Warbirds over the Beach airshow, Virginia Beach Airport, Pungo, Virginia

Virginia Beach Airport is owned by the founder of the Military Aviation Museum and the Fighter Factory, Gerald "Jerry" Yagen. Several large modern hangars are complemented by one imported from the German military airfield of Cottbus, near Berlin, and a wooden purpose-built WW1 hangar.

The airshow was held on the weekend of the 20th and 21st of May, with an arrivals and rehearsals day on Friday the 19th. The museum's amazing collection of warbirds was complemented by several visitors, including some from the Commemorative Air Force. Because of poor weather on the Saturday, airshow flying was limited to the Sunday.

The show itself was disappointing, consisting of the warbirds circling in fours at one end of the airfield, some distance from the crowd, with no flybys or photo passes, so photography was limited to taxying, takeoffs and landings. It was also a shame that the museum's Me262, based away from the airport because it can't operate from grass runways, went tech, as did the Ju52, which was limited to taxying. But at least we saw the Mossie fly, including in a distant formation with the Spitfire and Hurricane!

Aircraft Reg'n Thumbs Notes
Albatros DVa replica N482UT 'D5397/17' Ex D-EGKO, G-BFXL and was on display at the FAA Museum, Yeovilton.
Avro 504K replica 'H5991'  
Beech A36 Bonanza N1592L On photo duties.
Beech G18S N9918R Visitor
Beech M35 Bonanza N9819R Visitor
Beech T-34A Mentor N56NT 550221 2P-0221 117 US Navy markings. Ex N53GP.
Bell P-63A Kingcobra 42-68941 N191H Commemoratve AF, USAF markings. Bell retained this as a test aircraft. Ex N75488 (NX75488).
Bell P-63A Kingcobra 42-70609 White 17 Russian AF. Origins uncertain.
Bleriot XI-2 replica N791X Built in Canada as C-FBLW, crashed on its first flight in Quebec in August 2012. Now completely rebuilt.
Bleriot XI-2 replica N913BL 30 Built in 2015 by Pierre Racette, who also built N791X. This looks much more like C-FBLW than N791X does. Explanation welcome...
Boeing P-26D Peashooter replica NX26PX (N26PX) 6  
Boeing Stearman B75N1 PT-17 N2S-3 Kaydet 41-25254 N41EE 743 US Navy. Ex N52507.
Bucker (Doflug) Bu-133C Jungmeister N38BU (NX38BU) Ex Swiss AF U-91, HB-MIW, G-AYSJ, D-EHVP.
CASA 352L (Junkers Ju52) N352JU (NX352JU) as '1Z+AR' Ex Spanish AF T.2B-176, N99059.
Cessna 177B Cardinal N30805 Visitor
Cessna 180 N9172C Visitor
Cessna 182S Skylane N9342F Visitor
Cessna 182T N576CA Civil Air Patrol
Cessna 305A L-19 O-1 Bird Dog N112MC Marked as USAF '01397'.
Cirrus SR22 N899AM Visitor
Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina 48294 N9521C US Navy
Control tower   This watch office was imported brick by brick from Goxhill Airfield, south of the Humber at Hull, UK. Goxhill opened in 1941 and used mainly for training by the USAAF.
Cottbus Hangar   Designed to be transportable, this 1934 hangar is from Cottbus, near Berlin, where, along with Luftwaffe operations, Focke Wulf produced Fw200s, Fw190s and Ta152s.
Curtiss C-46F Commando 44-78774 N78774 Commemorative AF "The Tinker Belle". Ex PanAm N74178, Riddle Airlines, Argonaut Airways, Ortner Air Services N608SE.
Curtiss JN-4D Jenny NX6898C (N6898C) 34135  
Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk 1A 41-35927 N1941P (NX1941P) 108 Ex RAF ET573, Russian AF 1025. Recovered in 1992 and restored, mainly in New Zealand by 2003.
Curtiss-Ely Model D Pusher replica NX44VY (N44VY) The first plane to land on a US ship - the start of naval aviation. More of this on my Oshkosh 2011 page.
De Havilland Canada DH98 Mosquito FB26 KA114 N114KA EG-Y Restored by Avspecs in New Zealand as ZK-MOS.
De Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk T10 N559WK WK559 RAF
De Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth II N6463 T-5525 Ex T5525, VH-BFO, VT-CSZ, CF-EIQ.
De Havilland DH89A Mk6 Dragon Rapide NX89DH (N89DH) 'G‑ADDD' Ex HG724, G-AKPA, EI-AML, F-BLHZ. In King's Flight markings.
Douglas AD-4 Skyraider 123827 N23827 (NX23827) B-501 US Navy. Ex N54162.
Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless 54532 NL82GA (N82GA) 5 Commemorative AF. US Navy. Ex NL94513 (N94513), Mexican AF, XB-QUC, N54532.
Fairchild J2K-2 F-24R Argus N81348 Commemorative AF. US Coast Guard Miss Cherie II.
Fairchild M-62A PT-19A Cornell 42-83643 N129PT 129 USAF.
Fairchild M-62A PT-19A Cornell N323CJ 23 USAF 'Amelia', unknown serial, c/n T43-5778. I had a ride out to the coast and back in this - lovely.
Fiat G-46-3B MM53091 N46FM Italian AF. Ex I-AEHX.
Fieseler Fi103 V-1   Flying bomb in the museum entrance hall.
Fighter Factory hangar    
Flug Werk FW-190A replica N190BR  
Flug Werk FW-190D replica N623TB as 'Black 12 210079'  
Focke Wulf Fw-44J Stieglitz N183FW D-2692 Stieglitz = goldfinch. German AF markings, ex LV-YYX, D-EHDH, OO-JKT, G-STIG.
Focke Wulf Fw-190A N90FW 732183 Black 4  
Fokker CI replica N817BP as '17268/18'  
Fokker DR1 replica N14TJ as '1730 FI103/17'  
Fokker DR1 replica N900TP as '581/17'  
Fokker DR1 replica PU-JDZ '0425 425/17' Redfern Fokker - one of a series built by Wimpy Redfern in Idaho from plans with input from Peter M Bowers and Reinhold Platz, one of the original designers.
Fokker D-VI replica N29WR A replica from the Walter Redfern Company.
Fokker D-VII replica N1918F  
Fokker D-VII replica N1918P as '6880/18'  
Fokker D-VIII replica NX8105D (N8105D)  
Fokker EIII Eindecker replica N915E as '419/15'  
Grumman (GM) FM-2 Wildcat 47030 NL315E (N315E) 30 US Navy
Grumman (GM) TBM-3E Avenger 53454 N7030C (NR7030C) 10 US Marines
Grumman (GM) TBM-3E Avenger 91426 N40402 P87 Commemorative AF, US Navy "Doris Mae". Ex Canadian Navy 91426, CF-MUE.
Halberstadt CL-IV replica N6175J German AF markings.
Hawker (CC&F) Hurricane IIB N943HH as 'V6793 DZ-O' RAF markings - ex Canadian AF 5667, N2549.
Jerry Yagen   Jerry in the scarf, with Mark Todd, a Commemorative AF pilot.
Laister-Kauffman LK-10 Yankee Doodle 2 TG-4A N51462 Yankee Doodle 2 is the manufacturer's name for the model.
Lavochkin La-9 Fritz N415ML White 28 Russian AF markings. Ex Russian AF, Chinese AF, G-BWUD of OFMC, restored in New Zealand as ZK-LIX.
Lippisch P 13a replica   There are several other German WW2 project (re)creations in the hangar..
Messerschmitt Bf109G N109GY 19257 Black 1 German AF. Restored as D-BOON.
MiG-3 N107FB (NX107FB) White 17 Russian AF. Composite Russian restoration based on an airframe found in Murmansk in 2001.
Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 floatplane 02892 N120BH US Navy
Nieuport 11 scale replica fuselage N982 7/8 scale. French AF markings as 'Vieux Charles' of Georges Guynemer.
Nieuport 17 replica NX1918C (N1918C) 42  
Nord 1002 Pingouin II (Messerschmitt Bf108) N108ZZ (NX108ZZ) 258 Yellow 4 German AF markings.
Nord 1101 Noralpha (Messerschmitt Bf208) N208K (NX208K) 162 Yellow 14 German AF markings. Ex G-ATHH, F-BLQS.
North American SNJ-4 Texan as Nakajima B5N2 Kate 27675 N7062C as 'BII-310' Japanese Navy markings. Ex US Navy. Converted around 1990.
North American SNJ-4 Texan as P-64 NX22518 (N22518) as '06' Ex US Navy 51363.
North American SNJ-5 Texan N502 43689 CB-502 US Navy
North American T-6G Texan 49-3071 N2996Q ANG-231 USAF, Ex Spanish AF C.16-195, E.16-195.
North American T-6G Texan 49-3087 N3173G TA-087 USAF
North American T-6G Texan N3HG 43-3097 USAF
North American AT-6C Texan (Harvard IIA) N42GK 4-N-4 US Navy markings. Ex USAF 41-33455, RAF EX482.
North American AT-6D Texan (Harvard III) N623DC 41-3400 US Marines markings. Ex USAF 41-3400, RAF EZ127, Dominican AF 1051, HI-734SP.
North American AT-6D Texan (Harvard III) N796WM 94 USAF 41-34011, RAF EZ138, South African AF 7529, Gabon Presidential Guard B, SAAF 7002.
North American AT-6G Texan N6253C 6-F-1 40 Ex USAF 49-2943. Marked as a US Navy SNJ-6.
North American P-51D Mustang 44-73843 N10601 (NL10601) QP-G USAF
North American P-51D Mustang IV 44-63507 N51EA (NL51EA) as '463684 SX-B' USAF, "Double Trouble two", ex Canadian AF 9554, N6345T, N38FF, N12073 ntu, N13410.
North American T-28D Nomad 49-1634 NX99160 (N99160) 1634 77 Ex N9878C, Zaire AF FG-634. US Navy markings.
North American B-25J Mitchell 44-30129 N7947C USAF "Wild Cargo".
North American TB-25K Mitchell 44-29869 NL27493 (N27493) as '327493' Commemorative AF. USAF "Miss Mitchell", ex N3160G
Piper NE-1 (J3C-65) N23464 3196 US Navy "GLIMPY". Used in 1944 for testing attachment to a blimp for taking the blimp's recce photos back to base quickly.
Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee Cruiser N6177W Visitor
Polikarpov I-15bis N3815R (NX3815R) Red 7 Russian AF. Ex RA-02915.
Polikarpov I-16 Type 24 N1639P 28 Russian AF. Ex 34, restored as ZK-JIO.
Polikarpov I-153 Chaika N153RP (NX153RP) Red 16 Chaika = seagull. Russian AF. Ex 16, restored as ZK-JKN.
Polikarpov Po-2 N3602 01 yellow Russian AF markings
Radioplane BTT OQ-19D target drone   In the museum entrance hall. US Army. BTT = Basic Training Target.
Sopwith 112 (1.5) Strutter replica N4088H Airworthy replica made for film "Fly Boys at Halton".
Sopwith Pup scale replica   3/4 scale - in the museum entrance hall.
SPAD SXIII replica N422RC Third photo is the second rotated so you don't have to.
Stinson L-5 OY-1 Sentinel 5060 N9315H WB-1 Commemorative AF. Ex USAF 42-15060, US Coast Guard 5060, now in US Marines markings as 15060 "Nasty Break V".
Stinson L-5E Sentinel 44-17588 N57WT  
Supermarine Spitfire LFIXe MJ730 N730MJ GZ-? Ex Canadian AF, RAF, Italian AF MM4094, Israeli AF 0606, G-FEDX ntu, G-BLAS, G-HFIX.
Vans RV-12 N233WB Visitor
Vought (Goodyear) FG-1D Corsair 92508 N46RL 31 US Navy, ex N7225C, N46WB, N46LF.
Vultee BT-13B SNV-2 Valiant as Aichi D3A Val N56867 (NX56867) as 'BI-211' Japanese Navy markings. Converted around 1969 for the Tora Tora Tora film.
Waco YMF N40116  
Wright 1911 EX Vin Fiz replica   In the museum entrance hall.
Yakovlev Yak-3M N42YK (NX42YK) White 7 1991 new build as a Yak-3UA. Ex N494DJ, ZS-STU, restored in Germany as D-FYAG after damage.

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