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Military Aviation Museum
By A. Kevin Grantham and Stan Piet
The de Havilland Dragon Rapide. One of the museum’s crown jewels. This particular airplane was originally built in 1944 and is restored to resemble the aircraft that was ordered by the Prince of Whales in 1935. (A. Kevin Grantham)Virginia Beach, Va. is well known as one of the best places on the east coast to visit and enjoy the surf and sand of the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the home of Gerald “Jerry” Yagen’s Military Air Museum, which is quickly becoming a major attraction for the resort town.
The museum was established in 2005 and is located on the privately owned Virginia Beach Airport in Pungo, Va. It is only about a 15-minute drive from the shore to the museum. The first hint that something special is ahead is when the red and white water tower appears on the horizon. The museum’s 1930s era hangars come into site a few yards farther down Princess Anne road, and as you turn into the entrance you are instantly greeted by some wonderful dinosaur sculptures. This is not exactly something one would expect to see in a somewhat rural area of Virginia, or for that matter at an air museum. But seeing these colorful static creatures brought back fond memories of the roadside attractions that littered the United States during the post-World War II pre-interstate era. No doubt Yagen had that in mind when designing his Jurassic Park gallery.
World War I Aircraft
By Alan Smith
The Curtiss JN-4 ‘Jenny” that trained U.S. Army pilots prior to their travel to France to fly French fighter aircraft. (Photo byBrian Karli at Amarillo Texas in 1918/Holcomb’s Aerodrome)When gunfire began in the First World War, the airplane was just 11 years old and had been in competition for five years. In America, however, the airplane was still an aerodynamic juvenile. No one had thought about using it to wage war. That would quickly change.
The Europeans had moved far ahead of the U.S. in aircraft design and manufacturing, largely due to the willingness of their governments to invest in aviation. In 1913, for example, the French allocated $7.4 million for aircraft development while the U.S government spent a mere $125,000. As a result, during the opening years of World War I the American aviators were still flying fragile Wright and Curtiss pusher biplanes. While European designers were busy developing relatively high-performance combat aircraft, American exhibition pilot Lincoln Beachey and race car driver Barney Oldfield were amusing spectators by chasing each other around dirt racetracks. It was almost as though Americans had not yet figured out what an airplane could be used for.