Air Heritage Inc.

1 week ago

As many of our followers know, the Collings Foundation suffered a great loss last week with the fatal crash of their B-17G, Nine-O-Nine.

While the Aviation Community is small, the warbird community is even smaller. We mourn the loss of the crew and passengers and pray for a speedy recovery for those who survived alongside the Collings Foundation.

While machinery can be replaced or rebuilt, we can never bring back those who were lost. What the Collings Foundation and the survivors are going through right now is every operators’ worse nightmare, our’s included.

Restoring an aircraft requires a tremendous amount of talent and money. Once they are done, you either fly them or you put them on static display. Many museums, Air Heritage included, have made the decision to operate their aircraft as a living history museum. By doing so we can bring the aircraft to your location versus you coming to us. Many also sell ride experiences on their aircraft. This provides the required income to not only continue to operate the aircraft but to also help restore and preserve other aircraft. For some, it even keeps the doors to the museum open.

As an organization that operates its aircraft, we do everything possible to mitigate the risks involved with the operation of these aircraft. Unfortunately accidents happen and when they occur within the aviation industry, they tend to have deadly results. We understand that risk every time we strap into one of our aircraft. However, the ability to experience flight and the ability to preserve and present the history of these aircraft and the men and women to operated them to the public far outweighs that risk.

As with any crash, the cause will not be known for quite some time. However, this crash has already been highly politicized due to all the media coverage. Due to this, there is now an uncertainty over the future of the program that most bombers and fighters flying with passengers operate under.

While Air Heritage does not currently take part in the Living History Flight Experience (LHFE) program, we fully support its purpose and the operators who operate under it. It is an essential program that directly contributes to the preservation of many of our country’s historical aircraft.

For many people, these flights are a life changing experience. Many times, it’s a veteran taking one last ride in the type of plane that brought them home after a long mission across a continent while being shot at from above by attacking fighters and/or flak guns below. Or maybe it’s that airmen’s child who wanted the chance to even remotely try to experience what their father went through during their service years.

Please consider following this link to the Collings Foundation press release and expressing your support for the continuation the Living History Flight Experience program by signing the petition that can be found towards the bottom of their release. ... See MoreSee Less

An Important Message from the Collings Foundation

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Dear supporters, Please join the Collings Foundation in our thoughts and prayers with those who were on the tragic flight of the B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine-O-Nine” on Wednesday, October 2nd. We will be forever grateful to the heroic efforts of the first responders at Bradley International Airpor...