Tuesday–Saturday
Open Hangar Hours
Tue–Fri 10am–4:30pm, Sat 10am–2pm. Free admission, no reservation needed.
Plan a visit →OPENED 2025 · EL RENO, OKLAHOMA
The Caldwell Collection at Mustang Field
A Living Museum of Golden-Age Aviation
Free admission. Open Tuesday–Friday 10am–4:30pm and Saturday 10am–2pm. Drop-ins welcome. El Reno, Oklahoma.
VISIT
Hours
Tue–Fri 10–4:30 · Sat 10–2
Admission
Free
Address
6600 S Mustang Field Rd, Hangar 3
El Reno, OK 73036
El Reno, OK 73036
THE COLLECTION
From the Collection
CC-001
1928
Stearman C3MB
Built to carry the U.S. airmail in the years when airmail routes were building the airline industry from scratch.
One of fewer than 15 C3s built as mail planes.
View Aircraft →
CC-002
1933
Waco UBF-2
Spent decades in pieces as the pattern aircraft Forrest Lovley used to template other Waco restorations.
Restored from salt-air corrosion, it leaps off the ground in under 200 feet.
View Aircraft →
CC-003
1942
Stearman PT-17
Award-winning restoration by Bob Lock, Rob Lock’s father, wearing Navy flight training striping.
The same type that trained thousands of WWII cadets at Mustang Field.
View Aircraft →
8
Active Restoration Projects
2025
Museum Opened
1943
Original WWII-Era Hangar
WHY IT'S RARE
Free admission, Tuesday through Saturday
Tue–Fri 10am–4:30pm, Sat 10am–2pm. Drop-ins welcome.
Nearly three dozen Golden Age aircraft
Every one flies, is capable of flight, or is in restoration, in a 1943 WWII training hangar rebuilt in 2025.
One of just seventeen
Of roughly 331 aviation museums in the U.S., 55 regularly fly their aircraft, and only 17 focus on flying Golden Age antiques. The Caldwell Collection is one of them.
A one-of-a-kind hangar
The only fully restored WWII primary-training hangar housing a flying-aircraft museum.
Tenth in the nation
Tenth in the U.S. by pre-1945 aircraft owned — built in just eight years.
THE STORY
From a Dream of Wacos to a Living Museum
What began as one man's passion for Waco biplanes became something larger — a mission to preserve the golden age of flight and the stories of the people who lived it.
Airplanes fly from this field and are restored in this hangar. A team member is usually on hand to tell you their stories.
The Caldwell Collection at Mustang Field houses a growing fleet of meticulously restored aircraft from the 1920s through the 1940s, displayed in a WWII-era hangar that is itself part of the story.
Read Our Story
Photo: Nigel Hitchman
VIRTUAL TOUR
A walk through the hangar with Tony
Take a virtual stroll through the museum with Tony Caldwell and hear the stories behind the details and aircraft in The Caldwell Collection at Mustang Field.
Watch the TourTHE DOCUMENTARY
One man’s mission to save America’s Waco aircraft
The YouTube channel History’s Greatest Aircraft made a documentary about The Caldwell Collection: how Tony Caldwell set out to find, restore and fly the golden-age airplanes in our hangar at Mustang Field.
THEN & NOW
Hangar 3, 1943 and today
From 1943 until the field closed in June 1944, nearly 5,000 cadets learned to fly here. Hangar 3 later served as an aircraft paint shop, work that was very hard on the building.
1943
Mustang Field opensCadets and trainers line the ramp at the contract flight school built by Oklahoma Air College.
2024
Before the rebuildDecades as an aircraft paint shop left Hangar 3 worn down when Tony found it.
Today
Rebuilt in 2025Home to The Caldwell Collection, with a Navy Stearman on the ramp out front.
Photo: Nigel Hitchman
Acquired
Arrived at Mustang Field — original fabric, corroded frame.
Stripped & Inspected
Fabric removed, airframe inspected, restoration plan developed.
Rebuilt
New fabric, rebuilt engine, instruments restored.
Flying Again
Returned to airworthy status — flying at Mustang Field.
WALDO WRIGHT'S FLYING SERVICE
Where Aircraft Come Back to Life
In most museums the restoration work happens out of sight. Here you get to watch it: historic aircraft rebuilt by hand to flying condition, right on the hangar floor, while you visit.
Waldo Wright's Flying Service operates the Collection's dedicated restoration shop inside Hangar 3. From fabric covering to engine rebuilds, the work is done by hand using period-correct techniques — and it's all visible to visitors.
Active restoration projects: 8, here and in specialist shops around the country
Explore the Workshop →Photo: Nigel Hitchman
Mustang Field · El Reno, Oklahoma
Visit the Collection
Tuesday through Saturday at Mustang Field, the hangar doors roll back — the smell of dope and avgas, the rising cough of a radial engine, a 1929 Waco catching the wind off the Oklahoma prairie. Come see what a flying museum actually sounds like.