Restoration projects are on the horizon
teractive museum for the public through his foundation, The Prescott Foundation at The Hangar at 743, on Albany Shaker Road.
The former Navy engineer-turned-vintage plane collector has secured several World War II artifacts for his Warbird Factory that he is restoring to become fully functional and more accessible to others.
“There are a lot of other people who collect historic artifacts or World War II planes and they hide them all, they keep them all for themselves and that’s their own little toy box,” Prescott said.
“I want to show people, I want them to see what was there and where things came from.”
And Prescott intends for the museum to stand out. He imagines it will be a place where touching the artifacts is encouraged and for a fee, visitors can go for a spin in one of the aircraft.
Prescott’s team is also building a cockpit with better warbird displays for children to play in.
For $100, guests can grab a short ride complete with looping party tricks in a T-6 Texan Trainer.
Prescott wants others to experience the unique smell of decades-old burning rubber and oil.
“That smell, that hearing … you’ll remember that forever,” he said. “If somebody like myself doesn’t, they’re gone forever and history is gone forever.”
Although the foundation has the makings of a museum in place, it still has a ways to go.
As it looks toward amassing additional artifacts, the foundation is teaming up with Hudson Valley Community College to form a fabrication and design shop that will bring in talent to reconstruct planes, such as the “Old Glory” B-25 warbird currently being worked on.
The plane, which flew combat missions in Italy during World War II, needs some serious tender loving care after crashing in 2020. Prescott said his crew has to drill out every rivet, the pins
There are a lot of other people who collect historic artifacts or World War II planes and they hide them all, they keep them all for themselves and that’s their own little toy box.” — David Prescott
holding the metal together, straighten the structure and put new metal skins on it before it’ll be up in the air again.
It’s a multimilliondollar project that could be completed in three years if the foundation can hire more people to help with the repairs. Other restoration projects are on the horizon, too.
Jonathan Ashdown, dean of the STEM school at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, said senior students at the college do aircraft maintenance and fabrication for the planes that keep them in the air. The college doesn’t bill for the work, but students put the experience toward their capstone projects.
Prescott may be years away from having a fullfledged museum, but the foundation is already receiving visitors from time to time and laying the groundwork for what’s to come.
“It’s all time and labor,” he said.