*100 Year-Old Plane Takes Flight*

Today OHTM's 1923 Fokker C.IVa took to the skies above Owls Head with the help of aircraft volunteers, pilot Brad Carter, and aircraft conservator Dave Carter. This special moment celebrates a century of transportation history in motion!

When Anthony Fokker designed the C.IV in 1923, he intended for the final product to be adapted for each customer’s needs. For the one fuselage, he designed several different types of wings to be matched to different engines on the market. Over the next two years, almost 200 C.IVs were produced and sold to countries around the world, including the United States, the USSR, Spain, and Norway.

The C.IVa in the museum’s collection has an unusual history. While originally built as a two-cockpit military reconnaissance aircraft, it was converted into a passenger plane with the removal of the rear cockpit to make room for four wicker seats inside the fuselage. Then, throughout the 1920s, it was bought and sold multiple times by adventurers who planned to use it for various endurance flights.

The plane was largely abandoned until the 1970s when Ken Cianchette, a founding trustee at the Owls Head Transportation Museum, discovered it and set about restoring it to flying condition. In 1992, with the restoration nearly complete, Cianchette donated the plane to the Museum and in 1999 made the first flight of the C.IVa in 69 years.

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