Aristotle’s famous quote “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” was the perfect adage to describe an important aircraft restoration conference recently hosted by the USS Midway Museum.
“The goal of our summit was to build a strong network amongst aviation museums,” said Steve Smith, Midway airwing director. “We wanted to share solutions to concerns, new products and restoration techniques with the aircraft restoration teams at other aviation museums. The network has a great source of parts to trade, donate or sell. Creating an historical aircraft co-op can go a long way to reducing the financial burden of fabricating parts or molds by sharing the cost with other museums.”
Twenty five aircraft restoration professionals from eight aviation museums participated in the two-day warbird summit on Midway. The conference combined a series of lectures and roundtable discussions that shared information on restoration processes, best practices and problem solving, and issues management as it relates to restoring historic military aircraft.
“It was great to gather together so many like-minded and enthusiastic restoration specialists, and pick each other’s brains,” said Steve, who joined the Midway team in 2023. “We all have significant experiences in bringing historical aircrafts back to life, and this conference provided an excellent opportunity to share those experiences.”
Along with Midway’s airwing team, museums participating in the summit included the China Lake Museum, Classic Rotors Museum, Fort Worth Aviation Museum, Flying Leathernecks Museum, Aerospace Museum of California, Western Museum of Flight and the Estrella Warbird Museum.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Midway is home to more than 30 restored military aircraft ranging from planes flown during World War II to models that are still in active service with the Navy and Marine Corps today. Working with a diverse collection of aircraft, both in design and age, has been a source of pride for the museum’s airwing.
“We’re very fortunate that the Midway Museum is and remains at the tip of the spear for the restoration and preservation of vintage military aircraft,” said Steve. “We were excited to host this warbird restoration summit. It was a big success and will pay great dividends for all of us in the future.”
Comments are closed.