'Early Birds' Foundation

In the early days aeroplanes were flown by courageous men and women. Dressed in leather jackets and only protected by simple goggles and leather caps, pioneers like Anthony Fokker and Louis Blériot conquered the skies. 
Their aircraft were skilfully made flying machines composed of wood, linen and steel wire. Whilst flying, those 'early birds' wrote history and laid the foundation for modern aviation.
The Early Birds Foundation aims to preserve the heritage of these and other 'early birds' by carefully restoring and rebuilding aircraft and engines. The results of these activities can be seen during airshows and by visiting our working museum.

Once upon a time ......

It all started about thirty-five years ago, in 1974, when members of the "Early Birds" Foundation reconstructed a number of rotary engines. These rotary engines are very early power-plants in the history of aviation. During a visit to the world-famous collection of Jean Salis (near Paris, France) the idea emerged to restore one of these engines to working condition. Eventually a 130-hp Clerget engine was shipped to Holland. This very first Early Birds restoration project found a place in an English Sopwith "Came"l. More followed. An operational specimen can be seen in the hangar in Lelystad, mounted on an early twentieth-century test stand. 
In return for the efforts on these engines the foundation received a partly-restored "Tiger Moth", which was completed and is still a part of the EB-collection. In 1980 a Bücker "Jungmann" was acquired. That was the start of a collection which prompted aviation enthusiasts to offer their services to maintain these aircraft and pilots to fly them. That in turn led to the influx of more restorable projects and even to the idea of building reconstructions of very early aeroplanes. This is an ongoing process but with the inevitable result that the foundation is now desperately in need of more hangar space. Some planes cannot be assembled, for instance the Bücker "Jungmeister", the Sopwith "Camel", the Monocoupe, and others like the Nord-Messerschmitt 208 and the  Fieseler "Storch" are under restoration elsewhere in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Cooperation
The Early Birds Foundation is in close contact with several organisations in the field of historic aviation. This cooperative body aims to seek support for aviation issues in general and the historic section in particular and to maintain an open and factual discussion with the aviation authorities in order to keep legislation at a 'bearable' level. An important issue is the noise reduction regulations which are prohibitive for the use of early aeroplanes.
Today....

The "Early Birds" Foundation is alive and kicking; the collection consists of some twenty sometimes rare and not commonly known types of aircraft. A number of these are in airworthy condition and are flown regularly, others are awaiting restoration or are under (re)construction.
A few times a year the fleet participates in fly-ins, airshows and meetings of historic aircraft in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries.
Several years years the foundation has been severely impeded in its flying activities. As many of the foundation's aircraft are rather critical tailwheel planes requiring a grass runway only a few can operate from Lelystad's concrete runway. Consequently most had to sit in the hangar.  Early Birds are happy to be able to operate from the  grass runway which is now available, albeit only for landing. It is not clear whether or how long this situation will last in view of the extensive development plans for the airport.

On the following pages you will find more information on several aspects of the Early Birds and a number of pictures of the collection and the hangar.

This website
This website will be updated on a regular basis when important news is available. Progress on the restoration and reconstruction projects will be described with text and pictures on the respective plane pages.

We are open to your opinion, remarks and questions. Please feel free to comment and send an e-mail to the
Website specific comments please to the
Frits Koolschijn (info at vroegevogels dot org).

No part of the website text and pictures may be reproduced without written consent of the author(s) represented by Early Birds Foundation. Copyright photos ©2008: Stichting "Vroege Vogels"