USS Midway Museum's 20th Anniversary Series: Airwing Department

Welcome back to Midway's 20th-anniversary blog series, where we highlight a specific Museum department every month, looking back at the department’s early days and the developments it has experienced over the last 20 years.

Today, our eighth article in this series dives into the development of Midway's Airwing Department.

The USS Midway Museum’s airwing department is the oldest entity within the museum.  Thanks to the work of retired Navy Captains John Iarrobino and Mo Peele, old Hangar 805 on the northern shoreline of Naval Air Station North Island was handed over to the organization in February 2001, nearly three years before the Midway arrived in San Diego.

Not long after acquiring the old hangar, the first aircraft to officially join our collection arrived for restoration: a Vought A-7B Corsair II with a bird’s nest in the 20mm gun port, a Grumman E-2C Hawkeye and an A-6E Intruder, and eventually, a Bell UH-1 Huey helicopter. 

Jim Redfield, one of Midway’s first volunteers, quickly organized and oversaw an ad hoc aircraft restoration team. Their resurrection efforts of the aircraft on hand were so effective that the A-7 was featured in the Coronado Independence Day parade later that year.

In January 2004, the Midway arrived in San Diego Bay, stopping for several days at North Island to onload these first four aircraft. It wasn’t until June that the USS Midway Museum opened at her permanent berth at Navy Pier with the quartet proudly displayed.

The instant popularity of the museum prompted more transfers of vintage naval aircraft for restoration and display, and in short order, a string of famed aircraft was barged across the bay from North Island and craned aboard, including an F-14 Tomcat, S-3 Viking, T-2 Buckeye, SH-3 Sea King, and SH-2 Seasprite. An SNJ trainer aircraft and C-1 Trader arrived in September 2004. The C-1 had served as the Midway’s Carrier Onboard Delivery aircraft during the Vietnam War. By the end of the year, a pair of F-4 Phantoms reported aboard, one of which was the last Navy Phantom to take to the sky for its delivery flight to Hangar 805.

When Aubrey Brittain took over management of Midway’s Restoration Team in the summer of 2004, Midway’s airwing rapidly accelerated its aircraft acquisition. The museum soon obtained an F-8K Crusader, A-4F Skyhawk, F/A-18A Hornet, TBM Avenger, F9F Panther and F9F-8P Cougar, RA-5 Vigilante, SBD Dauntless dive bomber, EKA-3 Skywarrior, and H-34 Sea Bat. Additionally, a former Swedish Air Force A-1 Skyraider was purchased from a private source in September 2007. 

About this time, Walt Loftus reported aboard after a career at the very paint facility on North Island that applied the markings to all our aircraft. Under Walt’s leadership, the airwing staff established a detachment aboard Midway to continue the upkeep of exhibited aircraft and other aviation-related displays like the aircraft cockpits, ordnance, and ejection seats. To allow for more in-depth inspections and repair of aircraft on display, Walt helped develop a schedule of rotating individual planes from the ship back to Hangar 805.

While repairs continued over the years, more new arrivals alighted on Midway’s deck, including a HUP Retriever, FJ-3 Fury, EA-6B Prowler, SH-60 Seahawk, and HO3S Dragonfly. Years prior, an F4F Wildcat recovered from Lake Michigan arrived in anticipation of the opening of the Battle of Midway exhibit in December 2013. Followed by an F4U-4 Corsair delivered on a special lease from a private owner.

The only non-carrier aircraft in the museum’s inventory, a Cessna O-1 Birddog, has enjoyed a pride of place with our Operation Frequent Wind exhibit since its arrival in March 2010.  Although not a genuine aircraft, in 2019, a nearly full-sized replica of a TBD Devastator torpedo bomber constructed for the filming of the motion picture “Midway” was purchased and is now included with the Wildcat and Dauntless aircraft displays in the museum’s Battle of Midway exhibit space.

In 2020, the pandemic slowed operations down, but that did not prevent the subsequent arrival of the F7U Cutlass and C-2 Greyhound. Today, with more than 30 aircraft in Midway’s inventory, the museum boasts one of the most complete and well-maintained collections of shipboard naval aircraft in the world. 

This incredible collection would not have been possible without the beneficence of naval personnel at North Island and the dedication of Midway’s own aircraft restoration “green shirt” volunteers whose labor of love is to keep carrier aviation an educational and inspirational experience for the millions of guests visiting the museum.