Got to the Pima Air and Space Museum on the SE of Tucson by 9:35 or so and would spend about two hours enjoying the viewing of planes both in pristine and boneyard conditions. Way too many photos taken of course, I culled many but fair warning, lots of photos ahead.
Selection criteria was either: A. I liked its looks. B. I had some experience in them. C. I appreciated the role they played.
Museum Entrance
Starr Bumble Bee
Built to achieve the record of "Smallest Plane"
Sikorsky CH-37B Sky Crane
Flying Tank: Mil MI-24 (Hind)
Lockheed EC-121T Warning Star
Just look at that radome underneath!
An iconic Boeing B-29 Strato Fortress
Three Decks!
Douglas C-124 Globemaster
Super Guppy
Aero Spacelines B-377G
I love this Lockheed VC-121 Constellation's lines
and tail structure
Lockheed C-130
I've fallen out of several of these while on jump status in the Army
Lockheed C-141 Starlifter
Another aircraft that I've fallen out of, on purpose.
Civilian Constellation, lovely lines.
Grumman OV-1C Mohawk
Flown by Army Pilots
Douglas C-47 Skytrain outfitted for Paratroop duty
Am sure my kids think I'm old enough to have fallen
out of one of these too.
North American B-25 Mitchell Bomber
I've always like seaplanes
Consolidated PBY5-A Catalina
Vought F4U Corsair
North Amerian P-51D Mustang
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
A ground pounder's best friend in combat
Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
Douglas A-4C SkyHawk
Hope you liked my choices for pics, a good place to visit but plan on at least two hours to enjoy it. I sure did.
We actually got about an hour's worth of light rain ending shortly after 5:00 PM. Hopefully, no muddy conditions tomorrow when I try to exit the BLM campsite.
I climbed a nearby hill to catch the sunset, here's a view from the top of the campsite areas.
Uma, the URRV is the center RV in the pic above
Much more crowded conditions on the western side
The clouds from the rain storm proved a nice backdrop for a decent Arizona sunset:
10 comments:
Now that's a museum I'd like to poke around in. Back when we had an airforce we even had a few of those old birds: Dakotas, P-51's, Corsairs, C-130's, and then our last fighter - the A4.
Thanks for the comment Andrew Thomson, surely you all still have something?
Why is one area more crowded boondocking than the other?
Nice photos of the museum. I went there back in the late 70s and it was a lot different. Lots of unrestored planes outside and simple displays. It looks like a fantastic place to visit. Need to ad it to the list. Did you visit the desert museum?
Why one area more crowded? Not sure, the entry roads seem better on the west side but it was doable for smaller rigs like mine on the eastern side. I'm guessing folks saw where others had gone and decided to find a spot near them.
I didn't visit the Desert Museum...
I liked the air and space museum a lot, their indoor displays were well done though I found their "space" portion a bit lacking but then again, only so much of that stuff to go around right? Lots of models to look at though.
Thanks for sharing the plane pictures Dom. I love wandering around air museums. Such history and the older planes all had such good lines to them. I always liked the Corsairs.
Did you ever make it to the Evergreen Air museum here in Oregon when you were here last?
You're quite welcome Trobairitz and yes I did make it out to the Evergreen museum, loved the Spruce Goose and their museum is quite nice, even has a couple of Ural rigs in there for decor purposes I think.
I remember visiting that museum a few years back. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours. Thanks for the memories.
Glad I could help you remember it Canajun, I liked it a lot.
Thanks for taking me to the museum, Dom. A place I will likely never see in person. I still wonder, what the Guppy plane was able to leave the ground, maybe it followed the principles of the bumble bees...
I like your the location of your office, and that the campers around leave some space for privacy.
You’re welcome SonjaM, the guppy looked delicate to me....but then I remember seeing pics of a plane that used to carry the space shuttle on its back....amazing stuff.
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