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23-669: The museum was founded in 1988 when William "Doc" Hospers bought a B-17. In October 2010, the museum sold its B-17, "Chuckie", to the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia . In 2019, the museum acquired a Beech 18 that was previously owned by Jackie Cochrane . The museum provides educational programs that include aviation summer camps for middle and high school students, and Take Flight Days , which are programs for elementary school students. The museum's collection includes: The museum also hosts aircraft from

46-584: A Nieuport 11 , a Nieuport 17 , a Nieuport 24 , a Sopwith Pup , a Sopwith Camel , a Sopwith 1½ Strutter , and a deHavilland D.H.2 . Both the Morane Saulnier AI and the Sopwith 1½ Strutter have arrived at the museum. Associated with the museum is an aircraft restoration and maintenance organization, called The Fighter Factory , which started in 1996 to restore the collection's first aircraft (the P-40E ). It

69-467: A 1937 Works Progress Administration design), a restored authentic pre-WWII Luftwaffe metal hangar, and a set of three identical storage hangars painted to resemble British World War II hangars. The Luftwaffe hangar was built in 1934 at Cottbus Air Base . The museum purchased the hangar in 2004 after the base was closed during the reunification of Germany . It was dismantled and shipped to Virginia Beach and construction started in 2010 and finished in

92-448: A solution for it". However, the announced sale of the museum and aircraft was premature. Ultimately, several aircraft were sold, but the museum was able to remain in operation. Since the sales in 2013, additional aircraft (including a projected replacement de Havilland Dragon Rapide ) have been acquired and are under restoration to fly. In October 2024, Yagen donated his 70 aircraft, 130 acres (0.53 km ) and $ 30 million dollars to

115-451: Is the only such original control tower in the US. The complex also includes a large orange and white checked water tower, which is visible from a considerable distance and provides a useful landmark for both ground and air travelers. There is a dinosaur park at the entrance to the museum, which is free and open to the public. Some of the aircraft obtained in an un-restored state are handled at

138-519: The M.S.230 and M.S.315 , but all were of limited performance and were relegated to training duties. Morane-Saulnier had much more success with its dramatically modernized M.S.406 , which was the French Air Force 's most numerous fighter at the start of the war. The 406 was advanced only at the time of its introduction in 1935, and suffered terribly against the more modern Messerschmitt Bf 109s it faced in 1940. During World War II, Morane-Saulnier

161-573: The Morane-Saulnier AC which substituted ailerons for wing warping and had a strut-braced wing. The AC was not particularly successful, in part because of poor field of view a shoulder-mounted wing produced, so the Morane-Saulnier AI was developed, in which the wing was raised above the fuselage. The AI lost out in the competition to the SPAD XIII but was built in limited numbers in case there

184-532: The Morane-Saulnier H , a single-seater, and was given a faired fuselage to produce the Morane-Saulnier N single-seat fighter. The Morane-Saulnier H was modified so that its wings were mounted parasol fashion, above the fuselage to afford the observer a better view, creating the Morane-Saulnier L . The L was then fitted with a faired fuselage as on the N and ailerons to make the Morane-Saulnier LA , which

207-470: The United States , from both World War I and World War II . The collection contains aircraft ranging from the 1910s to the early 1950s. The museum's work includes the preservation and restoration of the aircraft, and it also conducts live demonstrations of the aircraft in the form of twice-yearly airshows . The collection includes both a reference library as well as artifacts and materials to illustrate

230-580: The B-29/B-24 and Invader Squadrons of the Commemorative Air Force when they are not out touring the country: Military Aviation Museum The Military Aviation Museum is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia , and houses one of the world's largest private collections of warbirds in flying condition. It includes examples from Germany , France , Italy , Russia , the United Kingdom , and

253-453: The German side of the lines and the wreckage was examined by Fokker just prior to Fokker producing a similar system. After the war, Morane-Saulnier produced a number of designs for training and general aviation , but with the threat of war in the late thirties it once again turned to military aircraft. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, it produced a number of parasol wing fighters including

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276-446: The controls, but also could not even be flown hands off. One early pilot noted that if one left the aircraft to its own devices it would end up going upside down in the opposite direction. Despite this, many were used as trainers, including a great many that had their wings stripped so they couldn't fly, creating what was known as a Penguin. The Type L has the distinction of being the first fighter aircraft used during World War I when one

299-508: The fall of 2012 at the Museum where it now houses the Museum's Luftwaffe aircraft. The Museum's airfield control tower is an ex-8th AAF World War II tower from RAF Goxhill . The two-story brick and concrete structure was completely disassembled from its original site in the UK and shipped to Virginia. Reassembly was completed in 2018. In the UK, some similar towers are now historically protected; this

322-654: The historic context of the aircraft in the collection. The Museum was founded by Gerald "Jerry" Yagen in 2005, and the museum's hangars were opened to the public in 2008. He had been collecting and restoring warbirds since the mid-1990s, starting with a Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk . In June 2013, Yagen announced that the museum and its collection would be sold due to financial difficulties. An article in The Virginian-Pilot reported that Yagen had said, "I'm subsidizing it heavily every year, and my business no longer allows me to do that financially, and therefore I don't have

345-539: The museum's related repair facility, the Fighter Factory (below); others are restored elsewhere by contractors with specialized capabilities, including: The museum is also connected to the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, which is currently building a small fleet of various World War I replicas, as an exercise for the students, to add to the museum's collection. The current batch includes a Morane Saulnier AI ,

368-510: The museum. The museum is housed at its own small private grass airfield , the Virginia Beach Airport , in the Pungo area of Virginia Beach, Virginia . The complex includes two display hangars (one on each side of the main museum building) in one group of buildings, and in another group, a replica World War I-era wooden hangar, a maintenance hangar (entirely new, but an exact replica of

391-591: Was a French aircraft manufacturing company formed in October 1911 by Raymond Saulnier and the Morane brothers , Léon and Robert. The company was taken over and diversified in the 1960s. Morane-Saulnier's first product was the Morane-Borel monoplane , a development of a monoplane design produced by the Morane company (sometimes called Type A) in partnership with Gabriel Borel). Using a wing-warping mechanism for control, this

414-688: Was a problem with the SPAD; as it turned out it was the AI that suffered structural problems. In parallel to the L the Morane-Saulnier BB was developed for the RFC, which was a Type P built as a biplane. Because the type 'BB' when pronounced in French sounds like Bebe (or baby), this became the type's nickname. Most of these types had no fixed fin, or horizontal stabilizer , with the result that they were not only very sensitive on

437-457: Was fitted with a machine gun firing through the propeller, which was fitted with metal plates to deflect any bullets that struck it. This was flown with success by Roland Garros , who would later be considered to be the first French Ace . A similar system was fitted to the Type N pending the arrival of other machine guns, which made the system workable. While flying his modified Type L, Garros crashed on

460-563: Was operated under German control and built a number of German types including the Fieseler Storch , known after the war as the Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquet. Morane-Saulnier also produced a number of trainer and civilian aircraft models, the best known of which was the successful "Rallye" series of four-seat STOL semi-aerobatic tourers (see picture above). Morane-Saulnier was purchased by Potez on 7 January 1962, and became SEEMS ,

483-731: Was originally located at Norfolk Airport , and later moved to premises at the Suffolk Municipal Airport in Suffolk, Virginia . It currently operates two facilities: one in Suffolk and a new facility (in the purpose-built hangar) at the museum. The museum offers guests the opportunity to fly in either the Waco YMF-5 or the Stearman N2S-3 . Both of the aircraft are open cockpit biplanes. Morane-Saulnier Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier

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506-457: Was the type in which Jules Védrines won the Paris-Madrid race on 26 May 1911. Morane-Saulnier's first commercially successful design was the Morane-Saulnier G , a wire-braced shoulder-wing monoplane with wing warping. This led to the development of a series of aircraft and was very successful in racing and setting records. The Type G was a 2-seater, and was reduced slightly in size to produce

529-411: Was then completely redesigned (though looking very similar) to make the Morane-Saulnier P which would be the basis for a whole family of aircraft developed in the 1920s. The Type N was developed into the larger and more powerful Morane-Saulnier I and the very similar Morane-Saulnier V , but these were not successful, being too powerful and having inadequate controls. The V was then redesigned to create

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