By Lee Jay Carpenter
Texas Aviation Association
BRECKENRIDGE – Located 90 miles west of Fort Worth is Breckenridge, Texas. This remote town, population 6,000 more or less, is sprinkled with inns, cabins and several friendly bed & breakfast lodgings. Its claim to fame is being the Mural Capital of Texas. Despite its size, there is a lot to do and enjoy in and around Breckenridge. If you enjoy fishing, Hubbard Creek Lake offers superb options, or you can take in the rich history of the downtown scene. Then, there is the Stephens Counly Airport for those who want to fly in. Also, aviation enthusiasts will find and enjoy the Breckenridge Aviation Museum and Ezell Aviation, which specializes in warbird restoration.
Stephens County Airport (KBKD) is a modern facility that has two long runways. Runways 17 and 35 are just two feet short of 5,000 feet in length by 100 feet wide. These runways are crisscrossed by four others. Runways 13 and 31 are 2,400 feet long as are runways 04 and 22. There is one GPS (Global Position System) instrument approach for runway 35. As the name implies, the airport is owned by Stephens County and managed by County Judge Gary Fuller.
The center of the airport houses a unique company called Ezell Aviation which is run by Nelson Ezell and his family. This is not your typical repair shop, unless you have a vintage WWII P-51 fighter that needs restoration. Or perhaps you have the hull and landing gear of a P-38 Lightning sitting in your back yard. If so, then Ezell Aviation is the one you want to contact.
For over 20 years Nelson Ezell and family have been in the warbird restoration business. Warbirds are aircraft that were manufactured mainly during and following World War II. The aircraft that Ezell Aviation specializes in include B-25 bombers and various fighters of the era. When I visited Ezell Aviation earlier this spring, they were busy completing the restorations of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, a North American P-5 l Mustang, a Chance Vought F4U Corsair and a British built Hawker FB-1 l Sea Fury.
I caught up with the owner of Ezell Aviation, Nelson Ezell, and he gave me a tour of his facility.
I asked Ezell how he got started in restoring warbirds. He replied that he was living in Florida in the 1980’s when a friend called him to come to Texas to help repair a Sea Fury whose landing gear was damaged. During the commute to North Texas he found the area to be ideal for the beginning of his future aircraft restoration business.
Ezell explained that when he receives the airplanes, almost every part is already there. However, most of these planes are in need of parts and skin replacement. He basically takes the plane apart to get to the bent and damaged parts, repairs those items, and then puts the plane back together to its original condition.
“We have the blueprints for the Corsair. Sometimes we can get prints for a particular aircraft from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., but for the Sea Fury we don’t have any prints at all.” I asked him where the project planes come from. “In 1979, 23 Sea Fury’s were obtained from Baghdad and brought to Florida. They were being used for the Iraq Air Force when we got them,” said Ezell. “Others come from third world countries like Honduras and other locations all around the globe.”
Ezell then showed me a data plate on the radiator housing of one of the P-38 engines. The plate listed part numbers and model numbers. Below the data was the company name Winchester Firearms. “What?” I exclaimed. “Winchester was building radiators for aircraft engines?” Ezell explained that during WWII every company was involved in the war effort. Companies like Maytag built alternators; General Motors was building aircraft. Everyone cooperated and did what the government asked to assist in war time production.
Ezell Aviation is very much a family operation. Nelson’s oldest son, Ashley, is a machinist and his number two son Chad does all the painting. His wife Dude runs the office. Beyond that, Ezell hires 15 employees, most of whom hold an A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) rating, commonly called a certified aircraft mechanics. Ezell Aviation has become so famous that they often subcontract out work to other restoration companies manufacturing parts for aircraft that someone else is working on.
Ezell said that a project like the Corsair can take up to 15,000-man hours to complete. By the time the work is finished, some aircraft will have over a million dollars invested in the restoration project. I asked him who can afford such high prices for an individual aircraft. “Most of my customers are private collectors,” he replied. “Some are starting their own aviation museums. Others just want to fly vintage aircraft in the same way that other folks want to sail expensive boats.” Even though the restoration costs are high, these aircraft increase in value over time, therefore they are considered an investment. “This particular Corsair investor,” Ezell said, pointing to the disassembled fuselage in the corner, “will have one million dollars invested in the project. However, the plane can bring two million on the open market. Five to six years ago, Mustangs were valued at six to seven hundred thousand dollars. Now the average price for one is between $1.5 to 1.6 million. Some have even sold for two million.”
When asked what the customer requests as far as customized accessories, Ezell replied, “The trend nowadays is to restore the aircraft exactly like it was when it came off the assembly line. The same instrumentation, guns (of course, they are fake) and markings on the wings are exactly the same as when they went to war.” He said he might install a modern GPS navigation radio, but that device would be hidden out of sight behind a blank panel cover.
There are some exceptions such as the current P-38 Lightning project, which is owned by Red Bull GmbH, located in Austria. Ezell explained that since the Germans lost the war, they are not quite as much a stickler when it comes to originality. “They’ll want every whistle and bell, including modern avionics and an auto pilot installed an this aircraft,” he said. Ezell’s deadline for completion of the P-38 is July 2007. “We’ve been burning the midnight oil to get this plane completed. The plane will be flown to Europe via Greenland and Ireland,” he said.
Future projects for Ezell Aviation include another Corsair and a Grumman F8F Bearcat. Normal restoration for a Corsair is three and a half to four years. “We’ve compressed that time down to two and a half years,” said Ezell. I asked him why it takes so long and he replied that the Corsair is a very complex aircraft. Ezell explained further that, “Unlike the Mustang, which is simple in its design and we could easily build from scratch, the Corsair is a very complicated airplane. If there was a hard way to do it, the original designers at Chance Vaught figured out how to put it in their design.”
I asked Ezell if he gets to fly any of the aircraft he restores. He said that he does fly most everything they work on. Ezell makes sure that the props are balanced and the aircraft is well trimmed before they deliver any aircraft to the owner. Besides being a pilot, Ezell holds an IA (Inspection Authority) rating which allows him to “sign off” on all finished aircraft to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration either in the “Experimental” or “limited” category. The Experimental Category certification is a special airworthiness certificate issued by the FM to operate on aircraft that does not have a type certificate. The Limited Category certification is specifically for military aircraft that have been converted to civilian use.
“The FAA out of their Fort Worth office has been cooperative,” said Ezell. “They come and inspect the final restoration which I have signed off.” I asked how his company gets along with the owners of Stephens County Airport, the county government, and he replied that Judge Fuller and the county commissioners are very supportive of the airport, General Aviation and his own business.
When asked about the future of warbird restoration, Ezell was optimistic. “As long as the economy is strong, this business will do well. There are just so many of these planes left and their value continues to increase. Investors know that, and they’ll continue to purchase aircraft in remote places around the world, and then have us restore them to their original condition.” Ezell added that business is so good that they were experiencing growing pains and would like to expand into an adjoining building.
If warbird restoration was not enough to keep Nelson Ezell busy, another project that he is working on is a through-the-fence airpark that he would like to develop on 96 acres adjoining the Stephens County Airport.
A through-the-fence operation is where the owner of a public airport permits access to the public landing area by independent operators offering an aeronautical activity or by aircraft based on land adjacent to, but not a part of, the airport property. Through-the-fence operations include businesses or individuals that have access to the airport infrastructure from outside airport property, or that utilize airport property to conduct a business, but do not rent business space at the airport. Ezell hopes to develop houses with hangars on lots in the adjacent property.
Commonly called “airparks,” these developments ore rapidly spreading throughout the country. One con eat breakfast in their house and then walk to the adjacent hangar, get in their airplane and be off to distant points across the country. No more long commutes from home to the airport. You live at the airport!
You can contact Ezell Aviation at 254/559-305 l or e-mail them at [email protected]. Visit their Web site at: www.ezelloviotion.com. Their mailing address is P.O. Box 1793, Breckenridge, TX 76424.
For more information about Stephens County Airport go to: http://www.oirnov.com/oirport/BKD.
