Air Museum Restores Unique Plane
Dec. 3—WINDSOR LOCKS — The New England Air Museum has been active this fall to bring additional aircraft and artifacts to its exhibit hangars. The most notable of these is the Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster — a one-of-a-kind aircraft that has recently been fully restored by the museum's restoration team over the past eight years.
Built in 1945 by the Canadian Car and Foundry, the CBY-3 was the last of Vincent Burnelli's "lifting fuselage" aircraft — the fuselage is in the shape of an airfoil which allows it to assist the wings in providing lift. It could carry a ton more payload than a DC-3 and needed only 650 feet to take off.
A prolific designer, Burnelli believed that his design was stronger, safer, and more efficient than conventional designs at the time.
The CBY-3 was acquired by the Museum in 1972 after having sat abandoned for more than ten years at Friendship Airport in Baltimore.
The museum's popular Grumman F-14B Tomcat has also come out of storage for the first time in over five years. The Tomcat was a supersonic, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft made famous by the 1986 film Top Gun. The museum's aircraft served with fighter squadrons VF-142 and VF-143 and accumulated more than 4,600 flight hours before it was decommissioned and donated to the museum in 2005.
Visitors to the museum can see these and 50 additional aircraft currently on display, and learn about each of them from museum docents.
The New England Air Museum is at 36 Perimeter Road near Bradley Airport and open Tuesday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The museum continues to follow all COVID-19 protocols pertaining to Connecticut's Phase 2.1 reopening.
Admission is $16 for adults, $10 for children ages 4-14, $14 for adults ages 65 and older and free for children 3 and younger. Veterans are free every day in 2020 courtesy of KeyBank.
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On Saturday, Dec. 12, the the New England Air Museum will host Santa Claus, who will be available to speak to each child while maintaining social distancing.
Santa will bring a bag filled with a specials gifts for the children he meets.
The museum will also collect for the Marine Toys for Tots Toy Drive through Santa's visit on Dec. 12. Visitors to the museum are encouraged to bring new unwrapped toys for those who are less fortunate.
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