Paul Allen’s rare Flying Heritage Collection becomes latest aviation attraction at Paine Field

Published 1:22 pm Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Grinning in anticipation as the doors of the 1950-vintage hangar rolled apart on June 6, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen led a small contingent of county government officials and news media into the restored facility an hour before its official public opening.

Walking past row after row of the planes he’d paid untold millions of dollars to find, restore and preserve, Allen chatted admiringly about his P-51 Mustang, P-40 Tomahawk, Japanese Zero, German Messerschmitt 109, British Spitfire and all the others.

“My father was among the troops going into Omaha Beach at Normandy 64 years ago,” Allen said. “I’ve been fascinated by airplanes since I was a boy growing up in Seattle. But I was also fascinated by how they worked and I thought about the people who worked so hard to find the answers to improve these planes.

“All of these planes on display represent important technology advancements. They’re important pieces of aviation history and this is a great new home for them. I hope people will come to see the collection and learn from it.”

Every plane in the collection has been restored to factory roll-out authenticity. Allen’s priceless planes represent one of the world’s rarest collections of flight-ready World War II warbirds.

Sure to attract global visitors, Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection includes 15 historic battle planes flown by the major participants in the war, including America, Great Britain, Russia, Germany and Japan.

“These rare aircraft can now be seen and enjoyed by anyone with a love of flying, history or technology,” said Adrian Hunt, executive director of the Flying Heritage Collection. “We are thrilled to open the collection to the public on the 64th anniversary of D-Day. Many of our aircraft are the last known examples.”

Each plane has been restored to the highest level of authenticity that money and technology can provide, Hunt said. Detailed histories of each plane’s role in aviation history have been assembled. Most of them have been documented as having been in combat. Their combat records and even their pilots’ names are part the meticulous research Allen ordered in preparing his collection.

Rare planes will fly frequently

As priceless as they are, Allen wants his planes to fly regularly so people can experience seeing them in their natural element, not just as static displays. Every other Saturday, from June 14 until Oct. 11, a variety of the historic aircraft will take to the skies from Noon to 1 p.m. for short flights.

Flying rare warbirds demands rare pilots and only the most experienced aviators are invited to climb into those cockpits, said Hunt. Two of Allen’s pilots include Reno air racer and movie pilot Steve Hinton and Pacific Northwest air show performer Bud Granley, a former RCAF and airline pilot.

All of the aircraft are displayed with interpretive movies and wall displays showing their place in the international social, political, technological and economic context of their time, Hunt said.

“The Flying Heritage Collection uses planes to show how innovations of the past have impacted modern aviation and aerospace technologies,” he said. “The collection honors not only the planes but also the pilots who flew them and the engineers, designers and builders who produced such superb aircraft.”

The exhibits display the dramatic changes occurring in aviation from 1935 to 1945, a time when global war needs created a competitive push for constant innovation and technological advances. The planes represent changes in airframes from wood and fabric to metal planes with retractable landing gears. Engines and superchargers enabled planes to fly higher and faster. With more power, they were able to be equipped with more guns, bombs and armor. The great need by all of the major countries for greater production rates brought about major changes in building methods and materials.

As the demand for support technology grew, too, those years produced innovative developments in communications, navigation, instrumentation and radar. Planes became more reliable and able to fly long distances even in harsh weather and conduct complex missions with precise accuracy, as the FHC’s literature describes it.

One of the guests at the event was Harrison “Bud” Tordoff, 82, a retired U.S. Army Air Corps Captain who flew the same P-51 that is displayed at the FHC exhibit. As a young lieutenant, he flew bomber escort for daylight raids against German forces throughout occupied Europe. As Allen’s FHC researchers traced the history of their plane during restoration, they discovered its link to Tordoff and reunited him with his original aircraft in 2003. A video of that event is part of the FHC web site.

FHC spans 1935-1945

Allen’s teams of searchers found many of the aircraft in a variety of extreme environments and circumstances. The Hayabusa Japanese fighter plane was found deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. The P-40C turned up in a Russian field where it had been for five decades after crashing during the war. The V-1 “Buzz Bomb” was found on the floor of a secret underground factory in Germany. The rare Me-109 was discovered in 1988 when a man walking on a beach near Calais, France, tripped on a piece of metal buried in the sand. Connected to that piece, it turned out, was an entire German fighter plane.

In addition to most of the planes that were shown on a very limited schedule for three years in two hangars at Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO), four others have been added at the Paine Field air museum. The present display includes these planes and artifacts:

North American P-51D Mustang

Built in 1945, the plane’s incredible range made it a perfect escort for American bomber. Deadly, fast, high-flying and fuel-efficient, Mustangs destroyed more enemy aircraft than any other fighter in the European Theater. Although many of the popular planes still fly frequently at air shows, this particular plane is considered the most authentic example of the P-51D left in the world.

Supermarine Mk.Vc Spitfire

During the Battle of Britain, the “Spitfire” provided air defenses during Germany’s bombing of London, providing Hilter’s first air combat defeat of the war. The leader of a “Free Czech” squadron used Allen’s aircraft, built in England in 1940, to escort allied bombers.

Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk

The P-40, known as the Warhawk in U.S. service, was immortalized by its outstanding service in China with pilots of the American Volunteer Group, better known as The Flying Tigers. Allen’s restored aircraft was used extensively in European combat, defending Murmansk, Russia, from German forces. Disabled in a dogfight, the plane survived a wheels-up landing on the Russian front, where it rested for decades until its recovery in 1993. Today it’s the only known original P-40 in flying condition.

Curtiss JN-4D Jenny

The first aircraft to be mass-produced in the United States, the “Jenny” never saw combat but trained American and Canadian pilots for service in World War I. Some of aviation’s most famous flyers learned to fly in the “Jenny,” including Charles Lindbergh, Jimmie Doolittle and Amelia Earhart.

Russian Polikarpov I-16

The world’s first low-wing monoplane fighter with retractable land gear, developed in the early 1930s, this plane supported Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War, fought against the Japanese in Mongolia and defended Russia during World War II.

Russian Polikarpov U-2/PO-2

Used as a trainer and scouting aircraft, this World War II biplane served two generations of Russian pilots. During the war it was deployed as a courier, ambulance, general transport and bombing aircraft. The PO-2 was flown by Russia’s “Night Witches,” as the Germans called them, young women in their teens and 20s who flew night missions to drop bombs on sleeping Nazi forces. The plane is one of only a few remaining specimens.

Fiesler Fi 156-C2 Storch

The only one of his planes that Allen has flown in, the Storch is known for its unrivalled ability to take off and land in extremely small spaces. That capability allowed German Special Forces to successfully rescue Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in a daring daytime raid on a small mountain plateau. It’s also known as the plane that delivered the infamous suitcase bomb to the site of the attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler.

Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat

The backbone of American aircraft carrier groups during World War II, the Hellcat was the most-produced fighter aircraft in history and the best general purpose fighter plane in the Pacific Theater. Allen’s rare model is on display but awaiting full restoration.

Nakajima Ki-43-1c Hayabusa (Oscar)

Early in World War II, this aircraft was the Japanese Army Air Force’s primary fighter, capable of tight turns with a lift ratio other planes could not match. Allen’s aircraft, built in Japan in 1942, was found in the jungle of Papua, New Guinea, after the cease fire. It’s the only known complete, privately owned, original Hayabusa in the world.

Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero-Sen

Perhaps the best known combat aircraft associated with its nation of origin, the Zero-Sen was Japan’s light carrier-fighter. With incredible range, it ruled the skies over Asia and the South Pacific from 1940 to early 1942, out-performing any American plane in that region at the time. The planes were used as escorts for Kamikaze bomber aircraft and later became Kamikaze weapons. On display in a restoration area of the hangar, the plane will eventually become another flyable warbird in Allen’s collection.

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 Emil

A mating of the most powerful engine available with the smallest possible airframe, for maximum performance, produced one of the most deadly of German fighter planes. It is one of only two flying examples of this plane in the world. It’s regarded by many historians as the most significant fighter plane of World War II, including its major role in the Battle of Britain.

Hawker Hurricane Mk. XIIB

Because of its simplicity and adaptability, the Hurricane served in every major theater of air warfare in WWII. Although the Supermarine Spitfire is more famous for winning the Battle of Britain against German fighters, the Hurricane destroyed more enemy planes, primarily targeting slower flying bombers.

Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-13 Dora

This famous plane is in flyable condition but so rare that it’s not on the museum’s “fly list.” Superior to the British Spitfire, it was also more heavily armed, with four 20-mm cannons and two 13-mm machine guns. Later versions added a 30-mm cannon that fired through the propeller hub, helping the plane to live up to its nickname, “Butcher Bird.” It’s the only long-nosed version of this plane to survive the war.

Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet

The world’s first operational rocket-propelled aircraft, the Komet was designed to destroy high altitude bombers. Remarkably agile at higher speeds, it was difficult to fly at slower speeds. A major technological breakthrough, the plane was powered by an extremely volatile Walter rocket engine that exhibited a tendency to explode in flight.

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt

Powered by the largest Pratt &Whitney engine ever developed at that time, the Thunderbolt was equipped with eight .50-caliber machine guns and heavy armor. One of the largest fighter planes ever built, it also was one of the toughest, enabling pilots to return to their base even after the plane was damaged in combat. The FHC’s plane was flown by Col. Ralph Jenkins, a Seattle native who led the 510th Fighter Squadron during the war.

World’s first cruise missiles

The collection also includes such historical artifacts as a rocket-powered German Fiesler Fi 103/V-1 “Buzz Bomb,” the world’s first cruise missile. It was built at the Nordhausen munitions factory inside the Harz Mountains by slave labor from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Thousands of these flying bombs were fired at London.

A never flown manned missile

A Fiesler Fi-103R “Reichenburg” is even more rare. The pilot of this manned version of the V-1 was supposed to bail out as he aimed his aircraft and payload at his target. The rocket craft never flew in combat, primarily for lack of volunteer pilots.

British Lancaster bomber cockpit

The nose and cockpit of an Avro Lancaster B, Mk.1 British bomber offers an inside look at the cramped space that crews had available. The famous plane sank the Tirpitz, sister ship to the Bismark. More than 3,000 Lancasters dropped food to the starving Dutch in 1945, near the war’s end.

Other Flying Heritage Collection aircraft in various stages of restoration include a Goodyear FG-1D Corsair; North America B-25J Mitchell; Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress; a jet-propelled Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a Schwalbe; Ilyushin IL-2M-3 Shturmovik; Lockheed P-38J Lightning; Casa 2.111D (Heinkel He 111H); North American F-86A Sabre; Yakovlev Yak-3U; Republic F105G Thunderchief; Vought F-8 Crusader; Mikoyan and Gurevich MiG-21 Mongol; BAE/Hawker GR-3 Harrier and a DeHavilland DH98 Mosquito.

Eventually, Allen’s display will include a restored German V-2 rocket, the world’s first long-range ballistic missile that was used by Germany against London and Antwerp in the last months of World War II.

The 51,000-square-foot hangar that houses the rare collection had its own $5 million restoration to install insulation and large, new windows in the 1950s building that once was a maintenance facility for Alaska Airlines.

The arrival of the Flying Heritage Collection at Paine Field adds yet another major aviation tourist attraction. The Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour facility is already the top tourist attraction in Snohomish County and small group tours are available at the Seattle Museum of Flight’s aircraft restoration center at Paine Field.

Coming soon will be another significant aviation facility for tours, John Sessions’ “Historic Flight at Kilo-6.” His flyable planes include a P-51, F7F Tigercat and B-25 Mitchell bomber, just a few of the rare planes in his Historic Aviation Foundation collection.

The FHC and its gift store are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, Memorial Day through Labor Day, then daily except Monday for the rest of the year. For more information visit www.flyingheritage.com.