The Flying Tiger Airport & Flight Museum in Paris, Texas once housed a great collection of retired old war birds and few other air planes. Years ago the owner closed the airport and museum down and eventually sold or returned them to their owners. As of 2018 the Museum has reopened hold events several times a year.
The Flying Tiger Airport & Flight Museum in Paris, Texas
From what I found during my research, the museum had some incredible retired war birds that were restored and on display for the public. The few planes they had were a B-17 Flying Fortress (bomber WWII), P-51 Mustang (WWII), F-86 Sabre, and a F4U Corsair. They also had a few other planes including a Martin 404 Passenger Plane that can still be seen on the property and is a local favorite for photographers and travelers passing by. I believe the airport may have closed down some time in the 1980s or maybe in 1991 since the last year the old Martin 404 Passenger plane flew was in 1991. Make sure to check out the vintage photos from 1981 of some of the planes on site then. I am not sure why this place was shut down or what happened to the old birds that made their home at the Flying Tiger Museum but, I do plan on visiting the place again and see if I can find the owner. I would love to get access to the 404 and get some history on the plane and the Flying Tiger.
The Flying Tiger Airport & Flight Museum in Paris, Texas Current Status
As of two years ago (original writing 4/2015) there isn’t much left. The hangars are still there and full of old planes and parts. Around the hangars you will find a handful of personal planes in various stages of being parted out. The above picture shows what’s left of the planes on site. The 400 Martin Passenger Plane isn’t much better off. Its still mostly whole from what I can tell and the owner moves it around the field when its time to cut the field. Make sure to check out the Gallery at the bottom of the article. It gives you an idea what was on site as a few years. (Currently many of the salvaged planes are no longer on location or have been moved out of site.)
Please Note: This article was originally written back in April 26th, 2015 on VanishingTexas.com. That sit is no longer affiliated with us. All content from that site is slowly being migrated and updated to this site. All photos featured on this article were taken a few years before April 2016 unless noted. I recently made it back out the air field back in April 2016 and found the owners had removed all the visible salvaged air craft and there is beautiful new house at the air field and they are in the process putting up a stone and metal pipe fence. The airport is open again and from what I can tell, they have been operational since May 2018. Make sure to check out their Flying Tigers Airport Facebook Page for upcoming events.
I was told by a follow photographer that there are air craft in the hangers and old War World II fighter plane is in one of them (may have been the old Corsair). I plan on going back out to photograph the Martin again and if the owners are available I will try and speak with them.
Article update: 09/14/2021 11/12/2021
About the Images
The original article images were shot by hand using my Canon Powershot sd960 is by hand. I then edited them in Adobe Lightroom. I also post processed the images with Topaz Clarity to add texture, brighten the images, and bring out the details in the images. Then I removed the dust spots and I used Topaz DeNoise to remove the noise from the images. The images shot in April of 2018 were shot by hand on an overcast day with my Sony a6000and the Sony 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS Power Zoom Lens.
Thanks for this article. I am from Paris and last time we were there looked for the planes and wondered what happened.
Isaac Newton “Junior” Burchinal ran the museum and gave instruction in the WWII aircraft for decades. I don’t know when things wound down there, but he passed in 2008 and id still listed as the property owner…
During our research, I read somewhere that after Mr. Burchinal passed away one of his children may have taken over the property. But I haven’t had the chance to confirm it. I have another article about the old Martin 404 that I posting up that wrote up and took pictures ago back when the property was closed.
When my son was at the University of Arkansas I would drive through Paris on a semi-regular basis and swing by the airport. On one occasion I met Junior’s son and had a nice conversation. He told me that growing up around all those warbirds was kind of like growing up on a farm–he and his siblings were out there early in the morning working on the airplanes, getting them ready for the day’s events. After the planes left, he didn’t pursue aviation. That being said, his grandson is very interested, so they are fixing things up and doing some aircraft restoration. At the time of this conversation–2017-2018 timeframe, as I recall, they had several new aircraft out there. I found him to be quite friendly. Unfortunately, that was the only time in my trips out there that I was able to chat with anyone.
The airport proper is not closed.
Thanks for the update. The few times we’ve been out that way the property hadn’t changed much and the current updates to the property were thought to be for personal use. Its good to see it open again and we will have to have to send someone out there at the next event to get update information about the airport.