The Heartland Air Museum has many projects underway and many in planning stages. Here are a few of our aircraft as they undergo period correct restoration.

History: Dating back to a 1930 design called the Taylor Cub, the Piper J-3 Cub design was vastly popular as a civilian trainer and sport plane for at least three years before the US Army Air Corps selected the aircraft to be evaluated as an artillery spotter/director platform. It was originally designated the O-59A, but due to an Army designation change it was called the L-4A. 948 were eventually delivered, and the nickname "Grasshopper" was almost immediately applied.

Piper O59-A (L4-A)

Project List

By 1941 the old Air Corps had been transformed into the Army Air Forces, and it selected a modified version of the DC3 -- the C-47 Skytrain -- to become its standard transport aircraft. A reinforced fuselage floor and the addition of a large cargo door were the only major modifications. Other changes included the fitting of cargo hooks beneath the center wing section and the removal of the tail cone to mount a hook for towing gliders.

Douglas C-47

The BT-13A was produced to the extent of 7,037 aircraft and differed only in the use of a P&W R-985-AN-1 radial engine and lack of landing gear fairings.
Once in service, the aircraft quickly got it's nickname of "Vibrator" due to the fact that it had a tendency to shake quite violently as it approached it's stall speed.

The US Navy began to show an interest in the aircraft as well and ordered 1,150 BT-13A models as the SNV-1. In addition, the Navy ordered some 650 aircraft designated as SNV-2 roughly equivalent to the BT-13B.

In the years 1943-44 a total of 650 SNV2 variants were built.

Vultee SNV2

The Stinson L-5 is one of the most important but overlooked American airplanes of World War Two. Overshadowed by the more glamorous fighters and bombers, and outnumbered by the popular Piper L-4 Cub, the Sentinel has been relegated to relative obscurity. Nearly 4,000 were built in Wayne, Michigan, by the Stinson Division of the Consolidated-Vultee Corporation between 1942 and 1945 but only a few hundred have survived.

Stinson L5 Sentinel

TBM aircraft were manufactured by General Motors and were torpedo bombers developed initially for the United States Navy and the Marine Corps, and used by a large number of air corps around the world. It entered service in 1942, and first saw action during the Battle of Midway.

TBM Avenger

· Watch the progress of our O59-A during its restoration