Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Road Trip: National Museum of the United States Air Force; Part I Early Years of Aviation

it's so big it takes up the entire interior of an Air Force base!

       I have been running my yap about wanting to go see the Air Force Museum (check out their EXCELLENT website)  for some time now, well last Monday Trunkmonkey and I went. It is only a three-hour drive straight down I-75 from the Detroit area so there is no good reason that I haven't visited recently. Actually it has been nearly three decades since the last time I went. I was happily surprised by the fact that the display area is now expanded from two hangars to five massive structures! Why have I been waiting? With free admission the only cost is the gas to get there, believe me this is well worth the trip!

         This post will be broken down into several parts because I took over 600 pictures before my battery died and I didn't get past the WW2 section.  Each Section will be broken down into a short photo group of the individual aircraft, be sure to check the other photos in the section as you will find that many aircraft appear in the background of the featured aircraft. I don't provide much commentary as I know very little of this era, Wikipedia knows far more than I.


 The Early Years of Aviation

 


 











just like an American of the 20th century, first thought was to take a gun aloft
 and try shooting something, I was born a century too late!



and, of course, if a rifle works then we need to upgrade to a Lewis Gun, in 1912! 
the lad was ahead of his time (the pilot doesn't look too thrilled)

        Next up, The Great War

4 comments:

  1. The pilot of the Lewis gunner is just concerned about where the screaming hot brass is goung to go AFTER it bounces off the right knee of the gunner. The Gunner's knee is literally on the ejection port and does not appear to have anywhere else to go. .

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    1. If you expand the picture you can read the results of their strafing runs, they were fairly accurate for the primitive set up

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  2. I'm older than dirt. When you go to the cold war and Vietnam exhibits. I worked on any of them. F-4 Phantoms, F-106, A7-D. and C-130. I've have seen most of them in service. I guess I'm in the dinosaur leagues these days.

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    1. We did see the whole museum, my battery died after Bockscar. I am always struck by the size of those jet and turboprop rides from the 60s and 70s

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