PORT TOWNSEND — In 1950, the Yakovlev Yak 11 was the first plane to be shot down by U.S. forces in the Korean War.
A Yakovlev Yak 11 is on display at the Port Townsend Aero Museum, sharing exhibit space with 18 other vintage aircraft.
The Soviet-era plane will be part of the rotating exhibit at the museum at Jefferson County International Airport until Sunday.
To show off this particular plane, museum director Jerry Thuotte struck a deal with the owner, Bill Shepherd.
The plane needed repair, which Thuotte said he would finish if Shepherd let him show it off for a few days.
Shepherd is now at an air show in Reno. When he returns next week, he will fly the repaired plane back to its hangar on Diamond Point.
Thuotte, 70, has run the museum along with his wife, Peggy, 64, since 2001.
In 2008, the Thuottes moved the facility from a collection of hangars at the west end of the airport to its present site at 105 Airport Road.
“They told me that I couldn’t do this, that it wouldn’t succeed and that no one would ever come to see it,” he said.
“But I got this [two-year-old 18,000-square-foot] building built, even though it cost me $3 million when it was supposed to cost $500,000.”
Some 4,500 people a year visit the museum from all over the world, he said.
Thuotte has had a lot of help from his young crews.
A crew of teenagers did all the finish work when the contractor fell behind, and his newest crew does all the airplane repair, which he bills out at $45 and hour.
Teen mentorship program
Thuotte teaches everything from mechanics to flying to the teens who join the Port Townsend Aero Museum youth mentorship program.
Several hundred teens have participated in the mentorship program, which grew along with the musuem, Thoutte said.
“I teach them self-discipline, hard work and all the skills they are going to need to survive,” he said.
“This is a finishing school for life.”
Thuotte began the program as a way to help youngsters stay off illegal drugs, but it has evolved into something for anyone between 13 and 19 who has energy and interest.
“I won’t take adults,” Thuotte said.
“This isn’t a daycare program for adults, and it isn’t a daycare program for kids either.”
He works the teens hard and expects a lot, he said.
He requires trimmed hair and clean clothes, forbidding any facial hardware.
And, he said, the youngsters thrive.
“The only reason kids take drugs or put studs in their face is because they want to belong.” Thuotte said.
“Here, they belong right away. They are made to feel welcome and useful. “
Michael Wilkinson, 15, has been in the program for two years.
A freshman at Bainbridge Island High School, he can now take off and land planes, although only when accompanied by a certified instructor.
“It’s helped me deal with the real world,” he said of the program.
“It has taught me how to think, and be able to do things even when people are yelling at me.”
“When Michael got here he was a little guy who wouldn’t talk to anybody,” Thuotte said.
“Now he speaks right up.”
The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Admission to the museum is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and active military, $6 for children from 7 to 12 and free for children 6 and younger.
For more information about the museum, or the youth mentorship program, see http://tinyurl.com/28byzxm or phone 360-379-5244.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
