On an unusually warm, late February day, I visited the Vintage Flying Museum (VFM) for an update on three of the aircraft at the museum. Located in Fort Worth, Texas, at Meacham International Airport (KFTW), the museum houses a collection of more than thirty vintage aircraft and warbirds. Chuckie Hospers, who co-founded the museum with her late husband, ‘Doc’ Hospers, in 1988, is always on site on Saturdays, generously passing out hugs. The museum was busy with staff, volunteers, and patrons enjoying the pleasant weather. My mission was to check on three of the aircraft that nest in the museum to provide a brief update for Vintage Aviation News readers. Two Douglas Invader variants share space on opposite sides of the giant main hangar: A-26B 43-7140 Night Mission and B-26K 64-17679 Special Kay Counter Invader. Next door, in the restoration hangar, is the Hollywood Bomber. Each of the aircraft had volunteers giving their time and talent on a Saturday to get these aircraft back into the clear blue.
Let’s start with the 1954 Beechcraft E18S-9700 “Super 18,” nicknamed Hollywood Bomber. This Beech is in Phase One of a three-phase program. Phase One is to achieve airworthiness and attend AirVenture 2026. Phase Two will be the complete interior restoration in 2026, and Phase Three will be a new livery in 2027. To refresh the reader, VFM acquired the airframe after it had been used for decades as a maintenance trainer at a local junior college. While in the care of the college, it was discovered that the Beech had once been owned by Jackie Cochran. Her aviation career, accomplishments, and contributions are legendary. Most notably, she was instrumental in the creation of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during WWII. Further research revealed that, after Jackie’s ownership, the Beech was purchased by 1970s television personality, Merv Griffin. Griffin used it to fly numerous stars of the day.
Work on Hollywood began in September 2022, and to date, more than 12,000 volunteer hours have been logged on the restoration. 2025 was a hectic and fruitful year for the program, as the volunteers worked toward the goal of flying the aircraft to AirVenture 2025. Bill Goebel, owner of Vintage Aircraft Services in Rhome, Texas, and the restoration program manager for the program, had to make the hard decision in early July 2025 to cancel attending AirVenture. Goebel said, “We were rushing to get everything completed, and the consensus of the team was to give up on Oshkosh 2025 and plan for 2026.”
Since July 2025, work has moved at a reduced but steady pace to allow for the volunteer team to rest after the hectic first half of 2025. This particular Saturday, I visited during the first official workday of 2026. The spirit of the restoration team was “Oshkosh or Bust,” and the main goal of the kick-off work weekend was to wake up the engines, since they had not run in six months. Volunteers readied the aircraft and, by early afternoon, towed Hollywood onto the tarmac for the engine run. Both Pratt & Whitney R-985s fired up and ran smoothly during a prolonged high rpm run to test new instrumentation and obtain data for propeller balancing. Excited about the engine run results, Goebel remarked, “We are at a point where engine runs are now a non-event, on to the fiddly bits!”
There are still many ‘fiddly bits’ to complete over the next five months before the flight to AirVenture. The cockpit panel avionics are 95% complete, and an interim interior will have new seating installed for the flight to AirVenture, but the final interior refit will take place later in 2026. The initial test flight is scheduled for April or May. Goebel reiterates, “It is only because of the large and enthusiastic volunteer base that this aircraft will see flight again.”
After pushing Hollywood back into the hangar, I headed into the main hangar to check on the status of B-26K Special Kay sitting on jacks in the south corner of the hangar. Special Kay experienced a left main gear collapse while landing in September 2022. The aircraft settled down on the runway on the left nacelle, left wing tip tank, and rear fuselage, pulling hard left, skidding off the runway, and coming to a stop on the parallel taxiway. All propeller blades on the left engine struck the concrete. Fortunately, there were no injuries, no fire, and the right main and nose gear did not fail. The aircraft was moved into the VFM hangar and has been in restoration since.
I met Patrick Custer, owner of Custer Aircraft Structural Repair, as he was working on the left nacelle. He showed me the latest improvements and the recently installed left main landing gear upper trapeze. Once the left main gear repair is completed, the aircraft will be lowered onto its wheels and turned 180 degrees in the hangar to make room for the left engine and propeller repair. At this time, return to flight for Special Kay is planned for 2028.
Turning my attention to the north side of the hangar, A-26B Night Mission was in annual and winter maintenance. Volunteers were installing aileron gap seals during my visit. The zippered canvas seals are installed between the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the aileron, sealing off the large void to improve handling performance and increase cruise speeds. Night Mission returned to the airshow circuit in late 2025 after being grounded for four years for major maintenance. This well-known A-26 has a busy 2026 airshow season scheduled. Across the nation, this is the typical scene in hangars, as winter maintenance on vintage aircraft and warbirds ends and the 2026 airshow season begins. See you at an airshow!
