On July 18, a North American P-51B Mustang named Shillelaugh took off from Bemidji Regional Airport for its first flight since restoration. According to Vintage Aviation News, the skies were smoky, the aircraft "performed flawlessly," and by the next day it was parked in the Warbirds area at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. That fighter was rebuilt in a shop at 1180 Adams Ave. NW. Most of Bemidji has driven past it, and very few people have been inside.
Tonight, Thursday, Nov. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m., AirCorps Aviation opens that shop to the public. This evening matters more than a typical open house because the shop floor never looks the same twice. Finished aircraft fly away, half-built ones move to the next stage, and the company only lets the public in a couple of times a year to see where things stand.
Two evenings a year, by design
AirCorps says plainly on its open house page that it holds two open houses a year "in lieu of providing individual tours." The listed dates are tonight and "May 2027 TBD," both from 5 to 7 p.m. School groups can ask for another date at least six weeks ahead. AirCorps doesn't schedule tours during business hours because it is an active manufacturing facility.
So if you miss tonight, the next chance is sometime in May. By then, some of what's on the floor tonight will be gone, the same way Shillelaugh was gone by the time this fall's event came around.
What left the building since spring
Shillelaugh has a story worth knowing before you walk in. The original airplane was a P-51B-10-NA, serial 42-106602. It flew 95 combat missions with the 353rd Fighter Squadron of the 354th Fighter Group over Europe, including bomber escorts to Berlin and beach patrols over Normandy. Lt. Kenneth H. Dahlberg was shot down in it in 1944, and the wreckage stayed buried for decades. Paul Ehlen and Jack Larsen recovered it with support from the Ken and Betty Dahlberg Family Foundation. Ownership passed to the Dakota Territory Air Museum in 2025, and that museum chose AirCorps to do the restoration.
A buried wreck doesn't give you much to work with, and the Bemidji shop's approach is the interesting part. Eric Trueblood, AirCorps' senior vice president of sales and marketing, described it to Vintage Aviation News:
"Rather than constructing a replica, the team is creating a bridge across time, honoring both the 95 combat missions flown by Shillelagh and the industrial effort that helped secure Allied victory during World War II."
The team used original 1940s North American Aviation parts wherever it could. The engine is a Packard-built Rolls-Royce V-1650-7 Merlin, overhauled by Vintage V-12s. The black-and-white invasion stripes were painted on by brush, not sprayed, to match the rushed markings ground crews painted on before the Normandy landings in June 1944.
Shillelaugh is still on AirCorps' projects page. But the aircraft has flown and been shown at Oshkosh, so that page tells you about the shop's record more than about what's in the building tonight. The same page lists earlier work that left Bemidji the same way. The P-51C Thunderbird won the 1949 Bendix race at an average of 470 miles per hour, was owned by Jimmy Stewart, and was finished with 48 coats of primer and paint. Vintage Aviation News reports that Thunderbird and the shop's P-47D Bonnie both won Golden Wrench Awards.
What moved forward
If Shillelaugh shows what leaves, the Piper L-4H Grasshopper shows how a project moves through the building over the course of a year. Its record reads like a timeline:
- June 13, 1944. The Army Air Force accepts serial 44-79780. It ships from the Piper factory in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to Naples, Italy, and joins the 12th Army Air Force.
- Fall 2023. Owner Pat Harker buys the airplane and sends it to Bemidji for restoration.
- Winter 2026. A Vintage Aviation News restoration report shows the fuselage covered and painted olive drab with medium-green markings and the cockpit instruments installed. AirCorps had picked a Continental C-90-8F engine.
- Spring 2026. AirCorps' own update reports the Grasshopper moved to the hangar for assembly.
The Grasshopper and the Mustang were opposites in wartime. The L-4 was a small, slow liaison and spotter plane, while the P-51 was a frontline fighter. Seeing both come through the same Bemidji shop in the same few years shows how wide a range of aircraft the shop restores.
The slow one
The AT-10, the first project on AirCorps' list, moves on a much longer clock. The Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita was an advanced multi-engine trainer that Beechcraft began delivering in February 1942. The airframe was mostly wood, and AirCorps notes that only one complete AT-10 exists anywhere in the world.
The restoration belongs to the Cadet Air Corps Museum. It is built mainly around serial 41-27322, using parts from several AT-10 airframes. AirCorps' history of that airplane says the Army Air Force accepted it on May 19, 1943. It flew from Freeman Army Air Field and later served at Blytheville, Arkansas, until it was declared surplus in April 1945. The shop's research also points to a specific person. In May 1944, Mary Eleanor Martin Sabota was one of 10 Women Airforce Service Pilots assigned to Blytheville. AirCorps' Summer 2024 restoration update says she "very likely flew 41-27322."
The AT-10 is a good example of the kind of slow, detailed restoration this shop does. It was still on AirCorps' current projects list as of late October.
Why the shop is getting bigger
That kind of detail work is also why AirCorps builds parts as well as restoring planes. Co-founder Erik Hokuf told KAXE in 2024 that the company started manufacturing parts because restorers couldn't simply order replacements. He started the company in Bemidji in 2011 with Eric Trueblood, Mark Tisler and Dan Matejcek. AirCorps also keeps a large library of aerospace drawings and schematics, according to KAXE's March 2026 report.
Ten days before tonight's open house, the Bemidji Pioneer reported that the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development awarded AirCorps $175,000. AirCorps plans to spend $4.65 million on a new hangar at its current Bemidji site. The project is expected to create 14 jobs in its first three years. The Pioneer also noted that AirCorps had already received a Job Creation Fund grant to expand its fabrication shop. In August, AirCorps' president and CEO talked about the company's growth, its partnership with the airport, and the new hangar in a BemidjiNow episode.
More hangar space means more aircraft can be in the building at once, and more of the work that ends up at Oshkosh gets done here first. Tonight you'll see the shop as it is before that expansion.
Tonight, practically
- When: Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, 5 to 7 p.m.
- Where: AirCorps Aviation, 1180 Adams Ave. NW, Bemidji
- Format: Self-guided and open to the public, with staff on the floor to answer questions about the projects and the work
- Questions ahead of time: 218-444-4478 or [email protected]
- Next chance if you miss it: May 2027, date still to be set
If seeing handwork up close on a weeknight appeals to you, Watermark Art Center opens its national juried "It's Only Clay Competition & Exhibit" the next evening, Friday, Nov. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. Awards start at 5:30 p.m. with guest artist and juror Lee Persell, and the show runs through Dec. 23, according to Visit Bemidji.
Part of knowing Bemidji well is knowing places like 1180 Adams Ave., where a fighter from Normandy got its stripes painted by hand. If you have questions about the town, from evenings like this one to what your own place on the map is worth, The W Group is happy to talk. Request your free home valuation whenever you're ready.
