By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@thecitizennews.com

Coweta County could soon have a Confederate Air Force to call its own.

Dixie Wing branch executive director Tom Barnes told the Coweta County Commissioners during their Airport Authority meeting the World War II group wants to call Coweta home.
For the last 40 years, the Confederate Air Force has restored vintage war planes to their flying days. The organization has 9,000 members and 85 restored planes.

The Dixie Wing chapter has based its operations on the south side of Atlanta for the last few years, because of the number of airline employees and mechanics, Barnes said.
The organization has hosted air shows at Falcon Field in Peachtree City for the last two years and have called the Fayette City home.

But now the organization wants to establish a permanent home and Barnes said the land cost in Peachtree City is prohibitive.
Instead, he’d like to build an 18,000-square-foot facility at the Newnan-Coweta Airport that would include a hangar, a maintenance facility and office space.
Barnes said the Dixie Wing chapter owns 4 airplanes that would be housed at the airport and want to become an active part of the community.

He also told the commissioners that the organization was going to change its name in October to risk offending people. When the organization was founded in Texas, the term had a far different political meeting than it has now.

But the name did not refer to the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Rather, it referred to writing the organizers of the planes found scribbled on their planes one morning.

Commissioner Vernon “Mutt” Hunter thanked Barnes for his presentation and asked him to forward all his information to staff for a recommendation.