Fly-in or drive to Wings Over Miami for a Memorial Day weekend salute to our Veterans! Set aside your Saturday for a fun-filled day of Bluegrass music and classic planes!

The gates open at 11 am on Saturday, May 26, 2012. The music starts at 1:00 pm and runs into the evening. Bring your comfortable lawn chairs and your favorite veteran!

Check back for additional information about the event. Event partners will be offering hotel and car rental discounts.

If you would like to contact the museum about this event, please click here and fill in the form.

You have only a day and half left to visit the museum and the Collings Foundation Bombers.  Take advantage of the admission discount and get to see both Wings Over Miami and tour the bombers for one low entry fee. The cost for both activities is $15.00 for adults and $10.00 for children.  This visit is a fund raiser for both the Collings Foundation and the Museum.

These planes will not fly forever. These are the last B-24 and B-17 flying — your next opportunity to see them may be only in a museum.  Come on out and support the mission. Help keep the planes flying!

We have extended Museum hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The aircraft visiting will include, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine O Nine” WWII Heavy Bomber, Consolidated B-24 Liberator “Witchcraft” WWII Heavy Bomber and a P-51 Mustang.

This is a rare opportunity to visit, explore, and learn more about these unique and rare treasures of aviation history. The B-17 is one of only 10 in flying condition in the United States, the B-24J and Full Dual Control P-51C Mustang are the sole remaining examples of their type flying in the World.

The Wings of Freedom Tour will arrive at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport at 2:00 p.m. on January 31 and will be on display at Wings Over Miami Air Museum at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport until the aircraft departs February 3 at 12:00 p.m.

Hours of aircraft ground tours and display are:

• 2:00 p.m. through 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 31st
• 9:00 a.m. through 5:00  p.m. on Wednesday, February 1st
• 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 2nd
• 9:00 a.m. through 12:00 p.m. on Friday, February 3rd

The 30-minute flight experiences are normally scheduled before and after the ground tour times listed.

Please note that the cost for interior tours of the planes are separate from the museum entry fees.

Click here to go to the Collings Foundation website for more information about the aircraft and costs of flights and tours.

This original B-1 Brown Racer NR83Y was donated to our museum courtesy of the Louis G. Russo Estate.

Manufactured in 1933, this aircraft, in addition other racing accomplishments, won the 1934 Miami All American Air Races,  held at the old Miami Municipal Airport.  This little aircraft was piloted by famous race pilot Ralph Bushey.

If you look at the plane, the area for the pilot to sit is extremely narrow. In fact, a pilot needed to be jockey-sized to fit in the seat and even then there was little room to spare.

Lawrence Brown, of Santa Monica, California, experimented and designed a number of highly regarded race planes in the 1020′s and 30′s. His best known racers were the Brown racers designated as the B-1, B-2, and B-3.

While the plane’s serial number, 88-12821, is still the original, the airplane took on a new look as a 1949 LTA-6G. Accomplishing this task of being true to design required a momentous amount of research and study by Walt, Vinny Tirado and crew chief Harry Adams. All the detailed documentation for the restoration project has resulted in the compilation of the most thorough information and documents around on this type of aircraft.

This aircraft is as true as it can be to the original. In spite of a few parts being re-manufactured because they just did not exist any longer and the adding of other items, such as the GPS, that were a common sense addition, being authentic was Orth’s goal. They did the research, and then searched high and low for the genuine pieces to make the aircraft true to the original design. Many of the armament details are the real thing. The rocket launcher rails are from the Korean War and many of the other machine gun parts are genuine as well.

The armaments include an aircraft gun and rocket cameras installed in the left wing and gun sights in the cockpit including a realistic and functioning armament panel.  Also display ed are two .30 cal gun pods with original .30 cal gun barrels under each wing as well as four bomb racks with fairings and rocket rails, each holding three rockets for a total of twelve rockets, six of the HE (high explosive type) and six of the WP (white phosphorous) type. These ordinance stores are all authentic Korean War collectibles.

The rockets are recent fabrications and are not real. Attention was paid to the rockets to make sure that they are a very accurate representation of how they looked.

This aircraft was restored very accurately to represent the LTA-6G Korean War aircraft as attached to the famous Mosquito Squadrons of the United States Fifth Air Force. T6G aircraft arose from earlier model AT6 aircraft (A - F models) that were re-manufactured post WWII by North American or in the field. They were used as liaison (surveillance) and ground attack aircraft during the Korean War.  These aircraft were assigned to the 6147 and 6148th TAC (Tactical Control Groups) attached to the 5th Air Force in Korea.

Duty Stations for Night Rider:

• Taegu AB, South Korea, (August – October 1950)
• Kimpo AB, South Korea (October 1950)
• Seoul Afld, South Korea, (October 1950)
• Pyongyang East Adrm, North Korea, (October – November 1950)
• Taegu AB, South Korea, (November 1950 – March 1951)
• Pyongtaek Adrm, South Korea, (March 1951 – April 1952)
• Chunchon, South Korea, (April 1952 – July 1953)

The beautiful aircraft was a labor of love for the restoration team. It represents a dream accomplished for Walt Orth, a work of art for restorer Vinny Tirado and a bittersweet moment for Korean War veteran, Harry Adams, who as a Marine was wounded during the war that birthed the aircraft design.

What a great achievement for everyone involved in this restoration!

Over 90 automobiles showed up and parked for speculators to look at and admire. There was a bit of flying by Wings classic planes and some lucky person won a warbird flight! That is about as good as it gets!

Here are a few photos for you to enjoy. Takes you right down memory lane…

Each year for the past four years, the Sunshine Corvette Club and the  Antique Automobile Club of the South Florida Region have joined forces to present a great car show  at Wings Over Miami. They park their beautiful classic and antique cars out with the Wings planes to allow the spectators to enjoy classic automobiles among our own version of  the classics.

This event is a fundraiser for the clubs and they make a donation to the museum’s operational fund as well.  Come on out and get a glimpse of some wonderful automobiles from the past!

To bring your car to display, click here to be taken to the form and rules. For additional information, please call the numbers on the bottom of the information sheet.

Cost of Admission

What a great time we had in spite of the gray clouds around us! We didn’t get to fly as much as we had planned for and unfortunately, some of our guest planes were stuck on the wrong side of the weather, but we did get to see the Demoiselle up in the air and had some great fly-bys!

Thank you to all of our sponsors and our guests for helping make this event a success.  Check back soon for photos from the event. Some nice people have posted a few of their shots on our Facebook page. Please add yours if you would like!

Click here to visit our Media Page  and the Fly-In photos albums! The photos are complements of photographers who attended the Fly-In! Thank you for sharing your talents with us!