A DAY AT THE PIMA AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

PIMA AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

80 ACRES/300 PLANES

TOUCH 100 YEARS OF AVIATION HISTORY

Out of bed at 7 in the morning to get ready for our 2 hour ride to Tucson

Ken and Devonna picked us up

The boys in the front

The girls in the back

We were all looking forward to the day

Greeted by one of the Wright brothers

Beginning the tour

The same type of plane that John Denver flew the last day of his life

John lost control of the plane when he tried to turn on a switch that controlled the dual gas tanks 

It was situated behind him instead of on the front panel

Joe checking out one of the helicopters that flew in Vietnam

A Huey............

Made famous by the movie Apocalypse Now

Photo taken through glass

I could not help but wonder how many soldiers were strapped to the 'stretcher' and flown to hospital

Snoopy on top of the helmet

It read

100 missions

One can only imagine what all he saw

Canadian

Simulator

You remember Tom Cruise in Top Gun?

We have now moved outside and are about to take a tram tour of the outside aircraft exhibits

Blue Angels

Equivalent to our Canadian Snowbird planes

I tried to take everything in that the tour guide had to say about each plane

however

I was counting on purchasing a book at the gift shop

so that I could tell you about the different planes

I will have to rely on Joe's memory as well as mine as we did not get a book

No memory here!!!!!!

Many Air Force jets

President Eisenhower flew in this plane

He named it Columbine for his wife Mamie

President Kennedy used this helicopter while living at the White House

White House planes

Big plane ??????

Baby Clipper?

This one just made it to the museum

Notice the piston head coming out of the engine cowling

Only a few of these planes were built

Ugliest plane

Commercial plane

Note machine gun barrels

And rockets

I'm not sure if this is the plane or one similar to the one that picked up the lady who was in the Arctic 

You  may remember the story

She was very ill with breast cancer

The plane has skies and wheels

A plane used for the searching of subs

Note the spotlight

Radar plane

One of three Stratofortress

B-377SG Super Guppy

Sky Crane

We are now going to have lunch before the guys continue on........

They will next go on a motor coach tour to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

Known as the Bone Yard

Devonna and I had to stay behind as we did not bring photo ID with us

While Joe and Ken did the tour we just sat and chatted!!!!!!!

Joe has taken my camera and I will have him narrate 

The tour was about an hour

The first half was in the maintenance area

These canisters contained jet motors

All the planes in this area were covered with four layers of protective spray

Titan missiles

Entering the Bone Yard 

Up to this point the planes were in storage or in repair

Now they are being stripped down for parts or destroyed

I believe these are being destroyed to insure that replacement parts don't get into the hands of Iran

A previous customer

 

Stripping down

The fellows have returned and now we are going to tour the hangers

World War ll 

Looking up through the bomb bay

Insignia cut out of planes

B-29 Superfortress

Flown in the Pacific Campaign

These are the planes that dropped the bombs that ended the war

From the Bomb Bay notice the crawl tube

This plane was recovered from the waters of Lake Michigan

It had been underwater for 50 years

The aircraft carrier was a converted paddle wheeler used for training on the great lakes

Little boy was Hiroshima

Fat man was Nagasaki

Memorial Museum

At the conclusion of the second world war the Allies dropped food in the Netherlands

Here is a picture that a child drew in appreciation

The soldiers had pets!

Our last stop was the Space Gallery

End of a long and interesting day

Sun going down on Highway 10

Destination

Greek restaurant in Florence

Highly recommended

A five star day!!!!!!!!