At the Stonehenge Air Museum near Fortine, the stories are just as incredible as the airplanes themselves.

Spread throughout a 27,200-square-foot hangar, more than two dozen aircraft are a testament to man’s pursuit of flight. Aircraft collector Jim Smith has traveled the world over in search of the beauties, all of which have been restored.

All of the aircraft are flyable, with a couple of exceptions. One of those exceptions is an unusual 1961 Goodyear “Inflatoplane,” designed over just 12 weeks in 1956 as a military reconnaissance aircraft. It was meant as a rescue vehicle to evacuate downed pilots, and took about 10 minutes to inflate by canister.

Only a dozen Inflatoplanes of all types were built. Of the three surviving aircraft, the one acquired by Smith is the only one currently on display anywhere.

Among Smith’s collection of rare planes that still fly is a 1947 British Seafire, the only airworthy example of a MK 47 Seafire remaining in the world, according to museum curator Sam Winefordner.

The museum tour begins with a 1917 Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny,” one of the most famous of all aircraft. More than 90 percent of American pilots trained during World War I received their primary instruction on the Jenny.

“It was the best airplane the U.S. had during World War I. It was a trainer plane,” Winefordner said.

The Jenny, powered by the equally famous Curtiss OX-5 engine, was flown by barnstormers after the war. It showed up at air shows throughout the country in the 1920s. Many early-day aviation enthusiasts would part with their hard-earned money to take their first flight in a Jenny.

The JN-4D was introduced just one month before the U.S. entered World War I. Advancements in aviation were slow in coming at the time because of the Wright Brothers, Winefordner said.

“The reason we were so behind was that the Wright Brothers had patented everything and were suing everyone trying to make a plane,” he said.

After the war the Jennys were sold as surplus for as little as $16 apiece. The Jenny on display at Stonehenge Air Museum was sold to Paramount Studio, where it was used in the movie business until 1965. In fact, a previous owner of the aircraft claims it was flown in “The Spirit of St. Louis.”

Displayed next to the Jenny is a 1930 Lincoln-Page PT-W, a more modern trainer plane than the Jenny, developed by the Lincoln Aircraft Co., which also operated a flying school.

This is the point in the tour where Winefordner shares the story of how Charles Lindbergh — famous for his nonstop flight from New York to Paris — headed to Nebraska just after his 20th birthday after seeing an advertisement luring prospective pilots to the flying school in Lincoln.

“He was the only one who showed up,” he said. Two months later Lindbergh, on April 9, 1922, flew for the first time with his instructor. But he wasn’t permitted to “solo” during his time at Lincoln because he couldn’t afford to post a required bond.

When the Lincoln aircraft was sold a couple of months later, Lindbergh chose to follow it and its new owner into a life of barnstroming across the West, which included a short stint as an airplane mechanic in Billings.

Another point of interest along the tour is a 1944 Vultee BT-13B “Valiant,” a basic trainer widely used by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. Vultee was the first military aircraft manufacturer to employ women directly in production and paid women the same wage as their male counterparts.

There’s an interesting back story to the 1941 Curtiss P-4OE/N known as “Kittyhawk” by the Canadians or the “Warhawk” in the U.S. The one on display at the museum wound up in Canada as surplus after the war, when a Lethbridge farmer bought it for $50 for parts. When he had salvaged what he could, he buried the aircraft in a dry hole in 1952, and it remained underground for the next 23 years before being recovered in 1975.

“Remarkably, the aircraft was still on its wing, with almost no corrosion and about 80 percent complete,” Winefordner said.

During the excavation the first parts of the Kittyhawk to be exposed were the exhaust stacks, which reminded observers of a dinosaur vertebrae. Hence the nickname: “Curtissaurus Rex.”

Restoration of the Kittyhawk took 13 years.

Perhaps the most unusual aircraft at the museum is a cyclocopter built by Smith and his mechanic in 2012 for an American Helicopter Society Sikorsky Prize competition. The requirements were simply this: A human-powered craft that must remain aloft for 60 seconds, reach a minimum altitude of 3 meters and with the center point of the craft remaining within a 10-meter square.

While only partially successful, Smith’s cyclocopter design “proved far too compelling to store away or disassemble,” Winefordner said, so it is on display.

Within the next week or so, the museum will add one more impressive aircraft, a 1942 Douglas C-47/DC3, which will be flown to Stonehenge Air Museum from south Florida. Smith has a private airstrip next to the hangar where the vintage planes are displayed.

Known as the “Skyliner,” the aircraft was the first airliner designed with the capacity and range to make transporting passengers profitable. It, too, has an interesting history, having spent decades of service with various ministries of the Mexican government.

For aviation buffs, a tour through Stonehenge Air Museum is nothing short of extraordinary. Throughout the collection, the nonprofit museum’s mission statement — “to increase public understanding and appreciation of the history of military and civilian aviation and the wonder of flight” — is evident with each and every aircraft.

To arrange a tour of the museum, which is located on private property, call (406) 882-4714 or email StonehengeAirMuseum@gmail.com.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.