ARLINGTON — The already shaky future of the Air Station Flying Museum at Arlington’s airport might be doomed now that Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen’s long-rumored stash of vintage warplanes will be opened to public tours on the other side of the airport starting today.
Or the fledgling museum, run by local volunteers for eight years, might get a boost from Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection, creating more interest in the nonprofit’s effort.
Allen is charging $20 a person to groups of up to 15 people to ogle his private collection in unmarked hangars on the southwest side of the airport.
The nonprofit museum’s planes on the east side of the airport can’t hope to compete with Allen’s deep-pocketed, meticulous restorations.
The Air Station Flying Museum has a Russian MiG jet and other projects-in-waiting, but nothing to compare with Allen’s fully restored, flyable P-51 Mustang, or his bizarre, unmanned Fieseler V-1, essentially a guidable bomb that Hitler thought might be fun to attach to a jet engine.
Allen decided on Arlington for his collection so the planes could be flown periodically, said Kurt Peterson, Flying Heritage’s director. Bigger airports such as Paine Field in Everett have too much air traffic, he added.
Graham Smith is one who thinks Allen’s collection might actually help the Air Station Flying Museum.
When he was on the airport commission, Smith expressed frustration at recurring hints that Allen might put his money and planes into the Air Station. Those hints came from Jeff Thomas, Air Station’s president and a historical consultant for Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection.
At the time, Smith — who has since been elected to the City Council —said he was "tired of getting left at the altar."
But now, Smith sees Allen’s tours as a positive sign that could lead to something bigger. The city owns the airport and collects leases on most hangars, including the Air Station’s.
"I’m hoping we’ll have a relationship in the future," Smith said of Allen.
Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection is separate from the Air Station despite Thomas’ involvement in both, Peterson said.
Al Butler has volunteered at the Air Station for more than seven years. He is hopeful the collections will complement each other instead of compete. "We have the same goals, only we’re going about it in a little different way," he said.
The Air Station’s goal is to restore the museum’s former U.S. Navy hangar from World War II, when the Arlington airport was a military field, he said.
Most of Allen’s planes are of the same vintage.
The Air Station hasn’t much to show for eight years of work. The airport commission has pressured the group to deliver on strict performance clauses in its lease about fixing up the building.
The Air Station will have to prove it can be financially viable on its own, Peterson said. But he was sympathetic with that group’s struggles.
"I think if you look at the history of all volunteer museums like the Air Station, they all started out at the grass-roots level," Peterson said.
As for Allen’s project, the private tours are meant to test the market for aviation buffs, he said. But the $20 price tag seems high to airport commissioner Cheri Carlson.
"I’ve already known a lot of people who have told me that, at $20, they’re not going to go," Carlson said of the two-hour tours. "My neighbors want to go, but they don’t have the money."
Like Smith, Carlson had been skeptical of the Air Station’s future. But she, too, remains hopeful the projects can coexist.
"If I was an aviation enthusiast who lived somewhere else, I would see that as a plus to have two different things to look at," Carlson said.
Imposing the stricter lease clauses seems to have inspired some action at the Air Station, airport commission chairman Guy Kennedy said.
"There’s more progress in these four, five, six months than there has been in the whole time I’ve been on the airport commission," Kennedy said.
Air Station volunteers have removed some asbestos from a building, airport manager Rob Putnam said, but they still have a ways to go.
Employees were required to sign confidentiality agreements about Allen’s hangar, Peterson said. But the secret got out all the same.
Some pilots have teased all the hush-hush, referring to "Papa Alpha," using Allen’s initials in aviator lingo.
That joke probably won’t die, Carlson said. "It’ll still be Papa Alpha’s collection."
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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