Mike wrote:
kalamazookid wrote:
Kalamazoo's Hellcat has been moved to an addition on the new facility that doesn't have runway access, so it would appear that its flying days are over for the foreseeable future. I hate to be a pessimist, but I don't think we'll see that one in the air again unless the Air Zoo has financial trouble and has to sell off part of its collection.
At least there's hope, with the Bearcat and Tigercat escaping into the wild again, that we might see the Hellcat move on at some point in the future. Nothing against the Kalamazoo folks, and I've yet to visit there myself, but a friend who recently visited described it as more of a theme park than an aircraft museum and was seriously unimpressed. I just hate to see collections of previously-airworthy aircraft being parked up (Pond, Champlin, Kalamazoo, Weeks, Yanks, etc)
Alas, he is correct. I checked out the new addition and it's just as crowded as the aircraft were at the old facility. It's nice that most of the aircraft are together now at the new facility, but in parts it seems as if the aircraft are simply being used as set dressing. Again, nothing against the people at the museum, but it seems to be less of a museum and more of a tourist attraction these days. I guess I just miss the low-key flying museum days. I'd rather see a couple airworthy aircraft in a dirty, working hangar than a bunch of static aircraft in a shiny, pretty building.
As for the Hellcat, I was told by a museum docent once that the aircraft does have combat history and actually served on the USS Shangri-La. I don't know whether that's true or not, but I'd be interested to hear more if anyone knows the full story. The Air Zoo Hellcat was a big reason I got hooked on warbirds (and not jets) as a kid and I really miss seeing her flying around town.
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