With vintage warbirds, the Capital Wing brings World War II to life
August 2026
by Jack Cooksey, Staff Writer
It’s a bright June day in Midland, Va., as a gleaming B-17 Flying Fortress warbird descends toward Warrenton-Fauquier Airport. As the World War II bomber touches down and taxis on the tarmac, bystanders can hear the force of air blowing from its propellers, driven by four roaring engines. This is what history sounds like — it’s not just something you see in a museum.
The restored Flying Fortress was one of four vintage aircraft featured at the June 14 Warbird Expo hosted by the Capital Wing, a Culpeper, Va.-based unit affiliated with the Commemorative Air Force. The CAF is a volunteer organization with more than 80 units across the U.S. (and one in England) that bring WWII history to airfields where visitors can see the storied machines up close, hear their engines roar to life and even pay for a chance to fly aboard one.
Col. Jeremy Renken, a retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and a Capital Wing member, says visitors may come to a CAF event perhaps to connect with the lived history of an elderly or deceased relative who served in WWII.
“So, now [they] can shimmy into the little seats and see all the tiny places and nooks and crannies where they would have had to work and see what the whole experience was about,” he says. “And that’s a big deal for them because it’s visceral. It connects them.”
Renken is fascinated by the history of the planes his unit and other CAF units bring to the expo.
“All the planes in the Capital Wing have legitimate connections to missions,” Renken says. The wing maintains six planes total, including a torpedo bomber, an observation plane and two warbirds used to train pilots for combat — all are single-propeller aircraft, and one is a biplane. Two of the planes are member-owned but maintained by the unit.
At the June expo, he explained in detail the history behind one of the planes on display, a Fairchild UC-61 Forwarder, a four-seat, single-engine aircraft used to transport officers and conduct anti-submarine reconnaissance.
Renken notes the Fairchild was one of many civilian aircraft pressed into service during WWII. In the prewar world, he explains, it was a plush, luxury passenger aircraft used for executive transport. “This is how bankers went from Wall Street to Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend, right?”
Joining the event as a partner was Airbase Arizona, from Mesa, Ariz., which brought the B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-25 Mitchell bomber to Culpeper. Airbase Arizona is one of the CAF’s larger units, with about 500 members, enabling it to maintain larger aircraft that tour across the U.S.
Mike Garrett, tour director for the Arizona unit, and Renken say all CAF aircraft are part of a collective trust. “We [the CAF] have 140 airplanes that are actively flying,” Garrett says. “We got about another 30 to 40, which are in restoration.”
Renken notes that none of the aircraft belongs exclusively to CAF units. “These aren’t our planes. We’re temporarily given the privilege of taking care of them. They’re the future’s planes.”
To learn more about the Capital Wing and its upcoming events, visit capitalwingcaf.org.
