A serendipitous discovery in Maine

Whenever my wife Joan and I are traveling on vacation we always keep an eye out for opportunities to check out aircraft museums, airports, or unusual airplane stories.

Recently while traveling in Maine we visited the Owls Head Transportation Museum. This little coastal community is in the mid coast area of the state near Rockland, the city where you can attend a lobster festival or a water boat show if you happen to be in the area at the right time.

The museum is a place where you can easily spend a day if you enjoy checking out World War I or antique airplanes.

It also has a large restoration hangar where they repair, build, and rebuild old aircraft.

The folks here are happy to talk about the projects they are working on and are able to talk about everything from welding procedures to rib stitching.

We found them working on a Pietenpol Air Camper in which they are planning to install a Ford Model A engine.

They pride themselves on returning their planes to flying status. Many of these planes can be seen in the museum’s hangar during the week and you can actually see many of them fly during one of the museum’s scheduled weekend air shows.

The museum also maintains extensive aeronautical archives for those who may be interested in doing research on any aviation subject.

For automotive buffs this museum offers much to see. Many antique, vintage, and classic cars are on display and on weekends you may be able to ride in an old Model T. You can also visit the ground vehicle workshop to see how their volunteers put together these old cars.

They have a café open during weekend shows or, if you go there during the week, they have an outside picnic area.