Whatever your motivations, it takes a tremendous investment of time, money, and people to keep these old airplanes flying, something that is often overlooked in petty criticisms of availability, paint schemes, historical accuracy issues, and attitudes. It would be expected that Chuckie will get a Fighter Factory facelift at some point and that the airplane will be regularly flown.Įditorial comment: For all those who are dedicated to keeping these B-17s flying, a hearty and deserved thank you from all of us in the crowd. Also operated from the field is another Yagen heavy hitter, the B-25 Wild Cargo. It will presumably be based at the Military Aviation Museum facility at Virginia Beach on a, refreshingly, grass runway. It still is not flying, but should be within the next month or so. So, in a somewhat surprising sale, the airplane will be moving to a new home probably in early 2011. Nonetheless, when the airplane leaves for Virginia it will leave a void in the VFM hangar that just cannot ever be filled. Scraping up a $50,000 insurance premium every year has to be daunting but necessary. It isn't cheap or easy, and resources are limited. The airplane has been close to flying again for several years, with one setback after another. It has to be a bittersweet time for Chuckie and those guys at Ft. Kudos to them, particularly to Bill and Chuckie Hospers as the drivers of the effort, but also to the dozens of volunteers and donors who made it work. Not surprisingly given the cost and huge maintenance overhead of operating a B-17, the effort was often beset by funding and mechanical issues but, for the better part of three decades, Chuckie was either flying or "in work" to fly at the hand of these guys. It was a labor of love for Hospers and his family and a small group of dedicated volunteers, an effort that morphed into forming the Vintage Flying Museum based at Meacham Field, Fort Worth, Texas. William Hospers in 1978, from the remnants of the fire ant operation based at Dothan, Alabama. This B-17G was one of the early B-17 warbirds, having been purchased by the late Dr. Training Services is an company associated with Jerry Yagen, Fighter Factory, and the Military Aviation Museum. (That would be in Virginia, folks.) The FAA registered owner was changed to Training Services of Virginia Beach on October 29, 2010, making it officially official.
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