One of our side projects requires some engine work, so when it was time to go looking for Continental parts, we decided to do an inventory of C-85 parts on hand. Turns out we have quite a bit more than we thought.

We’re going through everything and deciding what to send out to have cleaned up and fixed and what will just stay here for future parts needs.

It’s always fun to see so much flying machinery gathered together. And it’s fun to get a sneak peak at the museum’s latest project in the background (along with the tail of the Waco QCF-2 on the right). It’s an airplane designed for speed and little else, and we hope to start full time work on the restoration soon.

We have been busy working on the Stinson lately and much of the recent work has focused on the cabin. Even though much of the wood was in bad condition on the airplane, most of it has been in good enough shape to use as templates for the new material.

The doors have been particularly tricky as it is always challenging to make the door match the old door, but also match the door frame. You end up needing to take small steps to ensure everything fits, while constantly comparing new door to old door, new frame to old door, old frame to new door, new door to new frame, old frame to new frame…let’s just say there is a fair amount of going back and forth.

A look from the top of the Stinson into the baggage compartment.

The baggage door and rear passenger window are slowly starting to look like they should. It’s been a challenge making everything fit into the 70+ year old airframe. But the end result will be a magnificent looking airplane.

Excited to let passengers look at the North Cascades out this window…

Much of the work on the right side of the cabin is progressing nicely, while you can still see much of the original wood is still in place on the left side.

We’ve also been distracted lately by a new project that has been pulled down from the rafters and should be going full speed ahead in the coming months. Not ready to unveil it yet, but let’s just say full speed ahead was the motto when the plane was flying back in the 1930s as well. Yale alumni will be proud.

Keep checking in for more restoration pictures on the Stinson and pictures from this newest project soon.

Well after a long delay, we’re finally getting around to putting up the Piper Clipper photos we took earlier in the fall. It was another one of those beautiful evenings with great light and a great looking airplane. This is the airplane that won Grand Champion for classic aircraft this year at the Arlington Fly In (the museum’s Ryan ST-A and Mooney Mite also won awards).

We’ve also added a page in the aircraft section for the Clipper. We still have lots of airplanes to add, including the rest of our short wing Piper collection. Once the Vagabond is finished, we’ll have an incredible collection of all the short wing Pipers looking better than they did coming out of the factory.

Our goal is to one day have part of one of our display hangars looking like a Piper showroom with our Colt, Vagabond, Clipper, Pacer and Tri-Pacer all displayed proudly. In the meantime, we’ll have to settle for just flying them in the nice evening light.

Below are just a few more of the photos from the Clipper page.