 | |
_B24-P51-B17.jpg) Collings Foundation's B-24J, TP-51C and B-17G | |
  Location within Massachusetts | |
| Established | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Location | Stow, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 42°24′12″N 71°30′28″W / 42.403293°N 71.5078°W |
| Type | |
| Founder | Bob Collings |
| CEO | Rob Collings |
| Website | www.collingsfoundation.org |
The Collings Foundation is a private non-profit educational foundation located in Stow, Massachusetts, with a mission dedicated to the preservation and public display of transportation-related history, namely automobile and aviation history.[1] The Collings Foundation is headquartered at a small private airfield in Stow that includes a small museum that opens for special events and pre-scheduled tour groups.
The American Heritage Museum, a collection of military vehicles, is located on the grounds of the foundation. The organization also has a satellite operations base at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, primarily housing its Korean War and Vietnam War jet aircraft and helicopter collection.
The Collings Foundation operated two touring collections of historic military aircraft: The Wings of Freedom Tour and The Vietnam Memorial Flight. The Wings of Freedom tour ended in 2023 after the organization grounded their WWII aircraft.[2]
The Collings Foundation sold vintage warbird rides to the general public through a flight exemption until permission for such flights was revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration following the fatal 2019 crash of the foundation's B-17G.[3]
- ^ Collings Foundation (n.d.). "Collings Foundation Background". Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Owens, David (March 25, 2020). "FAA says owner of World War II bomber that crashed at Bradley, killing seven, did not take safety seriously and can no longer carry passengers". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
The permission Collings operated under required it to comply with specific conditions, and the FAA found that it "was not fulfilling several requirements" or satisfying its policy of maintaining "a culture of safety."