Pima Air & Space Museum

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.