CAF AIRSHO TO BE HELD THIS WEEKEND

By Emilie Parten,
Reporter on the Rove for the NavCo Chronicle

It started with one plane and a small group of ex-service pilots from the Rio Grande Valley, Texas who pooled their money to purchase a P-51 Mustang in 1957. A short while later, they purchased a pair of F8F Bearcats a discovered an important calling: to save an example of every craft flown in WWII. And thus, the Confederate Air Force, later renamed the Commemorative Air Force, was born.
Today, the CAF has over 13,000 members and more than 175 aircrafts that they maintain, representing at least 60 types of WWII crafts, including several foreign models. The CAF headquarters are in Dallas, Texas but it has members in every state and in 28 different countries.
The Coyote Squadron was formed in the mid- 1990’s by Ben Acock, before an aircraft had even been acquired and, today, the squadron consists of more than 60 men and women dedicated to keeping America’s flying heritage alive. The Coyote Squadron does fly-overs for veteran funerals and has done an Airshow every year since 1999, missing only 2020 due to the pandemic.
The squadron has 2 historic planes, a PT-19A dubbed “The Pride of Corsicana” and a more recently acquired Beechcraft T-34B. The Pride of Corsicana was manufactured in 1942 and cost the US Air Force $6141, a whopping $118,600 if the same plane was purchased today.
The PT-19A was assigned to the 67th Army Air Force Flight Training Detachment in Union City, Tennessee where it served as a training plane for new pilots, with the instructor sitting in the front seat and the student seated in the back. The controls were linked so that if a student made a mistake, the teacher could take control of the craft, preventing damage to the plane and its passengers.
In 1945, the Pride of Corsicana was sold to Hugh Bowman for $875. In the years that followed, it changed hands at least 6 other times before Ben Acock purchased it for the Coyote Squadron in 2000. Measuring 28ft in length, and with a wingspan of 36ft, the Pride of Corsicana can fly at top speeds of 132 miles per hour and cover 400 miles of ground. It is constructed primarily of wood and cotton linen with the cockpit and the engine as the few metal components.
In 2018, the CAF purchased the Beechcraft T-34B. Built in 1956, the craft and others like it was the primary training vehicle for the US Navy from the the 1950’s to the 1970’s.

Both of these crafts will be participating in the October 12th Airsho at Corsicana Municipal Airport as will the Liberty Jump Team, who will be jumping from the CAF’s “Ready for Duty” jump platform, the airshow favorite B-25 “Devil Dog” which will be offering rides Friday afternoon and Saturday after the Airshow. Mike “Spanky” Gallaway will be doing aerial tricks in his Extra 300SX, the Falcon Flight Formation Team with 16 aviators will be flying in their own homemade crafts, while the show is expected to close with the “Tora, Tora, Tora” recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The show is happening at noon on Saturday, October 12th. $20 per car load, veterans and active duty enter for free and all WWII planes can be viewed before the show if you get there early enough. There will be vendors selling their wares and lots of incredible things to see. Come find me out there and ask me about my flight!

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