Collings Foundation


The Collings Foundation is a private non-profit educational foundation located in Stow, Massachusetts, with a mission dedicated to the preservation and public display of transportation-related history, namely automobile and aviation history. The Collings Foundation is headquartered at a small private airfield in Stow that includes a small museum that opens for special events and pre-scheduled tour groups.
The American Heritage Museum, a collection of military vehicles, is located on the grounds of the foundation. The organization also has a satellite operations base at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, primarily housing its Korean War and Vietnam War jet aircraft and helicopter collection.
The Collings Foundation operates two touring collections of historic military aircraft: The Wings of Freedom Tour and The Vietnam Memorial Flight. The Wings of Freedom flights also provided a platform for testing a smartphone-based automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast, a means of future air safety technology.

History

The organization was founded in 1979 by Robert F. Collings and Caroline Collings., Caroline Collings continues to serve as financial director, while son Rob Collings is the CEO and chief pilot of the foundation.
On July 4, 2013, the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation founded by Jacques Littlefield and located in Portola Valley, California, donated their entire collection of military vehicles to the Collings Foundation. A year later, the Collings Foundation auctioned off 120 of the vehicles to fund creation of a new museum at their headquarters. The remaining vehicles are now the centerpiece of the American Heritage Museum in Stow, Massachusetts.
The Collings Foundation had been known for offering vintage warbird rides to the general public in exchange for donations. However, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked the organization's permission to carry passengers in March 2020 due to safety concerns, citing “notable maintenance discrepancies” and a failure to maintain a “a culture of safety” leading up to the fatal 2019 crash of the foundation's B-17G.

Collection

Aircraft collection

Flyable aircraft

Brass era

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