Air Museum

During our recent rain-soaked mini-vacation to Florida, Amy stopped by with the boys to take us on a tour of the Air Museum at Pensacola....

.........Wendy needed no museum to have fun, she had three "grand-nephews" to help take care of for the day...

........the rain let up a little to let us scurry inside. (Actually, this age group never "scurries")...

....this is one of the best aviation museums in the country. I will only put a few pictures in as a tease because Rex and Mary are going to do this tour in October and I don't want to ruin it for them...........

.........the Blue Angels "fly" in the atrium, guarding all who enter................

Training of the next generation of "Top Gun" pilots starts early in the U.S. Navy. (Actually, these kids are Air Force, and their Dad would cringe at the suggestion. The only planes the Navy has are the ones the Air Force lends them!).......

.......My buddy Dave and his crew restored an old Stearman trainer like this one. It had spent much of it's life working at Pensacola. This one had a log book displayed with it that showed that George Bush Sr. trainer in it...........

...........Rex, you can't miss an attraction that Amy and the boys found for us. It is a little movie stuck away in a corner and easy to miss. It portrays a fantastic story about training pilots in WWII. We could not risk using our precious aircraft carriers in open water to train pilots in take-off/landings because enemy submarines were in the oceans. The Navy bought two old retired Great Lakes passenger cruise liners in Chicago and shaved off the upper decks to make two small "aircraft carriers" that could sail in Lake Michigan in total safety. The pilots trained there, at Great Lakes Naval Station, where our Dad did some of his training as well. The pilots were learning and the boat was much smaller than a regular carrier. There were many crashes, but few pilot losses. Many a broken plane went to the bottom. Most of these great planes were retired pacific veterans.

Someone got the bright idea, "let's find, raise, and restore these precious and rare planes". The movie is short, well done, and there are now 4 of these planes in the museum. This is a dive bomber that some brash young pilot crashed and trashed. It was a seasoned veteran of much action in the Pacific and had over 200 bullet holes in it, ironically sent to the bottom by some hot-shot farm boy from Iowa (probably) It looks great now!!...............

………… These Dauntless dive bombers were designed and built in the 30’s and obsolete, slow, and under powered when the war started. Still they were all we had. The pilots argued over who had to fly them as they were no fun and even dangerous against the enemy. Ironically, a squadron of these old clunkers was in the right place at the right time in the Battle of Midway and sunk an amazing 4 Japanese aircraft carriers in an hour! That hour turned the entire war around and we were clearly winning after that point. Thank you U. S. Navy!!...........

........there are so many beautiful planes there that it is hard to call a favorite, Mine was this funky old duck. It actually flew the Atlantic (non-stop, I believe) in 1917 for the U. S. Navy. Long before Lindberg, who won all the money and fame because he was alone, a requirement of the contest................

.........Wendy wanted to take this baby home because we have some "troublesome" neighbors ........

.............in a single picture, our Florida trip can be summed up. It was raining so hard and long that the museum roof was leaking and a trash can had to be put out amongst these beautiful old heroes. I bet they all longed to break out of that museum prison and fly away, even in the rain!!

Uncle Hans