Massive Warbird Collection Goes on the Block

Mark Phelps

Monday, July 01, 2013 at 10:05 PM ET

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** Courtesy of Military Aviation Museum**

Key Takeaways:

Gerry Yagen is selling his entire collection of 44 warbirds from the Military Aviation Museum due to financial burden, following the sale of his vocational tech schools that previously financed the museum.
The collection includes notable aircraft like a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a Focke Wulf Fw-190, and a de Havilland Dragon Rapide, with some aircraft already finding new homes.
A recently completed de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber restoration, slated for summer airshows, is also part of the sale, making its future airshow schedule uncertain.

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Gerry Yagen’s 44 warbirds were just too much of a financial burden, he said. So the entire collection is up for sale. Long financed by Yagen’s string of vocational tech schools, the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia, includes a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a Focke Wulf Fw-190 and a de Havilland Dragon Rapide painted in the colors of the King’s Guard, recalling the example owned and flown by England’s Prince Edward in the 1930s.

Four of Yagen’s schools have been sold, and the museum may close next. To date, several of Yagen’s aircraft have reportedly already found new homes, including the Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon (the B-17 and Fw-190).