The Military Aviation Museum is honored to announce a $100 million donation, a gift believed to be among the largest charitable gifts from an individual in Virginia history.
The gift by Gerald Yagen includes some 70 vintage military aircraft that have been collected and displayed over the years. These priceless pieces of history were painstakingly restored to flying condition and displayed and shared regularly for the community.
The gift also includes the land upon which the Museum was built, the historic buildings that were relocated there from sites around the world and $30 million to establish the Museum’s endowment. This money is designated to keep the aircraft flying – a core part of the vision Yagen had for his collection.
Keegan Chetwynd, Director and CEO of the Military Aviation Museum, announced the significant donation on Saturday, October 5, just before the start of the airshow.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lauded the Yagen family for this extraordinary donation. “Thank you to the Yagen family for their generous donation to the Virginia Military Aviation Museum, which will preserve history for generations to come and enhance the Commonwealth experience for Virginians and visitors,” Youngkin said.
“It’s due to great Virginians like the Yagens that our Commonwealth is the best place to live, work, and raise your family.” The gift, announced Saturday during the Museum’s annual Warbirds Over the Beach air show, underscores the commitment of Jerry and Elaine Yagen and their family to preserving important pieces of history and inviting others to participate in shaping the Museum for future generations to enjoy.
“In the beginning, I saw this as my personal challenge to preserve history and these beautiful warbirds,” Jerry Yagen said. “I just didn’t want to see them disappear to time. I never believed so many would volunteer so much to help Elaine and I do this. I realize it is no longer an individual challenge.” Yagen encouraged members of the community to support the Museum to “help ensure we ‘Keep Em Flying’ long into the future,” citing a slogan the U.S. Army Air Corps used to recruit pilots during World War II. “I hope that all of our great-great grandchildren will be able to visit this museum and enjoy the sights and sounds of warbirds in the sky.”
The aircraft in the Yagen collection span the first 50 years of aviation history, from just after the Wright Brothers made the first flight in 1903 to the Korean War period in the early 1950s. They include such historically significant examples as a North American Aviation P-51 Mustang, the Goodyear FG-1D Corsair and a rare, restored WWII German Messerschmitt Bf 109, all of which now are used by the Museum to share aviation and military history with the public. The collection’s transition to the museum’s ownership ensures these invaluable pieces of history will be preserved and accessible for future generations interested in exploring our rich military heritage.
“Jerry Yagen’s passion as a collector is an inspiration,” said Keegan Chetwynd, the museum’s director and CEO, who is shepherding the museum’s transition from a private collection to an independently managed nonprofit. “His efforts have saved many important artifacts from the scrap heap. These now form a collection of unequalled significance in the world, with stories from the war years being brought to life with each new aircraft restoration.”
“Jerry’s generosity will empower a new generation of learners, offering new and exciting ways to connect with history – to experience it up close, in a way that static airplanes just cannot provide,” Chetwynd added. Ken Yagen recalled how as children, he and his sister, Susan, watched their father’s hobby grow into a small collection. “Each new addition was very special to Jerry as he would research the history of the aircraft, the pilots that flew it and the role it played in the war,” he said.
The original hangars in Suffolk soon were full. “That led to an idea, seeded by my mother, Elaine, to create a place where everyone could see, appreciate and learn about these magnificent airplanes,” he said. “The Military Aviation Museum was born.” Yagen thanked friends, family and Museum staff, docents and board for helping to taking his father’s vision and create a legacy. His parents’ gift will help ensure the Museum’s long-term impact for the community, the Commonwealth of Virginia and aviation enthusiasts worldwide.
While this generous donation is a monumental step forward, it marks just the beginning of an era of growth for the Museum. Ongoing support will be needed to continue the Museum’s work to recover and restore historic airplanes, as well as for the expansion and development of its education programs. It is the goal of the Museum and its 250 volunteers to continue being a vibrant and accessible part of the community.
Opened in 2008, the Military Aviation Museum began as the private collection of Yagen, a businessman, aviation enthusiast and general aviation pilot. Yagen, who began collecting planes in the 1990s, also is founder of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance and Centura College, which operates more than 20 colleges nationwide.
The Museum boasts a unique collection of more than 50 aircraft from both World Wars, plus a 4,800-foot grass runway, several original WWII structures relocated from Europe and a maintenance facility. The site hosts regular flying demonstrations, aircraft rides and multiple airshows each year. Under the stewardship of a dedicated board, and Chetwynd’s leadership, the Museum has become one of the most highly rated attractions in the region, drawing over 85,000 visitors annually.
Encompassing 130 acres, The Military Aviation Museum, located on a private airfield in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is dedicated to preserving, restoring and flying historic military aircraft. Its extensive collection includes examples from both World Wars, offering visitors a unique opportunity to experience aviation history up close.
The process to establish the Military Aviation Museum began in 2006 when Elaine Yagen encouraged her husband Gerald (Jerry) to make his personal collection of WWII aircraft available to the general public. While the collection had begun as a group of personal airplanes for Jerry, Elaine was moved by the interactions she had observed when traveling with Jerry in the P-40. Watching people approach the airplane, take an interest in the history or share a family connection to someone who had served in WWII, made it clear that these historic airplanes were too important, and told too big of a story, to be kept in a private hangar.
The collection itself had begun years earlier, when the Yagen’s attended an annual convention for Piper Aerostar owners and pilots at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. As he and Elaine wandered among an incredible collection of restored wartime airplanes listening to big band music, he decided that he should try to acquire one of these rare old warbirds and preserve a little slice of history. Just one. So that he could join the warbird community and enjoy flying something so majestic on the warm summer days over Virginia Beach.
The Yagen’s quickly learned that such aircraft were not easy to acquire. After research into the scarcity of each type and learning that combat veteran aircraft were still out on the battlefield, the collection began with the acquisition of a P-40, whose wreckage had been located outside Murmansk in Russia. The restoration of the P-40 would take a number of years, and during this time Jerry understood that to fly the airplane he would need to transition from an accomplished general aviation pilot to fly the powerful, tailwheel warbirds. To this end, a Stearman was added to the collection, and later an SNJ, with Yagen learning to fly a fighter along the same lines as wartime cadets, only deepening his appreciation of the heroes who flew these complex and sophisticated aircraft decades ago.
At heart, Jerry has always been a collector. As a young boy he collected marbles, comic books and eventually postage stamps from around the world. His collector’s heart and mind started young, and he understood what made items special, rare and worthy of collecting and important to preserve. Prior to developing an interest in aircraft, Jerry collected high performance automobiles, but it was in aviation that he found a true connection to the story, and inherent meaning in the collection. It was with this passion and support of his wife and family that he embarked on his journey to bring lost stories of the war years back to the surface and efforts began to search out aircraft from around the world. Eventually, aircraft would join the collection from wreck sites and restoration shops in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, and Papua New Guinea.
As the collection grew, Jerry invited volunteer pilots to fly the aircraft with him, first from a facility at the Norfolk Airport, and then at the Fighter Factory building in Suffolk, VA. Eventually the collection was moved to the expanded facilities at the Virginia Beach Airport, which had been designed specifically to house this remarkable collection of aircraft. Included at the Virginia Beach Airport were several large facilities for the storage of upcoming restoration projects, and the Yagen’s – with support from the Museum staff and Fighter Factory team – continue to complete restorations and add additional aircraft to the collection.
Although Jerry has now passed on the torch of actively flying the airplanes, keeping a commitment he made to his wife to stop flying them at age 75, he is a frequent visitor to the Museum and can often be seen enjoying regular activities like Summer of Flight, or performing the Master of Ceremonies functions at the Museum’s annual air shows. Jerry still serves actively on the Board of Directors and is passionate about the museum’s future maintaining and operating the remarkable collection he assembled.