Naval Air Museum Barbers Point’s vintage aircraft may face the chopping block

HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) — A Kalaeloa Airport naval air museum whose vintage aircraft could be auctioned off or chopped up is scrambling to remove some of its collection ahead of the Saturday deadline to vacate the premises.

The departure of Naval Air Museum Barbers Point is the end result of a long­running dispute with the state Department of Transportation over lease terms at the airport and a failed lawsuit brought by the museum to stay.

The grassroots air museum has been closed since November by a state eviction effort.

Among the museum’s collection are a lot of big, heavy and not very mobile pieces, including a DC-8 passenger jet, a Coast Guard C-130H Hercules, two Navy P-3 Orion sub hunters, three A-4 Skyhawks, an F-4 Phantom and multiple Navy and Marine Corps helicopters and military vehicles, including 60-ton M-60 Patton tanks.