Dave and Jeanne Allen are well known in the antique airplane community as a husband-and-wife restoration team, tackling several Waco projects.
Blakesburg: Following the dream, preserving the memories
Back to Blakesburg has become an annual pilgrimage for many.
Alby’s remarkable journey across America
Alby was, at first, a mythical albatross that fledged in soaring pilot Sergio Colacevich’s mind. Sergio, a record-setting soaring pilot and a retired California Department of Transportation engineer, formally introduced the concept of Alby’s journey in the September 2008 issue of Soaring magazine. Described as a curious and adventurous young albatross, Alby, who was confined […]
Bücker Jungmeisters, times two
What could be nicer than building and flying your own Jungmeister? Why, having a buddy who’s doing the same! That’s precisely what Hank Galpin and Jay Billmayer have been up to for more than a decade. The two are longtime friends and hangar neighbors at Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, Montana. But first there […]
Flying through time
Ryan Lihs of Sioux City, Iowa, is an enthusiastic-yet-humble sort of aviator. When he flew his handsome black-and-gold biplane to Antique Airfield for the 2017 Antique Airplane Association Fly-In in Blakesburg, Iowa, this past Labor Day, numerous admirers were irresistibly drawn to it. He happily shared the history of his 1929 Pitcairn PA-6. In fact, […]
One Snazzy Super Ace
Whoa! What’s that sporty little airplane flying by? It looks like it’s flying right off the cover of the April 1935 issue of Popular Aviation! Truth be known, it’s one of O.G. “Ace” Corben’s homebuilt designs, and detailed factory drawings for this monoplane were published in sequential issues of Popular Aviation that year. The Corben […]
Back to Blakesburg
Come one, come all, from large to small — to Antique Airfield in Blakesburg, Iowa! The airplanes that fill the skies over Antique Airfield every Labor Day weekend are a treat to see and hear, and it isn’t unusual to spot a make or model you’ve not seen previously. Ever see an open-cockpit biplane in […]
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Earhart Commemorative Flight
Fifty years ago, Ann Holtgren Pellegreno departed Oakland, California, on June 9 in a restored 1937 twin-engine Lockheed 10 Electra. She and her crew followed the “Earhart Trail” eastbound around the world, and returned to Oakland July 7, 1967. Ann and her crew — mechanic Lee Koepke, the owner and restorer of Lockheed N79237; co-pilot […]
As cute as a bug: The Stits Flut-R-Bug
There doesn’t seem to be a great number of Stits Flut-R-Bugs flitting about the skies today, but one did join the field of flying machines this past Labor Day at the Antique Airplane Association fly-in at Blakesburg, Iowa. At age 85, owner/builder John Banes of Fairfax, Iowa, no longer flies, so his private pilot/homebuilder son, […]