BROOMFIELD -- Roy Halladay never quite got the chance to be an ace.

Halladay grew up wanting to be an Air Force pilot, but when he came of age after the Vietnam War, the service wasn't looking for pilots. So Halladay went to work as a corporate pilot. He now flies a Gulfstream III for a living.

That didn't ground his dream of flying fighter jets. About 20 years ago, Halladay decided that if the Air Force wouldn't let him fly a fighter, he'd go out and buy one.

Roy Halladay prepares his Lockheed T33 jet for takeoff last month at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. Halladay, a commercial pilot, spent 10 years rebuilding the Korean War-era jet from new and salvaged parts.

Halladay owns and flies a Lockheed T-33 jet -- one of the many on display today at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport's open house.

Lockheed T-33s were used by the Air Force and Navy to train pilots, and the model was one of the first jets to be used in military service.

When Halladay bought the plane it was in bad shape. He and his son spent years scouring junkyards for spare parts. Each part of the airframe was rebuilt, modern hydraulic and avionics systems were added and the engine was replaced.

By 2000, it was finally flight-worthy.

Since then, Halladay has taken the plane to air shows and on weekend jaunts.

Today's open house will also feature vintage World War II planes, such as a B-17, a B-25 and a P-51, plus F-16 and F-18 fighters on loan from the Air Force and Navy.

They will be joined by a MiG-17. The plane, owned by retired Air Force Col. Jack Wilhite, is one of two in the United States. The MiG-17 was designed by the Soviet Union and flown by Communist forces in the Korean and Vietnam wars.