Restoration Shop

The College Park Aviation Museum's restoration facility is responsible for restoring historic aircraft and constructing historically accurate reproductions for the museum. The restoration facility is staffed by a crew of dedicated volunteers and supervised by a Restoration Facility manager.

The most recently completed project is a 1940 Aeronca Chief that has been completely restored. It has been totally rebuilt, with new interior, cover, paint, cables, leading edges, and hardware. The College Park Aviation Museum's Restoration Shop has been working on the airplane for approximately five years. This exciting project required over 10,000 hours of dedicated volunteer time.

Since 2000, the restoration facility has constructed a reproduction of a 1912 Blèriot Model XI, now hanging in the museum's gallery. That project required over 2,000 hours of volunteer time. The restoration facility also has restored one and one-half Ercoupes and retro-fitted the 1939 Taylorcraft for hands-on use in the museum gallery.

Currently the restoration shop is finishing the construction of a 1911 Curtiss Pusher - one of the aircraft used by aviators of the Army Aviation School when it was here in 1911 and 1912. In addition, shop volunteers build and maintain the children's pedal planes that are located on the museum's patio, and create hands-on and interactive exhibits for the Museum.

If you are interested in volunteering with the restoration crew, please contact us.