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Warbird is a term used to describe vintage military aircraft. Although the term originally implied piston driven aircraft from the World War II era, it is now often extended to include all military aircraft, including jet powered aircraft, that are no longer in military service. Vintage jet aircraft in flyable condition, however, are much rarer due to technical complexity.
Sometimes, the term "Warbird" also applies to newly built replicas and reproductions of vintage aircraft, such as Allison V-1710 powered Yak-9s from Yakovlev, Me 262s built by the Me 262 Project and FW 190s by Flug Werk, and can, for earlier eras when military aircraft design was of a less complex nature, even include any one of a large number of different World War I and later military aircraft designs, up through the late 1930s in origin, sometimes powered by vintage engines from the era of the aircraft design being flown.
Restored warbirds are a frequent attraction at airshows. Highly modified as well as "stock" warbirds can also frequently be seen at air races, since late-war fighter planes are among the fastest propeller-driven planes ever built. The most popular warbirds for races seem[vague] to be the P-51 Mustang, the Hawker Sea Fury, the F8F Bearcat, the T-6 Texan and the F4U Corsair.
Major operators of historic aircraft
- Alpine Fighter Collection
- Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis
- Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
- Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation
- Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
- Collings Foundation
- Commemorative Air Force (formerly Confederate Air Force)
- Fantasy of Flight
- Lone Star Flight Museum
- Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
- Shuttleworth Collection
- Temora Aviation Museum
- Willy Messerschmitt Foundation
- Yankee Air Force
See also
Media related to Warbirds at Wikimedia Commons- Vintage warbird restoration
- Category:Lists of surviving aircraft
External links
- Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
- Paintings of Warbirds by a french artist Jean-Alain MARTIN
- Warbird Resource Group
- Warbird Alley
- Gauntlet Warbirds - Warbird flight school in Chicago
- Ezell Aviation - Warbird Restoration Company
- Warbird Registry - Tracking the history of individual warbirds
- Authentic warbird drawings online
- Courtesy Aircraft, traders in vintage aircraft
- Me 262 Project
- Flug Werk
- Messerschmitt Foundation Hangar at EADS.
- The Warbird Factory (replicas of warbirds)
- Palm Springs Air Museum
- Vintage Warbird Photography
- White 1 Foundation. Restoring A Real Focke Wulf 190 to Flight
- UK Warbirds - Operators and Directory
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