OHTM’s 2023 Wings and Wheels Spectacular: A MidCoast Maine Treat
MidCoast Maine is dotted with small cities, towns and villages linked by winding roads that sometimes run along the picturesque and rugged Atlantic coast. The city of Owls Head sits on a small peninsula, bordered by the cities of Rockland and South Thomaston.
These three municipalities also share boundaries with the Knox County Regional Airport, a bustling facility with summertime scheduled and on-demand regional airline service, and facilities for general aviation aircraft up to large corporate jet sized. From the terminal and FBO, across one of the runways sits a gem of a collection of antiques that still are operated for the public, the Owls Head Transportation Museum (OHTM). The Museum boasts a great collection of automobiles, motorcycles, carriages, and of course, aircraft. Their scope falls to any equipment built before 1940, and much of the collection is restored to operational condition.
Being located on an airport lends the museum an opportunity to display aircraft in the air. Some of the Museum’s collection are replicas of planes from the early days of aviation, others are carefully restored originals. The location of the OHTM is along a grassy area adjacent to a paved runway, allowing flight operations from both surfaces. During the summer, a steady stream of props and jets arrive to and depart from Knox County’s runways, making for some impromptu aviation entertainment too. Weekends are also when the Museum usually flies their aircraft.
August is a busy time of the year for the OHTM, as two large events occur during the month over a pair of weekends. The New England Auto Auction is run later in the month, and features fine and collectable automobiles. Usually the first weekend of the month brings another much-anticipated event, the Wings and Wheels Spectacular. Attracting local automobiles for a two-day “Wheels” show is part of it, but the “Wings” aerial display is an uncrowded flying show with plenty of energy. Roughly two hours of flying is presented over each weekend afternoon of the Spectacular.
This year, a pair of nationally known aerobatic pilots, David Windmiller and Scott Francis, fortified the shows with spirited routines. In between, parachuting, and flights by aircraft spanning from World War I through World War II were presented, and a special 100th birthday celebration was included!
David Windmiller flies a Zivco Edge 540 modified with a purpose-built Penn Yan Aero engine that produces more thrust than weight, so the aircraft can accelerate as it climbs. Possessing a climb rate up to 3700 feet per minute and a roll rate of up to 420 degrees per second, its fully composite carbon fiber wing has a design that easily handles 10 Gs of force. David grew up in the New York City area in a non-aviation minded family, but aviation found him, and he soloed on his 16th birthday. He was doing aerobatics before he got his full pilot’s license, and the rest is history.
Scott Francis flies a rare MX Aircraft MXS aerobatic aircraft – one of only a dozen in the world. The MXS is an all-carbon fiber aircraft which offers up to a 500 degrees per second roll rate and can withstand +/- 14 Gs. Scott grew up in an aviation family, his father was an experimental test pilot from Wichita, Kansas. Scott gained multiple licenses over the years and is a pilot for a major U.S. airline, as well as an Unlimited Aerobatic class performer. He began flying aerobatics in a Pitts S-1T, then a Giles 202 before using his current MXS to wow crowds.
Vacationland Skydiving helped open the show each day with flag jumps, which presented bright colors in the already bright blue skies on Saturday and Sunday. The company skydives from Waterville, Maine, found to the not-too-distant northwest of Owls Head.
For a fee, local airplane rides were being offered for much of the morning and early afternoon before the air show began. Biplanes like a Boeing PT-17, N2S, or Waco UBF puttered above the coastline. One flight in the morning took a load of passengers on a Douglas C-47 too. During the afternoon show, the three biplanes flew a series of passes, showcasing aviation between the First and Second World War time period. All of them were designed and built during the 1930s.
The OHTM has a number of replica World War I aircraft, plus a handful of restored airframes from that same period. The Museum has an original JN-4D Jenny, but it took the year off from flying in this year’s show. The Museum’s replica Fokker Dr.1 triplane (in Red Baron Colors) tangled with Nicholas Knobil’s replica Sopwith Camel F.1, assisted by the Museum’s replica Nieuport 28C.1… the latter two were Allied biplane fighters. The World War I recreation saw the aircraft operate on the turf runway adjacent to the Museum, which adds to the realism of the portrayal of WW I aerial warfare.
OHTM has a restored rarity… a Fokker C.1VA airliner, built in 1923. Powered by an equally rare Rolls Royce Eagle VIII engine, the aircraft was recently overhauled and ready for its first public debut after the work was done. What a better time (after some test hops before the show weekend) to show off the aircraft, which was built in 1923. That’s right, the 100th birthday of the airliner! Although the engine proved a little balky to begin with, the power plant finally got in synch with the crew and the red plane got started and airborne, to the delight of the few thousands of spectators present on Saturday.
Three other aircraft were on hand at the Knox County Airport, arriving from their Long Island, NY home at the American Airpower Museum. A Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport, Grumman TBM-3E Avenger torpedo bomber and a North American P-51D Mustang fighter were no doubt the louder and more powerful antiques on the field for the weekend… all three were World War II-era designs. The Museum’s grounds offered a uniquely close up view of the startup and taxiing of these three aircraft, setting the stage for a number of very exciting passes by all of aircraft.
The Owls Head Transportation Museum’s 2023 Wings and Wheels Spectacular had other attractions too, a wide variety of local vintage cars and trucks attended the other half of the event, and the Museum’s full collection of artifacts was open to the public for the one-time entrance fee.
