That first airplane, a wrecked Curtiss P-40E recovered from north of the Arctic Circle in Russia, turned into a seven-year restoration project that was eventually completed by Avspecs in Auckland, New Zealand. Surrounded by historic aircraft, Yagen decided on the spot that he wanted a warbird for himself, to fly on weekends over Virginia Beach. In 1994, while attending a convention for Aerostar owners in Canada, he and his wife Elaine went to a 1940s-period hangar dance at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton. Yagen pilots his personal mount, a P-51D in the markings of 353rd Fighter Group Deputy Commander “Wild” Bill Bailey. He went on to earn a multi-engine rating, and today most often flies his Piper Aerostar twin. Yagen’s first airplane was a Piper Cherokee 180 he bought for $8,000. “So I’m still doing the same thing, but now they’re on a scale of 1-to-1.” While studying business at Virginia Tech he joined a local flying club, and learned to fly in a single-engine Piper. “I built them out of balsa wood, built them out of plastic,” he says.
Like many bitten by the aviation bug, Yagen started out building models and RC airplanes. A Fairchild PT-19 and a canary yellow Stearman taxi out to give a lucky few an aerial view of the event. The Military Aviation Museum’s airfield can become a busy place during the weekend airshow.
XIIb, FG-1D Corsair, FM-2 Wildcat, TBM-3E Avenger, PBY-5A Catalina, P-40E Kittyhawk, Yak-3, B-25J Mitchell, Junkers Ju-52/3m, Messerschmitt Bf-108 and the museum’s crown jewel, what is to date the world’s only flying de Havilland Mosquito. During the May 16-18 airshow this year, spectators were treated to a veritable “who’s who” of flying World War II aircraft, including a P-51D Mustang piloted by Yagen himself, Spitfire Mk.
#Warbirds over the beach 2017 plus
He shows them off to the public with two major airshows, the mid-May Warbirds Over the Beach-the occasion for the P-64 replica’s arrival-and early-October Biplanes & Triplanes, plus a number of smaller events. (Carl von Wodtke)įor more than 16 years Yagen has been assembling one of the world’s largest collections of airworthy warbirds owned by a single individual. For more than two decades, Yagen has been assembling a world-class collection of immaculately restored World War II aircraft. The warbird collector bought it sight unseen. It’s a North American P-64 replica, built from an SNJ-4 airframe as a two-seater. Army Air Corps markings drops out of the sky and taxis down the strip. About an hour later a camouflaged radial-engine fighter with U.S.
As he stands in the middle of the grass strip, Yagen taps furiously on his smartphone and determines that the airplane has been delayed. He looks skyward, pacing back and forth like a kid waiting to open a Christmas present. He’s expecting the arrival of his latest warbird acquisition, but he won’t say what it is-it’s a surprise. Yagen heads straight for the rear door, leading to the airfield out back. Dressed in an Army-green flight suit over a blue shirt and tie, the close to 68-year -old strides purposefully into his Military Aviation Museum, having just arrived from his Virginia Beach corporate offices. Warbirds Over the Beach: Military Aviation Museum CloseĪfter weathering a financial storm in 2013, the Military Aviation Museum’s airplanes are once again tearing up the skies over Virginia.
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