tours at this time. Fund raising efforts are currently underway to build a new hangar to store the flyable aircraft. Thunder Over Michigan for 2010 will feature a gathering of B-17 Flying Fortresses.
History
The Yankee Air Force Inc. was founded in 1981 to pursue these goals:
- To preserve a part of Michigan's extensive aviation history.
- Acquire one of the original USAAF hangars and restore it to its original condition.
- Obtain a B-24 Liberator built at the Ford Willow Run plant, site of the museum.
Fire and rebuilding
On the night of October 9, 2004, the Yankee Air Museum's hangar on the northeast side of Willow Run (KYIP) burned down. The B-17, B-25 and C-47 were saved through heroic efforts by museum volunteers. The Stinson was at another hangar. Everything else inside the hangar was destroyed, including the original prototype North American YOV-10A Bronco, Waco CG-4A Glider, a former Thunderbirds Republic F-105, Aero L-39, Link Trainer, artifacts, spare parts, tools, and the Museum's library.
There are plans in place to rebuild. The first building was dedicated on April 16, 2007, and the objective of the Michigan Aerospace Foundation, Inc. is to build a greatly expanded, state-of-the-art aviation museum and aerospace facility to replace the lost facility.
Collection
For the last four years the Yankee Air Museum's flyable aircraft have been hangared at the Township Airport at Grosse Ile, Michigan. The four aircraft are housed in the Airport's historic Hangar 1, a large hangar constructed in the 1930's as the primairy hangar of the former Naval Air Station Grosse Ile. The Museum's flyable aircraft include:
- 1944 Boeing B-17G-110VE Flying Fortress 44-85829 " Yankee Lady " - ex-PB-1G 77255
- 1943 North American B-25D Mitchell 43-3634 " Yankee Warrior " - veteran of 8 combat missions over Italy
- 1944 Douglas C-47 Skytrain " Yankee Doodle Dandy "
- 1943 V-77 Stinson Reliant " Yankee Friendship "
The Museum Airpark also contains a number of retired aircraft. These aircraft include:
- B-52D Stratofortress
- UH-1P Huey
- Douglas DC-6
- F-84F Thunderjet
- RF-84K Thunderflash
- F-101B Voodoo
- Lockheed T-33B
- RB-57A Canberra
- F-4C Phantom
- Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy
- PB4Y-2G, BuNo 59876 - (the US Navy single tail version of the B-24)
An AT-11 is being restored to flyable status at a hangar near the airpark.
Other large collections of flying historic aircraft
- Commemorative Air Force, in Midland, Texas.
- Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby, UK
- Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden near Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, England;
- Fantasy of Flight, in Polk City, Florida;
- Champlin Fighter Collection at the Seattle Museum of Flight.
- The Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas.
- The Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum in St Louis, Missouri
See also
- Belleville, Michigan
- Willow Run Airport
- Yankee Air Museum, -- Oscoda Division -- Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport (See external links hereafter)
References
- O'Leary, Michael, Thunder over Michigan, Air Classics, Nov 2003
External links
- Official Website Yankee Air Museum
- Crew Site for: B-17 "Yankee Lady" C-47 "Yankee Doodle", B-25 "Yankee Warrior", & V-77 Stinson
- Michigan Aerospace Foundation, Inc.
- Yankee Air Force Museum, Wurtsmith Division
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