Aviation Series-The Flying Heritage Collection

Posted by Gary O'Rielly 
on Apr 28, 2013
 
In 1998, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, began acquiring and preserving some of the most famous iconic warrior planes from WWII. Allen's passion for aviation and history, and his awareness of the increasing rarity of original WWII aircraft, motivated him to find and restore these artifacts to the highest standard of authenticity and share them with the public.

Our guest speaker April 26th was Cory Graff, the Military Aviation Curator at the Flying Heritage Collection. So the series on aviation continued with his preview of the Collection. Cory grew up in Tacoma and went to the University of Oregon. He worked at the Museum of Flight in Seattle for twelve years before moving to the Flying Heritage Collection in September 2008. Cory is an author and his seventh book, the Navy in Puget Sound was published three years ago.

The Flying Heritage Collection was first housed at the Arlington Airport. It moved to its current location because of its big volume facility for displaying their aircraft and military tanks. The vintage WWII aircraft and artifacts are housed in two hangers on Paine Field. All of the vintage WWII planes fly with the exception of the one planes that is the only one in existence today. The collection includes planes from Britain (2), Germany (5), Japan (2), Russia (4), United States (6) and tanks and artifacts from WWII.

One of the Japanese (Oscar) airplanes went down in Australia. The Australian Military found the Japanese working on the plane and informed them that the war had ended. The Oscar is the only type one left in the world and is the plane that doesn't fly anymore although it is mechanically maintained along with the others.

There is a corps of mechanics at the Flying Heritage Collection. It takes five mechanics to work on these airplanes. Although the Spitfire only flew for 45 minutes last year, it is still torn apart each year and checked and re-checked. The Collection has 7-8 pilots who fly the planes anytime they have the chance. The military equipment in the artifacts collection work and they have fire power. The Flying Heritage Collection is operated by the Friends of Flying Heritage, a 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to educating the public about these rare historic aircraft.  I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to visit the two hangers at the Flying Heritage Collection and was amazed at the aircraft and artifacts on display as well as the cleanliness of the facility. Another great program for our members and guest this week.