The Lone Star Flight Museum is an aerospace museum located in Ellington Airport, Houston, Texas. In this museum, you will see 24 historically significant aircraft as well as different artifacts that are related to the history of flight. The collection that the Lone Star Museum has is considered to be rare because all of the aircraft there are flyable. In this article, we are going to find out the history of the Lone Star Flight Museum and the historic aircraft that you can see there.
History
In 1985, the museum’s collection began as a private collection of historic aircraft. When the 90s came, the collection started to grow, that its owner finally decided to put them on public display. It became the Lone Star Flight Museum, and it began as a non-profit organization that was fully funded through private donations, and it was initially formed for that purpose.
When Hurricane Ike struck Texas in September 2008, the museum reported massive damage such as hangars and Hall of Fame sunk in seven to eight feet of water. Some of the damaged aircraft was a B-58A and an F-100 that was on loan from the US Air Force Museum. Dehavilland DH-82A, Consolidated FBA-5A, Grumman F3F-2, Stinson L-5, and Lockheed PV-2D, On the other hand, aircrafts such as the B-25, F6F, DC-3, B-17, F4U, PT-17, F8F, and T6, were all flown out of harm’s way in advance flown out of the museum before the hurricane struck Texas. Those remaining that remained in the museum got destroyed mainly or heavily damaged. The PBY-5A was transferred to the Pima Air and Space Museum, and he B-58 went to Little Rock Air Force Base.
After the destruction of Hurricane Ike, the museum’s management decided to move to Ellington International Airport in Houston. They worked with the Collings Foundation as well as the Texas Flying Legends so that they can build an aviation museum complex. In 2014, the museum was given a $7.6 million donation from FEMA. That is why the next year, the museum was able to broke the ground for its new location. The opening was initially scheduled on September 1, 2017. However, it was postponed to September 16 because of Hurricane Harvey.
Lone Star Flight Museum’s Aircraft Collection
- Fairchild PT-19 Cornell
- General Motors TBM Avenger – Hurricane Ike damaged it on September 13, 2008.[38]
- Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star 51-6953
- Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17
- North American B-25J Mitchell 44-86734
- North American SNJ-5 Texan 85053
- Piper L-4 Grasshopper
- Republic P-47D Thunderbolt 44-90368 Tarheel Hall
- Stinson L-5 Sentinel 42-98798 – Hurricane Ike damaged it on September 13, 2008.
- Vought F4U-5N Corsair 121881
- Bell TAH-1P Cobra 76-22599
- Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 44-85718 Thunderbird
- Boeing N2S-3 Kaydet 7718
- Boeing N2S-5 Kaydet 38490
- Cessna 172E Skyhawk
- Douglas A-1D Skyraider 126882
- Douglas DC-3 2213
- Douglas A-24B Dauntless 42-54682
Most working airplanes in the museum’s collection often participate in airshows across the United States. As of 2005, the museum’s aircraft logs more than 40,000 miles of cross-country flying to various air demonstrations every year.
