Current Projects

1917 Thomas Morse S-4 Scout "Tommie"

The National Museum of the Marine Corps' (NMMC) Thomas Morse S-4 Scout has an interesting history. Acquired by the Museum in 1979 in a trade with the Aeroflex Museum in New York, the aircraft was identified as an S-4C. In fact it is not an S-4C or an S-4B but rather a combination of a spare S-4 prototype fuselage and S-4B wings and empennage.

The wings and empennage will be kept and restored. A new S-4B fuselage will be built using some parts from the prototype and the plane will be displayed as an S-4B. The Marine Corps operated a flying school at the Marine Flying Field located near Miami, FL. This Scout will be painted to represent one of the nine S-4B Scouts that were delivered to the school between 1917 and 1919.

1917 Airco DH.4 (British Military)

The Airco DH.4 was a British two-seat biplane day-bomber of theWorld War I. It was designed by Geoffrey De Havilland (hence "DH") for Airco, and was the first British two seat light day-bomber to have an effective defensive armament. It first flew in August 1916 and entered service with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in March 1917. The majority of DH.4's were actually built as general purpose two seaters in the USA, for service with the American forces in France.

The DH.4 was tried with several engines, of which the best was the 375 hp Rolls Royce Eagle engine. The DH.4 was equipped with one 0.303 in Vickers machine gun for the pilot and one 0.303 in. Lewis machine gun on a Scarff ring mounting for the observer. Two 230 lb. bombs or four 112 lb. bombs could be carried.

We are building a replica of the DH-4 for The Vintage Aviator Limited (a flying Museum) in New Zealand. They will use a Liberty V-12 engine on which they are doing the overhaul. They will have the instruments certified, install the fabric and paint the wings and tail surfaces. They are also supplying the propeller, wheels and tires. When it's complete, this DH.4 will be flyable.

The Flying Heritage Collection

Paine Field, Everett, Washington

Century Aviation recently had the chance to work with the folks at Flying Heritage Collection. While most of the FHC collection is flyable, there are a few aircraft awaiting restoration which needed to be moved from the hangars at Arlington to their new facilities at Paine Field in Everett. We worked with them to move a F6F Grumman Hellcat, an "Oscar" (the American nickname for a Nakajima Ki-43 "Hayabusa") and their 2 static display WWII Fieseler V-1 Flying bombs (also called buzz bombs and Doodle Bugs) from Arlington to Paine Field. We also assisted them to move the FW-190 from The Museum of Flight in Seattle to Paine Field.