Scott ‘Scooter’ Yoak

In addition to running a maintenance shop, he brought aviation to the silver screen and to homes across the country by flying Corsairs for the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep and creating custom helicopters for Hollywood films. For Scott, the roar of radials and V-12s was commonplace as he was growing up.

“I thought every airport had a Mustang and a Corsair,” Yoak said. “I was around a repair station that built, maintained, and was responsible for the continued airworthiness of these amazing artifacts. It wasn’t until I was older that I found out, ‘Oh, wow, these things are actually pretty rare.’”

Today Scott Yoak is best known as the custodian of Quick Silver, the immaculate P–51D Mustang that he and his father spent 15 years bringing to life. Since 2008, Yoak has showcased the airplane at airshows, displaying its ability to roll, loop, and climb while audiences listen to the airplane’s iconic sound. But now he wants to be known as the custodian of something else: The Aviation Legacy Museum.

“Since my father passed away in 2013, I’ve wanted to turn what I do into a nonprofit,” Yoak said. “I’ve always secretly wanted to be an aviation museum curator or director—someone that can, from the nonprofit side, get the next generation of folks [into warbird aviation].”

Yoak’s decision to form a museum was fueled in part by interactions with his social media followers. He has more than 43,000 followers on Instagram, where he often hosts question-and-answer sessions. He also hosts an aviation podcast, Airpower Podcast. The most common question he gets from followers and listeners is, “How can I get involved in something like this?”

Yoak wants The Aviation Legacy Museum to be a place where anyone can experience aviation the way he did growing up, and where young people can find mentorship. As a pilot for a national airline, Yoak says, he sees the effects of the pilot shortage every day, and he also sees a need for more mechanics and technicians to keep airplanes airworthy.

The museum already has a Cessna 150 and a Cessna 172, which will give young people hands-on experience with aircraft. The airplanes need restoration, and Yoak hopes that students will be able to participate in that. Once restoration is complete, students will be able to use the airplanes for flight training.

But Yoak also wants to show youth other aspects of the aviation industry. “Aviation is not just flying airplanes. It’s not just maintaining them. It’s also management, air traffic control, aviation business,” he said. “No matter what faction of aviation you want to go into, my goal is to have a mentor here on staff that you can talk to. So not only is this going to be a flight museum—I want this to be an aviation career center.”

The museum will be staffed by volunteers. Yoak says he wants the museum to be a place where anyone can get involved, regardless of their experience in aviation. “Everyone is going to be welcomed, everybody’s going to have a task, everybody’s going to do something to move it forward,” he said.

While the museum will be the home base of Quick Silver, Yoak hopes other warbird owners will base their aircraft at the museum. He says he’s also heard from aircraft owners who are interested in donating their airplanes to the museum.

The Aviation Legacy Museum will be housed in a new, 10,000-square-foot facility at the Twin Lakes Airport (S17) in South Carolina, a half-hour’s drive northeast of Augusta, Georgia. Yoak hopes the new hangar will be completed next year.

Collin Callahan is a freelance aviation writer and photographer based in Alexandria, Virginia.