Champlin Fighter Museum, Aviation museum in Mesa, United States
The Champlin Fighter Museum was an aviation museum in Mesa, Arizona, focused entirely on military fighter planes from the First and Second World Wars. The collection covered aircraft from several countries, including well-known types such as the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, displayed at a facility on the grounds of a former airport.
The museum was founded to preserve fighter aircraft from the major conflicts of the 20th century and make them accessible to the public in Arizona. It operated for 22 years before closing in 2003, when its entire collection was transferred to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
The museum drew visitors interested in military technology from both sides of the major conflicts, displaying aircraft from the US, Germany, and Britain side by side. Walking past planes that once fought against each other gave a direct, physical sense of the scale and variety of wartime aviation.
Since the museum closed in 2003, it is no longer possible to visit it in Mesa. Anyone who wants to see the aircraft can find the collection at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, where the planes were permanently relocated.
The museum employed specialist restorers who brought historical fighter planes back to working or display condition, sometimes tracking down original parts from around the world. This meant that some of the aircraft on show had been fully rebuilt rather than simply stored or repainted.
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