Adam Estes

About Adam Estes

Raised in Fullerton, California, Adam has earned a bachelor's degree in history and is now pursuing his master's in the same field. Fascinated by aviation history from a young age, he has visited numerous air museums across the United States, including the National Air and Space Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He volunteers at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino as a docent and researcher, gaining hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history, he is particularly interested in the stories of individual aircraft and their postwar journeys. Active in online aviation communities, he shares his work widely and seeks further opportunities in the field.

Planes of Fame Museum P 26A Peashooter Britt Dietz

History of the Planes of Fame Air Museum’s P-26 Peashooter

February 29, 2024 Adam Estes 2

This Saturday, March 2nd, 2024, in honor of the Planes of Fame’s “Flying Demo” event, Vintage Aviation News‘ own Adam Estes, who is a docent at the famous Chino museum, will tell visitors the story […]

B-26 40-1370’s forward fuselage along with the frame of a Piper L-4

Martin Marauder at French Valley Airport Bound for Pima

February 20, 2024 Adam Estes 1

By Adam Estes Sometimes, in order to find some of the rarest restoration projects you have to look for things that are in plain sight. Such is the case with a row of hangars at […]

Lockheed Martin Darkstar Top Gun Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick’s Darkstar Arrives at Palm Springs Air Museum

February 13, 2024 Adam Estes 0

By Adam Estes As millions of moviegoers around the world sat for the opening of Top Gun: Maverick, we here at Vintage Aviation News were at the edge of our seats when Captain Pete Mitchell […]

Boeing 307 N19904Cosmic Muffin and Kermit Weeks

Kermit Weeks Acquires Unique Boeing Stratoliner Houseboat

February 8, 2024 Adam Estes 2

By Adam Estes and Luc Zipkin At this point, when discussing the extensive collection of Kermit Weeks and Fantasy of Flight of Polk City, Florida, the question is not “How many planes does Kermit have?”, […]

Planes of Fame B 17G Piccadilly Lilly II

Planes of Fame’s B-17G Flying Fortress Restoration Report

January 23, 2024 Adam Estes 1

By Adam Estes When visitors to the Planes of Fame Air Museum make the turn to arrive in the museum’s parking lot, they are met by the site of one of the most iconic bombers […]

Articles

Smithsonian’s Bf 109 Unveils a Hidden Story of Resistance

January 10, 2024 Adam Estes 12

By Adam Estes On a typical day at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM)’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, thousands of visitors look down from the glass mezzanine of the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar […]

Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum Outdoor exhibit aircraft looking northwest

Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum to Return to El Toro

December 26, 2023 Adam Estes 0

By Adam Estes While there are many museums dedicated to the history of military aviation across the United States, only one, the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum based at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar, California, […]

410571477 1514181142763699 9096139652624576554 n

Castle Air Museum B-17 Honors “Treble Four”

December 17, 2023 Adam Estes 2

by Adam Estes By now, many readers may be familiar with the work that was recently done by a dedicated group of volunteers on B-17G 43-38635 at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California, at […]

Boeing B 17F 5 BO 41 24406 All American 414th BS 97th BG after collision with Me 109 over Tunis 1 February 1943

The Real Story of the B-17 “All American”

December 14, 2023 Adam Estes 3

By Adam Estes In many books and magazines on the history of WWII, few photographs of the venerable B-17 Flying Fortress are more prominent in the public eye than this striking photo, showing a B-17 […]

Yankee Air Museum PB4Y-2 Privateer Restoration

December 4, 2023 Adam Estes 2

by Adam Estes For some years now, a dedicated team of volunteers with the Yankee Air Museum (YAM) has been hard at work restoring a Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer maritime patrol bomber at their facility in […]