Organization Announces New Location Finalists For Its New Headquarters And Other News

Stephen Brown (pictured), the president and CEO of the Commemorative Air Force announced that the headquarters for the CAF will be moving to a new location. The Midland location will stay where it is and will maintain its museum while the new location will have a new museum. The annual CAF Airsho will also stay in Midland.

The 8 finalists, narrowed down from a list of 25 are:
Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, Collin County Airport in McKinney, Texas, Dallas Executive Airport in Dallas Texas, Ellington Field in Houston, TX, Lackland/Kelly Airport in San Antonio, Texas, New Century Airport in Kansas City, Kansas, North Texas Regional Airport in Sherman, Texas and Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport in Smyrna, Tennessee.

The CAF membership will elect a board to select the winner of the 8 finalists. The decision is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2014. Steve Brown envisions this new facility to be the Premier location for the organization that currently has 60 facilities in 28 states. He wants to have the CAF viewed as an aviation destination rather than a museum.

The CAF currently has 157 historic aircraft, 90% of them in flying condition. Those aircraft flew 5,200 hours last year to educate the public. New restorations that the CAF expects to have completed in the next 12 months includes two B-26 Marauders and the only surviving real PBJ (Navy version of the B-25) in existence. They are currently acquiring an L-5 and are also looking for a T-34 Mentor.

At the show here in Oshkosh, the CAF has good representation with the B-24 Liberator, the only flying B-29 Superfortress “Fifi”, the Red Tail P-51C Mustang, the only flying Curtiss SB2C Helldiver (pictured, below) and the Tora! Tora! Tora! Team.

The CAF began in 1957 with a group of WWII aviators whose rallying cry was “Keep ‘em flying”. Now, more than 55 years later, the CAF is still doing just that.

FMI: www.commemorativeairforce.org