Tucson's Pima Air & Space Museum has nearly 300 aircraft spread out over 80 acres. There are many docents to talk with that will share their deep knowledge of the aircraft on display
Pat, Larry, Gary, Ken, me, Adrienne
The Wright Flyer (copy)
First in flight, first up in the museum.
The Bumblebee was built for the sole purpose of taking the recordf as the world's smallest aircraft. It had a wing span 6 feet 6 inches and a range of 20 miles. Its first flight was Jan 28, 1984 and the record held until August 1984. Adrienne thinks she can fit.
Aircraft everywhere
The two person 1953 McCulloch HUM-1
The F-14 Tomcat
Think Top Gun
The Pentecost E-III Hoppicopter was designed during WWII as a parachute replacement. The fatal flaw was if the paratrooper stumbled during landing he would be cut to pieces by the rotor blades
PBM Mariner
A-10 Thunderbolt, affectionately known as the Warthog.
Not the prettiest aircraft ever built, but is is extremely good at its job: killing tanks.
The entire plane was designed around its massive nose mounted 30mm rotary cannon
capable of firing up to 4,200 rounds per minute.
Don't stand here while engine is running
B-17 heavy bomber
Period correct jeep with 50 cal machine gun
A look inside the tail gunner position.
Kind of cramped.
The plane on the left was Kennedy and Johnson's Air Force 1
The plane on the right was for VIPs
Convair Peacemaker Strategic bomber
Interesting paint jobs
This Apollo command module is a mockup used by Walter Cronkite
during his reporting of the Apollo missions.
One of only three advanced space shuttle orbiter simulators used to train NASA astronauts
Consolidated B-24J LIBERATOR
PBY Catalina
What a terrific museum.
