AirshowStuff Forums

I'm on the Board of Directors for an open house and Air Show in Michigan. I've got an odd question, that I am hoping some of you may be able to help me with. I am looking for aviation museums, or even private owned military planes, in the Great Lakes Region that have flight worthy aircraft like the Yankee Air Museum and Liberty Aviation Museum? That bring them to airshows either for static or a few passes? I've been searching, but so many of the museums websites don't indicate if their aircraft are flight worthy. I'm looking to invite more aircraft to participate in our future events.. Thanks in advance for your help.

Warbird Heritage Foundation in Waukegan, IL

In a normal year there are also some jets in Ontario - Waterloo Warbirds and Jet Air Museum

Mike Terfehr has the Black Knight T-33 in Traverse City, plus an L-39 and possibly more. Not sure where the MiG-17 lives these days.

The Tom Wood collection near Indy has a ton of awesome stuff.

Someone like Brett and Aaron can probably help a lot more

Some others to consider:

Tri-State Warbird Museum in Batavia, Ohio has a P-51, B-25 and TBM. They also have a P-40M and FW-190, but I have not heard of them making appearances away from the museum since the P-40 appeared at Oshkosh about four years ago. https://www.tri-statewarbirdmuseum.org

Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana, Ohio has a B-25 and a C-1 Trader, though I'm not sure if the C-1 is available for airshows yet. https://www.champaignaviationmuseum.org/booking

Wings of the North in Eden Prairie, Minnesota has a P-51, F4U-4 and TBM. They are all quite active. https://wotn.org

There's also TBM Avenger, Inc. out of Peru, Illinois. https://tbmavenger.com

You could also try contacting an EAA Warbirds of America squadron like Warbird Squadron 4 (https://www.warbirdsquadron4.org) or Cincinnati Warbirds (https://warbirds.clubexpress.com) to see if they would have any leads. Lastly, I believe Nostalgic Flights has helped book warbird performers before and they may be some help. http://www.nostalgicflights.com

Please post information on your event when you are able! I'm originally from Michigan and love going back to support events when I can. Best of luck!