Bemidji’s AirCorps Aviation Holds Open House to Celebrate Veterans Day

AirCorps Aviation in Bemidji specializes in the restoration, maintenance, and building of vintage World War II Aircraft. The organization held an open house last week.

“We’re in the restoration shop tonight, so this is where we take our planes apart and we restore them and put them back together again and make them fly,” explained Erik Hokuf, AirCorps Aviation General Manager. “We are showing some of our major projects that are going on. We have a P-38 project and parts from a B-25, Boeing Stearman, a P-51 Mustang, a Howard DGA and AT-10.”

The aircraft are restored not only so they can fly again, but also to preserve the stories and history behind them. In addition, the event is held to show support to the veterans who have served the country.

“Our fall open house is usually one of the closer Thursdays to Veterans Day,” Hokuf said. “This is a chance to say ‘thank you’ to all of our veterans that are out there, especially for World War II veterans.”

Those who attended the open house got the chance to learn about WWII aircraft and how they were made, including details that were meant to be kept secret at the time.

“What I have here, these are called cleco pliers; this was actually a technology that was developed around the time of World War II, and the information, this ability was top secret because it aided in the production, the speed of production of aircraft during the Second World War,” said Mark Adams, Continuous Improvement Coordinator for AirCorps Aviation, during a demonstration at the open house. “So what this does is it holds sheet metal rigid and in place. … So you can keep a straight line of two sheets together that you’re going to rivet together and then simply remove the clecos as you go along and put in the rivets and shoot them. Kind of a cool, fun, interesting, simple technology. If you think about the goals of producing enough aircraft for the war effort, being able to speed up that production is a huge benefit.”

Organizers were very happy with the turnout. People of all ages came by to learn about what the organization does and the history of aircraft during World War II.

“I’m always surprised by how many people want to come and see what we’re doing, but I think it’s not only the stories of World War II, but it’s also kind of the craftsmanship and the restoration work, the hands-on work that goes into what we do every day, and I think we’re a community that are full of people that appreciate craftsmanship and and working with their hands and building things and rebuilding things; it’s fantastic,” added Hokuf.

Seven veterans are currently employed at AirCorps Aviation, all of whom were in attendance during the open house to answer any questions attendees had.