Rare Aviation

My name is Steve Rhode and on the afternoon of May 31, 1988, my instructor asked me to taxi to the end of the runway and as he stepped out, he told me I was ready to solo. I was both nervous and confident that I would be able to pilot my airplane through the pattern and back for a safe landing through the gap in the mountain. While it wasn’t the smoothest landing in the world and the first one was called off by the tower when another plane took the active runway without permission, things worked out well.

In the years after that fateful flight, I expanded my love of flying by collecting aviation memorabilia.

In doing research looking for items I realized that many of the old aviation documents I searched for are now aging and deteriorating and that soon, many would be lost forever. Some documents I have held were so fragile that if you attempted to turn a page, they would crumble.

Then one day an idea came to me, “What if I could preserve some of these items so that others could enjoy them?” From that one question, RareAviation.com was born.

As an aviation archivist I am always on the lookout for items that will soon be lost and forgotten or that are rare or hard to find and of interest to others. As an aviation enthusiast and pilot, I feel we have a duty to help preserve aviation items for the future generations that will come behind us and yet share the same joy and passion that we do.

If you are looking for old photographs or documentation on a particular aircraft, contact me. I have access to hundreds of thousands of photographs and loads of aviation documentation and I can do specific research for you for a reasonable hourly fee.

Steve Rhode - RareAviation.com