Aero-Linx!

Scouring the information super airways can sometimes be a tough, if educational, task for the Aero-News staff... but it also allows us to check out some truly neat and exciting sites, so it's not that bad a gig. On any given day, we may check dozens (and often hundreds) of different sources for story ideas, and facts confirmation. And, as is the nature of our business, much of this is done on the Internet.

The ANN gang decided we probably shouldn't keep some of the neat sites, info resources, and organizations we've discovered to ourselves... so we decided to bring you Aero-Linx. These are the sites that WE check out -- when we need added perspective, a new spin on a day's topic... or just want to escape into cyber-aero-space for awhile.

Look for some of our favorite sites, coming each day to ANN via Aero-Linx. Suggestions for future Aero-Linx segments are always welcome, as well.

Aero Linx: Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation

Founded in 1988 and based in New Jersey, the foundation obtained and restored a Douglas C-54, one of 330 that carried out the airlift, to flying condition. The foundation painted the airplane in a scheme similar to that of the 48th Troop Carrier Squadron, one of the groups that participated in the event. Artifacts, displays and information explaining this history-making event fill the interior of the flying museum. Tim Chopp, founder and president of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, spent four years looking for the right airplane for a living history educational museum exhibit about the great Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. The foundation bought the airplane—one of four C-54s in the U.S. that are airworthy—for $125,000. “I finally located this airplane in Canada in December 1992,” said Chopp. “We ferried it to New Jersey in mid-1993. We started flying the airplane in late 1994 and painted it in early 1995.” The Foundation has a self decribed "Mission of History, Education and Remembrance.” Our purpose is to celebrate this pivotal point in history that’s almost forgotten in schools today. We want to educate kids about what happened in the last half of the 20th century, about the Cold War that was spawned from this event.

FMI: http://www.spiritoffreedom.org