Commemorative Air Force - Tampa Bay Wing

09/06/2026

Thanks, Commemorative Air Force HQ!

Join CAF Warbird Tube for a fascinating look inside one of the most consequential air campaigns in history: the Battle of Britain.

Military aviation historian and author Andy Saunders joins us to explore the air war of 1940 from both sides of the English Channel. Saunders examines the aircraft, pilots, tactics, and rapidly changing conditions that shaped the battle. Attention turns to the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Bf 109E. A formidable fighter, the "Emil" faced a challenge: no amount of firepower or maneuverability could overcome its limited range.

Saunders, the author of more than 20 books on air warfare and a longtime aviation historian, researcher, editor, and museum curator, brings the human experience behind the history into focus. What did the pilots face in the summer of 1940? How did tactics evolve as each side learned from the other? And what can accounts from those who were there tell us about a battle that has become the stuff of legend?

To watch LIVE on September 9, 2026, at 7 p.m. Central, register at the link:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8325579469001049183?source=SoMe

09/06/2026

Name the ✈️! 😊

09/05/2026

Thanks for your personal docent led tour of your C-47, Air Mobility Command Museum!

Your docents are awesome, BTW!

Loved the fact your ✈️ flew in WWII and our Commemorative Air Force helped you in getting her restored!

09/05/2026

Interesting, Air Mobility Command Museum!

09/05/2026

A little-known Delaware WWII aviation story hiding in plain sight.

Earlier we had posted about Delaware WWII history.

While waiting for his return flight to Florida from the Wilmington Airport, our Development Officer spotted these plaques honoring the 2nd Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command, which operated here when the field was known as New Castle Army Air Base during World War II.

From 1942–1946, the group helped deliver military aircraft around the world. New Castle also became an important early base for the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron — the WAFS.

Nancy Harkness Love helped organize and lead the WAFS, recruiting experienced civilian women pilots to ferry military aircraft from factories to bases and embarkation points.

One of those original pilots was Cornelia Fort. She had been a civilian flight instructor in Hawaii and was airborne with a student on December 7, 1941, when she encountered Japanese aircraft during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fort later became one of Love’s early WAFS pilots and reported to New Castle.

Tragically, Fort was killed in 1943 while ferrying a BT-13 and became the first American woman pilot to die on active military duty.

In late 1943, the 2nd Ferrying Group also established a scheduled military air route known as the “Crescent Caravan,” flying C-54 transports from New Castle, Delaware, to Calcutta, India.

There’s also a neat Delaware connection to Dover AFB. The Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover preserves a memorial to the 2nd Ferrying Group, tying New Castle’s wartime ferrying mission to Delaware’s much larger story of military air transport and air mobility.

And the WAFS story became part of the broader Women Airforce Service Pilots — WASP program, one of the most important chapters in the history of women in American military aviation.

Pretty 😎 especially since we have a PT-19 that was based at the WASP base at Avenger Field for a year!

Another reminder that aviation history isn’t always found in a museum. Sometimes it’s sitting quietly inside the terminal.

PS-Nice touch, The Ninety-Nines, Inc, International Organization of Women Pilots!

09/05/2026

Our Development Officer got his "steps" in yesterday at the Air Mobility Command Museum.

40 steps up does not sound like much but those last 10 are steep. Would love to have taken more pictures but the museum is on the Dover Air Force Base. There are signs everywhere about picture taking of the active base and runways.

We did get to see a C-5 and C-17 take off! Pretty 😎!