Named after the man who founded it, the Cavanaugh Flight Museum is home to an impressive collection of aircraft, many of which are airworthy. The museum opened its doors in 1993, when local entrepreneur Jim Cavanaugh put his collection of classic aircraft on public display. Since then the collection has developed into a superb museum which, thanks to a deal with the Commemorative Air Force (CAF), can call itself home to the airworthy B-29 Superfortress “Fifi” and B-24 Liberator “Ol’ 927”.
The decision by the CAF to base these unique aircraft with the museum represents a major coup and reflects the large amount of sponsorship money donated to the B-29 project by Jim Cavanaugh. The Superfortress has been a hugely popular aircraft for the CAF for many years, but by 2005 the aircraft was suffering from serious reliability issues with its Curtiss Wright R-3350-57AM engines and was grounded pending a solution being found and implemented. An ambitious project was started to replace the B-29’s original engines with a custom built hybrid engine (a combination of R-3350-95W and R-3350-26WD engines), in a bid to increase its reliability and also improve the availability of spare parts.
The big problem with this project was the cost – funding was not available initially, so the aircraft remained grounded for several years. In the end, Jim Cavanaugh, a long time CAF member himself offered to sponsor the engine replacement project to the tune of $1.2m, in exchange for the CAF basing the B-29 (along with their B-24) at his museum in Dallas.
This offer was accepted enthusiastically and the aircraft arrived in 2010. Basing the B-29 and B-24 at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum allows a great number of people to see the aircraft up close. Currently the aircraft are housed in a hangar some distance from the main museum, but a regular shuttle service takes visitors across the airfield to visit them. Both aircraft spend approximately six months out of the year at the airfield, with the remainder of the time being spent on tour throughout the US.
While at Addison Airport, these wonderful bombers are open for public inspection – for a small donation tours of the interior are also possible. On the day I visited I was able to take a fascinating tour of the B-29 cockpit – what struck me more than anything was the contrast with the B-17 cockpit – only a couple of years separate these two aircraft from the same manufacturer, but the B-29 is much more spacious and modern looking, an indication of how quickly technology progressed in the wartime years.
Both aircraft are also flown fairly regularly – in addition to training and maintenance flights, it is also possible for members of the public to fly in these bombers, for a suitable donation. Most sought after (and therefore expensive) seat is of course the bomb aimer’s position in the B-29, a truly incredible opportunity. On the day of my visit, the B-24 was performing crew training and passenger flights and in fact I was awoken in the morning by the sound of the Liberator thundering over my hotel – wonderful!
Visitors are also able to fly in a number of other aircraft in the museum collection proper. Although somewhat dominated by the CAF bombers, the museum collection is really very good in its own right, including a superb selection of WWII era fighters and some unusual modern types. Most of these aircraft are immaculately restored and presented.
One of the most interesting is the museum’s CASA-2111E, the Spanish version of the Heinkel He-111. This aircraft was operated by the Spanish Air Force and was one of the aircraft which took part in the filming of “Battle of Britain” in 1969, necessitating the addition of a suitable Luftwaffe colour scheme. Incredibly, after filming was completed the aircraft returned to Spanish service, going on to serve until 1975! Apparently the last CASA-2111E in service, the museum’s aircraft has even conducted operations in the Western Sahara in 1974. It was acquired by the collection in 1995 and is currently painted in the wartime Luftwaffe colours of KG51.
An aircraft sharing a similar background is the Cavanaugh Flight Museum’s Hispano HA-112 Buchon. The Buchon is of course the Spanish version of the Me-109. The museum’s aircraft was actually built in Germany in 1943 and shipped to Spain ahead of Spanish production. Post-war it was fitted with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine and remained in Spanish service until 1967. It was also one of the aircraft assembled for filming “Battle of Britain”.
Allied fighters and bombers are also very well represented – amongst others, the museum has immaculate examples of the B-25 Mitchell, Grumman Wildcat and Grumman Avenger. Especially nice is the Curtiss P-40N Warhawk, painted in the ubiquitous colours of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) in China during the early part of WWII – the legendary “Flying Tigers”.
From the post-WWII era come several very interesting and unusual machines. The Grumman F9F-2B Panther is painted in the spectacular colour scheme it wore when serving with VF-721 “Starbusters” during the Korean War. With the exception of the F-86 Sabre, airworthy jet aircraft from the Korean era are rare, which makes the Panther a particularly impressive exhibit.
The opposing side in the Korean War is represented by a MiG-15UTI, or more accurately a SBLim-2, the Polish built two seat version of the famous Russian jet fighter. This Polish theme is continued with examples of the MiG-17F, MiG-21 and PZL Iskra on static display. All of these are ex-Polish Air Force aircraft, although only the Iskra now carries Polish markings.
From the Vietnam War comes one of the most unusual aircraft on display. The de Havilland CV-2 (C-7) Caribou. The Caribou was originally ordered by the US Army in the early 1960s and used during the Vietnam War as a STOL transport, able to operate into rough strips. Later transferred to the USAF, the Caribou fleet continued in service with the ANG and Army National Guard until the early 1990s. The Cavanaugh Flight Museum’s Caribou is painted in its original US Army colours and looks wonderful. It is also airworthy and flies regularly – an aircraft which must make for a very striking sight, and one which I would very much like to catch in the future.
In the hangars which house the airworthy aircraft in the collection, it is possible for visitors to see up close maintenance and restoration work being conducted. Amongst others, the museum’s Skyraider and Yak-9M were present undergoing work, the open panels well illustrating the quality of the restoration work. There was also a glimpse of a future aircraft for the collection in the form of a partly restored P-47 fuselage.
The fact that so many of the aircraft are airworthy gives the Cavanaugh Flight Museum a busy, working feel and on the day of my visit, several aircraft were parked out on the ramp in the (intermittent) sunshine; this certainly seemed popular with visitors. As well as the airworthy machines there are plenty of non-flying exhibits, such as an F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom.
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