My Photos of the National Museum of the USAF

[dreinecke]

[goosenapper]

[Florida_Slotter]

Outstanding!

Thank you so very much for doing that.

Some of my favorite "frittered away hours" are those spent looking at aircraft.

Many hours have been spent at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Incredible. They have built yet another gigantic building. That B-36 had its tail end sticking out of the building when I was there last, and the building was nearly new then. And I see they finished restoring several of the WWII exhibits including the Strawberry Bitch, a very famous aircraft. And there were no B-52s indoors when I was there last time.

The pictures are great, David. You did very well. That's the kind of thing that makes me think I may give in someday and get one of those phones that isn't a phone. Thanks a bunch for this. That was a lot of fun.

[dreinecke]

Glad you all like the photos!

The museum is about to grow AGAIN! They are fundraising for a fourth hanger that will house the Space, Presidential Aircraft, Research & Development and Global Reach Galleries. There are also a ton of planes on the tarmac outside.

The iPhone can actually do some decent pics...I just haven't perfected the use of the flash/no flash yet. And, I notice I got a finger in one of the photos...an SLR body, it aint!

And as I said - getting to see the Enola Gay and now Bockscar was pretty darn neat. The nose art on the planes is obviously a favorite of mine.

[dreinecke]

I should also mention three things:

The museum entry is FREE. The food there is fast-food in nature and reasonable, the docents are VERY nice and helpful.

Across the street is a Comfort Suites hotel that is very nice and reasonable.

The aircraft are immaculately restored. I don't think I've ever seen better examples of restoration. I WANT THAT JOB!!! What is cool is how many were actually flown after restoration to the museum.

[dreinecke]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

At Oshkosh in 1990, I saw a MIG 15 (there's one in David's photos) for the first time. You can't seeit very well in these pictures, but it is incredibly small. Compared to a Shooting Star or a Sabre, our early jets in Korea, it is a go-kart. Its so low to the ground it looks like it would scrape the ground. The one I saw is believed to be the only one still flying, although Russia is littered with MIGs of all types just sitting there rotting to the ground on the sides of the roads in outlying areas.

Did you hear anything about the status of the Memphis Belle? It has been awaiting restoration for a long time there. The last time I saw her, she was partially disassembled for truck transport to Wright-Patterson.

[dreinecke]

The Memphis Belle is still in restoration progress. You can take a behind the scenes tour and see her, but we didn't have the time. They have a quite a huge number of planes in progress judging by the airframes visible outside of those hangers.

Here's some info off their website: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/exhibi ... /index.asp

[dreinecke]

Dave - that is VERY cool! I will say this - I loved Air & Space and the wing at Dulles (Udvar-Hazy Center) - but this blew it away. And the Smithsonian is nothing to sneeze at!

[TsgtRet]

I, too, have spent a lot of time in that place. After I retired from the AF I used t go out there every month, or so, just so I could get totally depressed.....virtually every type of plane I worked on is in the museum. Looks like they got a few more planes restored and added since I was there last. It's too bad "sequestration" has shut down the R&D and Presidential hangars, lot's of neat stuff over there. That stretch of Springfield St where your hotel was used to be the slummiest motels and abandoned factory buildings, quite a change to that neighborhood! Glad you enjoyed it!

[HomeRacingWorld]

I liked the nose art. Ok, I like all of it.

Did you take dimensions of the Jeep? I mean, I think it's time to branch (ahem) out a little in 1/32.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

The Belle was my playground as a boy. It stood on a huge concrete plinth in front of the Defense Depot, and all the kids were allowed to climb all over her. They eventually took the .50 cal. machine guns out and replaced them with wooden copies, but I never noticed. Then they closed off the slide to get into the tailgunner's position and locked the ball turret and dorsal turret. Then the belly hatch through which we all climbed up into the plane was welded shut.

Some idiot yuppies got permission to take the Belle away from the towns people and put her on display in one of the dumb private developments out on an island in the Mississippi, which of course failed, then they couldn't afford to repair her and she was sold away from us and taken out west to another place where they couldn't do anything with her, and the finally sent her to Wright-Patterson. It brings tears to my eyes to see her coming back to life. Great links, guys. I really appreciate it.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Where art thou?

[TsgtRet]

Beware of them Sirens!

The plan is to finish the Memphis Belle and "The Swoose" and then replace "Shoo Shoo Baby" with them and send "Baby" to another museum.
Even though my maintenance experience was later I could spend hours in the WWII gallery....my Dad's brother was a B-24 waist gunner flying out of Italy. I think the "spookiest" display in the whole museum is the "Lady Be Good" (B-24 lost in the Lybian desert and not found until the 50s).