We're too poor to fly at shows.. Our interior is set up as a Museum and Tribute to the Great Berlin Airlift. At over 200GPH fuel consumption + parts, maintenance and general wear and tear, It has to be an unusually sweet proposition for us to break down our setup, stop tours, (which stops our potential income for quite a long time), crank up wait around for our window wasting precious fuel, do the flypast or two, park, shut down, and re-set up for public touring.
Most of our operating capital is raised through the walk throughs, so for us to interrupt that for such a long long time has to be for a very special occasion.
We exhibit the C-54 primarily for Educational purposes. The Berlin Airlift was so very important to World history, and it gets very little attention in the history books. Keeping that memory alive is our mission. The flying is just a small part of what we do.
If you've toured the interior of the aircraft, you can easily see what we're all about. A 4 engined transport is a very expensive bird to maintain, and we dont get the same draw that a bomber gets, so that limits what we are able to do.
I hope you enjoy seeing the plane around the country, our very small team of volunteers work very very hard to keep it going. And its getting harder and harder to do with the costs of gas, parts and insurance.
If you want to help ease the burden, get involved! We're easy. Visit our website at
www.spiritoffreedom.org and help keep the C-54 going! You can also get involved with our Boeing C-97! A long term project, but nearing completion!
Great website, by the way!
Kevin Kearney
Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation
C-54 "Spirit of Freedom"
C-97 "Angel of Deliverance"
www.spiritoffreedom.org