It will be flown
Subject to your agreement and your insurance company's approval, your airplane is flown by expert pilots who know vintage aircraft — exercised the way it was built to be, not left to sit.
LOAN AN AIRCRAFT
Loan Your Aircraft to a Museum That Flies
Keep the title. The airplane keeps flying.
THE PROPOSITION
Some owners are not ready to part with their airplane, and they should not have to be. A loan keeps your name on the title and still gives the airplane the one thing it most needs: to be flown, to be seen, and to have its story told. It is the middle path between keeping an airplane in your own hangar, where only you and a few friends ever see it, and giving it away. You keep ownership. The airplane keeps flying.
A flying home, without giving up ownership
The Caldwell Collection is a flying museum. Every aircraft in the collection flies, is capable of flight, or is in restoration. A loaned airplane does not move into storage and go quiet. It joins nearly three dozen other Golden Age aircraft in a restored 1943 WWII training hangar at Mustang Field in El Reno, just west of Oklahoma City, where it is flown by qualified volunteer pilots, exhibited to the public on the hangar floor, and seen by the people for whom it was built. The difference between a loan and a gift is simple: with a loan, the airplane keeps flying, and you keep the title.
This is already how much of the collection flies
The loan is not a hypothetical arrangement we are inviting you to test. More than a dozen of the airplanes flying at the Caldwell Collection today are here on loan — including aircraft loaned by the Collection's own founder and by the head of its restoration shop. The people closest to the museum, the ones who know best how these airplanes are cared for and flown, keep their own aircraft here on loan. The structure is proven, it is in daily use, and it works.
WHAT WE OFFER A LOANING OWNER
Your airplane will be seen
It will not be hidden away in a dark hangar where no one can enjoy it. Here is what a loan to the Caldwell Collection gives your airplane and your family.
You can fly it yourself, whenever you like
As the owner, you are always welcome to visit and fly your airplane from our 5,000-foot grass runway as often as you wish — it is still your airplane.
It will be kept immaculate and on display
Your airplane is kept to the same presentation standard as every aircraft in the collection — clean, cared for, roped off on the hangar floor, and admired by everyone who walks through.
Its story will be told
Our volunteer docents tell your airplane's story to visitors in person, and your family is honored with proper aircraft signage, recorded audio interpretation, and a dedicated page on our website.
It costs nothing to house here
We charge no storage or placement fees for your aircraft, so loaning it to the collection can take a storage bill off your books while the airplane is flown, seen, and cared for instead of sitting idle.
It is covered by a written agreement
Every loan is set out in a clear written agreement between the museum and the owner, so both sides are protected and everything is plain.
WHAT WE ASK OF YOU
Straightforward, and written down
Ownership stays yours — and so do insurance and the cost of maintenance. You retain title, you keep hull and liability coverage on the airplane, and you remain responsible for its upkeep and annuals. The Collection's team can perform and coordinate that work for you; the responsibility and the cost remain the owner's.
The airplane arrives airworthy and ready to fly. A loaned aircraft comes to us in flying condition so it can join the active collection from day one.
A one-year minimum, renewing. The initial loan runs a year — long enough for the airplane to become part of the program — and continues year to year for as long as it suits both of us, endable with reasonable notice.
HOW A LOAN COMPARES TO A GIFT
Three ways an airplane comes into the collection
A loan is one of three ways an airplane comes into the collection. An outright gift transfers the airplane to the museum and produces the cleanest tax outcome. A bargain sale gives you cash for part of the appraised value and a charitable deduction for the balance. A long-term loan keeps the title — and the insurance and upkeep — with you and your family, while the airplane lives in and flies with the collection. The right path depends entirely on your situation, and we are glad to walk through all three with you and your counsel.
START THE CONVERSATION
The hangar is open
If a flying home for your airplane — one where it is flown, seen, and storied, with your name on the placard and the title still in your hand — sounds like what you have been hoping to find, we would like to talk. A visit to the hangar, a walk through the collection, and a conversation about your airplane and what you want for it. The Caldwell Collection at Mustang Field, El Reno, Oklahoma. The hangar is open.
Or email us: info@thecaldwellcollection.org
VISIT THE HANGAR
Come see where it would live.
Walk the flight line and meet the crew, Tuesday through Saturday. Meetings with the founder are by appointment.