Essential details
• A-10C 79-0087 final flight and homecoming: Monday, September 22, planned arrival 12:00 p.m.; museum opens 10:00 a.m.; admission by donation.
• Fairchild Aircraft 100th Anniversary Homecoming: September 12–14 at Hagerstown Aviation Museum with A-10 tours, vintage aircraft, rides, hangar dance, and more.
If airplane metal could feel nostalgia, you would hear it in the low grumble of an A-10 rolling back onto the same runway where its story began. On September 22 at noon, a combat-veteran Fairchild-Republic A-10C, tail number 79-0087, will make its final landing at Hagerstown Regional Airport in Maryland, the birthplace of the Thunderbolt II.
The jet has served for decades with the 175th Wing of the Maryland Air National Guard. Now its last mission is a homecoming. The public is invited, the museum doors open at 10 a.m., and admission is by donation.
Hagerstown did not just assemble the “Warthog.” It lived with the airplane. More than 700 A-10s rolled out of the Fairchild-Republic factory here between 1976 and 1984, and for locals, the sight and sound of twin turbofans banking over the valley is part of the region’s muscle memory.
“This is an emotional and historic moment, not just for the museum, but for our entire community,” said John Seburn, president of the Hagerstown Aviation Museum. “Now, after decades of faithful service defending American troops, 087 is coming home.”
The date carries extra weight. Museum leaders say this will likely be the last time an A-10 lands at Hagerstown. The 175th Wing is moving off the platform as the Air Force retires the type, and 79-0087 is reported to be the Wing’s last A-10 to fly. For one more midday, though, the airplane that ground troops nicknamed a “flying tank” will touch the runway it knows best. After the arrival, the jet will become a permanent exhibit at the Hagerstown Aviation Museum through the National Museum of the United States Air Force’s civilian museum loan program.
If you need a quick refresher on why the A-10 is loved far beyond aviation circles, it is simple: it shows up and it stays. Built for close air support, the Thunderbolt II is famous for its toughness and loiter time, qualities that earned trust from soldiers on the ground. This particular jet served in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as many other overseas missions, on an extended tour that explains the reverence in the museum’s language and the community’s excitement about welcoming it back. “This tribute honors Fairchild’s legacy, the veterans who served with it, and the thousands of workers who designed and built the A-10,” said Kurtis Meyers, the museum’s vice president and curator.
There is also a whole month of context. Before the homecoming flight, Hagerstown will mark the Fairchild Aircraft 100th Anniversary Homecoming on September 12–14 at the museum. Expect fly-ins, vintage aircraft on the ramp, a 1940s hangar dance, a Wings & Wheels show, rides in the museum’s PT-19, food trucks, music, and, yes, a visiting A-10 for tours and photos. It is a festival aimed at the whole family, with daylong activity blocks and special programs that connect the brand’s past to the city’s present.
Stand on that ramp and the timeline snaps into focus. Fairchild’s Hagerstown plant was still delivering brand-new A-10s in early 1984. Four decades later, one of those jets is coming back as an ambassador, not a weapon, and it will sit among the most extensive collection of Fairchild aircraft on earth. That arc is the story Hagerstown has always told well: this is a place where airplanes are built, flown, kept, and remembered.
If you go, go early. The museum opens at 10 a.m., with arrival planned for noon, and crowds are expected. Bring a camera, patience, and someone who needs to hear why a workhorse attack jet can bring a crowd to its feet. When the A-10 turns final and the landing gear drops, you will be watching more than a fly-in. You will be watching a city welcome one of its own home.