The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, is distinctive as one of the few aviation museums that restores vintage aircraft to flight status. Oil drip pans beneath radial-engine aircraft are common. In addition, the museum features several rare aircraft and offers flights on designated weekends. As part of its mission to “acquire, preserve, restore, and operate classic and historic aircraft,” the museum also flies planes from its collection in air shows across the country.
Virtually half of its 70-plane fleet are significant as individual aircraft or by type. While not naval aircraft, two of the most interesting are a World War II night fighter and a postwar civilian STOL (short take-off and landing) plane.
The museum was founded for the purpose of acquiring the rights to recover a U.S. Army Air Forces P-61B that crashed in New Guinea in January 1945. The recovery and restoration of the Black Widow to flight status has been the personal goal of museum director Eugene Strine. The twin-engine fighter is one of only four remaining and is nearing completion as the only flying P-61 in the world. Perhaps the collection’s most interesting aircraft is the Custer CCW-5 Channel Wing, one of only two remaining incarnations of Willard R. Custer’s experimental design.
Eleven Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard aircraft are among the collection, which covers 3Vi acres at the Reading Regional Airport—Carl A. Spaatz Field. Inside the museum’s 17,000-square-foot hangar and restoration facility are a TBM-3 Avenger, which flew from the USS Langley (CVL-27); two aircraft built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s Naval Aircraft Factory, a J-3/NE Cub and N3N-3 Yellow Peril; a Boeing-built Stearman N2S-1 Kaydet; a BT-13A/SNV-1 Valiant; and an SNJ- 4B Texan. On the tarmac are a Navy R4D-6 Skytrain and P2V-7 Neptune, Marine Corps R4Q-2 Packet, and Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-52A Seaguard. Behind the hangar, in the museum’s bone yard awaiting restoration, is an HHS-1N Seahorse, which flew from the USS Yorktown (CVS-10) and USS Kearsarge (CVS-33). Other significant aircraft include a B-25J Mitchell and two airliners, a Martin 404 Silver Falcon and Vickers-Armstrong V745D Viscount.
In addition to other aircraft, displays include nearly 200 aircraft models, a Norden bombsight, Link trainer, and Curtis Wright instrument flight trainer. Engine displays feature cutaway versions of the General Electric J47 turbojet and Pratt & Whitney R-4300 radial piston engine. An interesting digression is a 16-horsepower 1939 Rover Saloon—the poor man’s Rolls Royce—typically found on many English bases during the war. Paintings, artifacts, and a gift shop accent the museum office.
Strine, a former Navy pilot who flew Martin PBM-3 Mariners on patrols from Panama and the Galapagos Islands, and his son, Russell, the current president, founded the museum in 1980. Last year more than 30,000 people visited from 14 countries and 36 states, but by far the greatest attraction is the museum’s World War II Weekend, held each June. Begun in 1990 as a World War II air show, the weekend has evolved into the largest—and received reviews as the best—event of its kind in the United States. The show is an educational and entertaining experience, featuring multiple war-front encampments (including the Navy and Marines in the South Pacific); battle re-enactments; a re-created French village; American homefront displays centered around “Main Street 1944”; period entertainment in song, dance, and comedy; as well as educational briefings on life during the war. The museum temporarily expands its area by leasing an additional 8 acres and extra hangars for the event.
The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is open daily from 0930 to 1600 except major holidays. Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children. The World War II Weekend is the first Friday-through-Sunday in June. The museum maintains an excellent Web site at www.maam.org.