Warbird

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Article

| May 21, 2025

Kentucky tornado wreaked havoc at vintage aircraft fly-in

A tornado that struck southern Kentucky May 16 destroyed buildings, tossed vehicles through the air, and led to the deaths of at least 19 people according to official reports. The storm, which the National Weather Service categorized as an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, also touched down on the London/Corbin/Magee Airport, damaging businesses and wrecking several aircraft.

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Pilot Magazine

| May 1, 2025

'Project of passion'

After a flight in the Boeing B–17 Flying Fortress Liberty Belle in 2005, businessman and private pilot Jerry Shiffer purchased the remains of four B–17s with a vision to bring youths together near Dayton, Ohio, to restore the heavy bomber to airworthiness.

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Article

| January 30, 2025

Douglas R4D set to celebrate anniversary of Allied victory

The Commemorative Air Force is preparing a 1944 Douglas R4D-6S named Ready 4 Duty for a 12-week, 12,000-mile transatlantic trip to mark the eightieth anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II. The flight, dubbed the Navy to Victory Tour, will honor the success and sacrifices of American and Allied sailors.

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Image Gallery

| December 23, 2024

Crossing the Atlantic with the D-Day Squadron

When you’re 300 miles off the southern coast of Greenland, trucking along at 130 knots 10,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean in an 81-year-old airplane, there is little use in looking back.

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Pilot Magazine

| November 1, 2024

Magnificent obsession

James O’Hara had been fascinated by the P–38 Lightning since childhood. At age 14, during World War II, he carved a lifelike model of the twin-engine Lockheed fighter from balsa wood. Later in life, when O’Hara became an aerospace engineer and professor at Tulane University, he collected P–38 paintings and artifacts. And in 1994, after becoming a private pilot in his early 60s, he started building a two-thirds scale P–38 that he intended to someday fly with wife Mitzi.

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Flight Training Magazine

| November 1, 2024

North American T-6 Texan

It’s big, brash, imposing, and perhaps the most successful advanced trainer in military aviation history.

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Pilot Magazine

| September 1, 2024

Homecoming

After World War II ended, the primary trainers of the era were worn out. The U.S. Navy put word out that it wanted a new primary trainer, and the Fairchild Aircraft Co. in Hagerstown, Maryland, responded with a mock-up of the Model 92 XNQ-1 aircraft.

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Article

| February 14, 2024

Mission accomplished

Two World War II-era aircraft are several steps closer to being completely restored.

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Article

| July 11, 2023

Fly a fighter, courtesy of First Flight Society

As part of a fundraiser, the First Flight Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to telling the story of the Wright brothers through community events and education, will award one lucky winner a World War II experience: flying in two iconic products of North American Aviation, a TF–51 Mustang and a T–6 Texan.

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Article

| May 25, 2023

Flying Fortresses grounded pending wing spar inspection

An FAA airworthiness directive grounded the few remaining Boeing model B–17E, B–17F, and B–17G airplanes to address wing spar issues found during a preflight inspection of a B–17 in 2021. At least one operator vowed to have its World War II bomber back in the air soon.

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Pilot Magazine

| May 24, 2023

Pursuit of perfection

By Collin Callahan

Six black L–39s trailing red, white, and blue smoke streak across the aerobatic box in front of thousands of airshow fans.

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Article

| March 15, 2023

'A lot of attention to detail'

Corporate donors including Delta Air Lines recently lent a helping hand to Commemorative Air Force Airbase Georgia to restore the group’s Goodyear FG-1D Corsair’s paint job to “like-new” condition.

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Article

| December 20, 2022

Commemorative Air Force seeks help with P–47 restoration

Airbase Georgia, a branch of the Commemorative Air Force at Atlanta Regional Airport Falcon Field is working to raise $15,000 through its "12 Planes of Christmas" campaign to help restore its newly acquired Republic P–47 Thunderbolt.

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Article

| November 30, 2022

Fly with the First Flight Society

As part of a fundraiser for the First Flight Society—a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Wright brothers and promoting aviation education—one lucky winner will get to go for a flight in a World War II North American P–51 Mustang.

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Article

| November 12, 2022

Six dead in Wings Over Dallas airshow midair

All six people aboard a Bell P–63F Kingcobra and the Texas Raiders Boeing B–17G Flying Fortress died when the two aircraft collided midair November 12 during the 2022 Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow at Dallas Executive Airport in Texas, the NTSB confirmed.

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Pilot Magazine

| November 1, 2022

Behind the hangar doors

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio is a massive campus.

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Article

| July 28, 2022

AirVenture dawn patrol

Swiss watchmaker (and AOPA Premier Partner) Breitling orchestrated a warbird exercise at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh that took us back in time as we flew aboard a bomber in the formidable formation, propellers gleaming in the early morning sun, framed perfectly by the clouds.

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Pilot Magazine

| July 1, 2022

Buying a piece of history

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Article

| May 20, 2022

Warbird pilots and enthusiasts set to gather in Minnesota

The Ray Fagen Memorial Airshow will be held on June 18 at the Granite Falls Municipal Airport/ Lenzen-Roe-Fagen Memorial Field in Granite Falls, Minnesota.

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Article

| April 20, 2022

NASA's ER-2 returns to high-altitude flying

Following a three-year heavy maintenance hiatus, NASA’s Lockheed ER-2 high-altitude aircraft No. 806 is taking to the skies once more, this time with some new safety features.

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Article

| March 16, 2022

Teens solo eight airplanes on back-to-back 16th birthdays

Lifelong friends James Frank and Adam Sarsfield celebrated their sixteenth birthdays by soloing an assortment of aircraft, four airplanes each—including a warbird and touchy taildragger not known for being kind to pilots.

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Article

| March 7, 2022

Return of the National Warbird Operator Conference

The National Warbird Operator Conference hosted its annual gathering February 24 through 27 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

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Article

| January 10, 2022

Attention warbird enthusiasts: Get your calendars ready

If you’re starting to plan your 2022 aviation calendar, make sure to pencil in some of the year’s best warbird events. Here are a few of our top recommendations.

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Pilot Magazine

| January 1, 2022

Romancing the 'Hun'

It is 1968 and I am 10 years old. My beautiful cousin, Cynthia Gay, has brought home yet another handsome young man in uniform, on his way to Vietnam. He is such a romantic figure; I cannot take my eyes off him or keep from holding his hand. Years later the memory of that young man stays with me. There is, as they say, just something about a man in uniform.

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Advocacy

| December 16, 2021

Flight training amendment not included in final NDAA bill

A bipartisan provision supported by the entire general aviation community and included in the House National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to address the FAA’s misguided and revised interpretation of flight training policy was not included in the final legislative package, as a tumultuous year-end flurry of activity in the Senate left many unrelated defense items on the cutting room floor.

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Pilot Turbine Magazine

| October 1, 2021

Airplane with attitude

Mention “Beechcraft trainer” to the typical general aviation pilot and perhaps the T–34 Mentors will jog memories. Based on Beechcraft’s Bonanza, they served as U.S. Air Force and Navy trainers from 1955 to 2000.

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Advocacy

| September 16, 2021

AOPA repeats call to protect flight training

AOPA President Mark Baker is asking AOPA members to urge their elected officials in Congress to back legislation to clarify an FAA action that seemed to suggest, contrary to decades of guidance, that flight instruction is an operation carrying a passenger for compensation.

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Article

| September 2, 2021

A once-in-a-lifetime ride

The First Flight Society sweepstakes fundraiser provides the rare chance to pilot a North American P–51 Mustang, one of the most famous aircraft in history, beloved by such famed aviators as Brig. Gen. Charles McGee and Brig. Gen. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager. The winner will be able to handle most of the flying—from basic maneuvering to aerobatics—and log the flight time.

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Pilot Magazine

| August 1, 2021

Texas renaissance

The tailpipe of the orange and white jet fills your windscreen as you follow it upward into a cloudless blue Texas sky.

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Advocacy

| July 23, 2021

FAA stands by directive that created flight training crisis

The FAA on July 23 said that it continues to stand by its July 12 directive requiring letters of deviation authority (LODA) for compensated flight training in experimental category aircraft and exemptions for training in limited category aircraft (like warbirds) and the handful of primary category aircraft.

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