Where’s Waldo? At the Yankee Air Museum probably

Cave Canum writes:

There used to be this wonderful place nearby called the Yankee Air Muesum that kept these great WWII planes. Last summer some degenerate burned it to the ground destroying these beautiful birds and ending a great air show!!!

Other than offering a nice set of photos, I guess we could look at this as a PSA to remind folks who are thinking of burning down irreplaceable things to take up knitting or something.

I was also wondering if that Yankee Air Museum was reborn as this Yankee Air Museum based out of Ford's Willow Run Airport in Belleville. The answer is, "Yes!"

On October 9, 2004, the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport suffered a terrible fire that destroyed the historic hangar housing the museum. Through the heroic efforts of a few members, the beautifully restored B-17, C-47 and B-25 aircraft were moved out of the building before the fire reached them, thus saving the heart of the collection. In addition, all the historic aircraft on display outside of the main building were untouched by the fire. The museum did, however, lose virtually all of the tooling, equipment and spare parts for all of the aircraft plus all of the office and display fixtures and equipment totaling well over $1,000,000 in replacement value. While thousands of irreplaceable artifacts, photos and books were also lost in the fire, the Volunteers at the museum are thankful that the aircraft collection remains largely intact. Only a small number of non-flyable aircraft that were in restoration inside the hanger were lost.

Visit their site for much information including their big Thunder Over Michigan event held August 5 & 6, 2006 at Willow Run Airport in Belleville. Looks like an amazing collection of aircraft and aerial displays.