Air Museums by Geezer

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Air Museums

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Saturday, November 20, 2010 05:33
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Thursday, November 18, 2010 6:27 PM

Keep the Shiny side up

As Madame Geezer and I travel around the country, we tend, for whatever reason, to stop at air museums. Since we live in Metro D.C., we have the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and Udvar-Hazy center nearby, and they are pretty cool. However, we've found some others that we like. Some are small and some pretty big, but all strike a chord.

Warhawk Air Museum - Nampa Idaho.

This museum doesn't have a lot of planes, but what it does have is a massive collection of WWII memorabilia. Everything from V-mail letters to cardboard porta-potties for long transport flights.
http://www.warhawkairmuseum.org/

Castle Air Museum - Atwater, California

This is the one that got us started. Plenty of outdoor static display aircraft, including the rare B-36 Peacemaker. Mostly WWII through Cold War.
http://www.castleairmuseum.org/

Boeing Museum of Flight - Seattle, Washington

Lots of Boeing planes (surprise) and interactive stuff on the early development of aircraft.
http://www.museumofflight.org/

Fargo Air Museum - Fargo North Dakota

Not too many planes here, but most of them are in flyable condition and actually are taken out and flown. Their motto is "We Fly the Plains".
http://www.fargoairmuseum.org/

Cosmosphere - Hutchinson, Kansas

These folks have the best collection of Russian Vostok spacecraft outside of Russia, and the biggest collection of spacecraft and artifacts that have actually flown in space. They have Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo craft that have flown. Makes the stuff at Johnson Space center at Houston look cheap (Do not bother with The Johnson Center). Also an SR-71 you can touch.
http://www.cosmo.org/museum.cfm

Air Force Armament Museum - Egland AFB, Florida

If it was dropped or fired from an airplane, these folks got it. Also good static display of planes from WWII on.
http://www.afarmamentmuseum.com/

USS Alabama - Moble, Alabama

The battleship is the big draw, but the small air museum nearby is cool, not only for the planes, but for the remarkable reconstruction job that dedicated volunteers have done to repair the damage the museum and aircraft sustained during Katrina.
http://www.ussalabama.com/

Kennedy Space Center - Kennedy Space Center, Florida

This has gotten kinda commercial, but seeing the Vehicle Assembly Building, the crawler used to move the Apollo and Space Shuttle craft, and the Shuttle landing strip that's so long the curvature of the Earth means you can't see both ends from the middle, is not to be missed.
http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/

Naval Air Museum - NAS Pensacola, Florida

This is the mother lode. They have more planes, and more approachable planes, that anywhere I've been. You can actually walk up and touch a Navy SBD dive bomber that fought at the battle of Midway - the only surviving plane from that battle. Choked me right up. If you have a jones for warplanes, this place will be your fix.
http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Thursday, November 18, 2010 7:10 PM

CANTTAKESKY

Cool list. Thanks. How kid friendly are these places?

As a homeschooler, I am always on the lookout for more museums. :)

----
Arrogant and proud of it.

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Thursday, November 18, 2010 9:09 PM

DREAMTROVE

Geezer,

Don't miss the Glenn Curtis Museum in Hammondsport, NY.

http://www.glennhcurtissmuseum.org/

Curtis' designs were the ones which later aircraft were more heavily based on, though his ideal was that planes would always take off and land on the water. I saw a reconstruction take off of a 1911 plane. The pilot looked like he was saying fairwell to his friends when he got on, but in fact, the son of bitch did fly, and quite well too. He had it up there for many miles around the lake. I think he was also afraid to land, but it landed fine also. It was an exact replica, down to the materials, which means it was I think all pine frame.

Curtis was also fond of girls. As pilots. A lot of female aviation pioneers get coverage here as well. It's definitely one to stop and check out.

You might want to taste the local wine too

ETA:

Also, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and I went to one in Kitty Hawk as a kid, I don't remember the name

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Thursday, November 18, 2010 11:26 PM

CATPIRATE

Semper Fi, Kennedy is alright, Boeing is ok, Naval Air Museum Topps. But the best is the Air Force one in Dayton Ohio. You can do it in a day but rushed. A very good one is the Pima Air Museum in Tucson AZ off of I-10. Also two more, the USS Intrepid in New York City near Hell's Kitchen and the USS Yorktown in Charleston SC at Patriot's Point. I have really travelled the USA and let me tell ya I love snake museums and airplane museums. From stopping at small airports to look at static displays of F-105Bs to G models. A border town in Alberta Canada has a Mountie Police fort from the 1800s to having a hangar with the only Lancaster Bomber in North America. It is flyable and the largest bomber of WW2. I do it all subs, nascar, and by the way the best battleship memorial is the USS North Carolina in Wilmington NC. The USS Arizona is more a grave site. Yeh I'll check anything out on a road trip from caveman art of aliens in Chaco Canyon New Mexico to dinosaurs on a cliff at the north shore of Lake Superior on the Canadian side. Grab a Coke and Mickey Dee fries lets hit the road. When my english friends come over I show them all the places they lost in the revolution like Kings Mt NC. I find that fun. And we end it at Yorktown VA.

If ye reed de beeble you'll know Ireland was de gardin of Aidan, ya know what I meen.

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Friday, November 19, 2010 4:57 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

CTS

The Boeing museum, Cosmosphere, Kennedy, and the Naval Air Museum have either air-themed play areas or interactive stuff or shows suitable for kids. The Virginia Air and Space Museum, in Hampton has a lot of educational stuff on the kid level. http://www.vasc.org/ The others got neat stuff, but it's mostly hands off.

DT

The Curtis Museum sounds like a stop the next time we go up that way. Been to the Wright one at Kitty Hawk, but it's really more monument than museum. Air and Space in D.C. is absolutely great. When I worked downtown, I used to go there all the time at lunch. Lots of interactive, kid-friendly, stuff there too.

Catpirate

Don't get me started on battleships and carriers. Haven't been to the Air Force Museum yet, but did do the SAC Museum in Omaha so long ago I forgot until Madame reminded me this morning.

When we're roadtripping, we usually skip the big museums and stop at the small ones run by a local historical society or preservation group.

My favorite Revolutionary War battlefield is Cowpens, in South Carolina, where the Continental militias showed they could fight alongside the Regulars. http://www.nps.gov/cowp/index.htm

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Friday, November 19, 2010 6:08 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Hell, stop up here, Geeze.
http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/

Lemme know, I'll buy ya a drink or somethin.

-F

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Friday, November 19, 2010 6:24 AM

DREAMTROVE

Let me know if you swing by Hammondsport. I can second Frem's offer.

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Friday, November 19, 2010 9:16 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Don't forget the Commemorative Air Force (CAF - used to be called the Confederate Air Force), headquartered in Midland, Texas.

http://www.airpowermuseum.org/

They operate the only flying B-24 Liberator and B-29 Superfortress still operating. And you can take rides in them! :)

I used to go down to San Antonio now and then for some of the air shows at the air base there. Lots of good stuff on display, and lots more stuff flying around. It plays hell with your brain to watch a C-5 Galaxy racking its way through a high-G turn, basically standing on one wing at about 400' altitude! Something that big should not be that agile. Or even airborne in the first place!

This Space For Rent!

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Friday, November 19, 2010 4:07 PM

DREAMTROVE

Oh, and don't fly while drunk. A friend of mine crashed his plane that way.

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Friday, November 19, 2010 5:29 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

Hell, stop up here, Geeze.
http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/

Lemme know, I'll buy ya a drink or somethin.

-F

Next time I'm heading west on I-90 I might just do that. That'd be an interesting day.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Friday, November 19, 2010 6:09 PM

OUT2THEBLACK

http://www.silentwingsmuseum.com/info.htm

http://www.asomf.org/index.php

http://www.soaringmuseum.org/
NSM will be one of the main presenters at the SOARING100 Centennial Celebration, to be staged at several locations at the Outer Banks, NC. These events will include:

21 October 2011
National Landmark of Soaring No. 16 Dedication, Jockey's Ridge State Park, Nags Head, NC
22 October 2011
The 40th Annual Ralph S. Barnaby Lecture. Kill Devil Hills, NC. Speaker to be announced.
24 October 2011
Centennial Celebration of Orville Wright's 9 minute 45 second soaring flight. Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, NC

http://www.carolinasaviation.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolinas_Aviation_Museum

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Friday, November 19, 2010 6:23 PM

OUT2THEBLACK

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Friday, November 19, 2010 6:32 PM

OUT2THEBLACK

Ensign Roebuck crashed this one on a mountain in Canada , but it was recovered , to be restored by retired Chance Vought employees at Ft. Worth , Texas. Now displayed on the fantail of the WW2
battleship USS North Carolina.

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Friday, November 19, 2010 6:58 PM

OUT2THEBLACK

EAA Museum at Oshkosh , Wisconsin
http://www.airventuremuseum.org/

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Friday, November 19, 2010 7:12 PM

OUT2THEBLACK

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:

...Curtis was also fond of girls. As pilots. A lot of female aviation pioneers get coverage here as well. It's definitely one to stop and check out.

ETA:
...and I went to one in Kitty Hawk as a kid, I don't remember the name

Mr. Curtiss and myself would have gotten along just fine...I suspect Glenn would have gotten along famously with most aviators , with the likely exception of those surnamed 'Wright'.

I had a good time arranging a Young Eagle flight for one young female flyer and her slightly older sister ,
just 3 weeks ago. One of them also went to a fly-in with me 2 weeks ago. I think there may be more than one new flyer from their family , and soon.

The museum at Kitty Hawk is operated by the National Park Service , and includes the Wright Brothers Memorial. The world of aviation is very small. I was first to arrive for the 90th Anniversary of Powered Flight , but once the crowd arrived and I backed my way into the building , I immediately saw Folk that I knew , which was very cool...

I also know the pilot who attempted flight with the Wright Flyer replica at the 100th Anniversary celebration , but to no avail...Not enough headwind that day , although many of the other conditions of the weather were markedly similar to the original flying day.

On the subject of female flyers , S-Z has really pretty hands...Flyer's Hands. She could be a hand model , since she has the prettiest hands ever...

I was first struck by this fact when she sculpted a sea turtle in the sand on the beach in the space of a few seconds , and then wiped it away just as quickly...

It brought to my mind Amelia Earhart's hands...Whether she was a handsome woman is a matter of taste , but she had pretty hands , too.

There are a few pictures on the 'Net which make this fact evident , but one has to do some scouting. I like to create virtual aviation museums by looking at pictures of old aircraft and flyers , and gleaning information from them.

http://sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/amelia-earhart-flying-o
utside-of-the-boundaries/

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Friday, November 19, 2010 8:05 PM

OUT2THEBLACK

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Friday, November 19, 2010 10:43 PM

CATPIRATE

Geezmo, I forgot about Orville and Wilbur at the outerbanks. One more thing on the Pima down in Tucson. They have a B36 they are redoing it should be close to complete. The Intrepid is air, space, and sea museum. The Yorktown is WW2 naval and air museum. Like the Big Mo at Pearl is a gulf war museum. Now Civil War stuff will take you awhile to see. Not been to Gettysburg been to Vicksburg it moved me. Been to alot of battlefields. I am that dude out in the field looking over the landscape to get the manuevers down. The Bighorn, Washita, Antietam, Yorktown, and Fort Fisher at Carolina Beach. That was the Yankee D Day. I love the tables in the museums with the lights to tell ya how the battle went. What line of defense got breached. Now Cowpens I remember when that was just a field. Oh Yeh let me mention The Virginia War Museum in Newport News. I really liked this one. It's not big but has alot of cool stuff. They have Spanish AM war and Korean War stuff which you don't see to much anymore. I like the 1903 Sprinfield Rifle. Just make sure you get your hat pins and pecan roll.

If I am gonna eat banana walnut bread then I am gonna have hot chocolate with it. Starbucks stole my idea.

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Saturday, November 20, 2010 4:18 AM

DREAMTROVE

Quote:

Mr. Curtiss and myself would have gotten along just fine...I suspect Glenn would have gotten along famously with most aviators , with the likely exception of those surnamed 'Wright'.

I wasn't going to say it, but now that you bring it up, IIRC, I think he said something to the effect of "If you take a bicycle and ride it off a hundred foot cliff into a 60 mph wind, you'll fly 100 feet. Basically, he thought they were cheating.

For those not familiar with the area, Kitty Hawk, NC is where the gulf stream sheers off into the atlantic, at the exact point, the wind hits a constant high, sort of like the imbalance of Cape Horn. As a result, me memory as a kid was that trees in Kitty hawk grow at a diagonal of of about 30 degrees. There are some steep cliffs that you could probably jump off of and fly.

Curtiss thought they were cheating, and harming the industry, pushing people to race towards the prize rather than do serious research. It's still a problem.

For example, the M Prize has caused researchers to find longer lived mice, which are exclusively those born with terminal illnesses, rather than apply science. A terminally ill mouse can live about twice as long as a healthy one, because of the lower metabolic rate. Still, it's not the solution we were looking for.

I read a couple years ago that Earhart had crashed just offshore of a desert island where she lived for years. No one found her, but her affects were found there back in the 80s or 90s.

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Saturday, November 20, 2010 4:24 AM

KANEMAN

We have a couple sweet ones here in CT. The air museum at Bradley is small but fun, also the Groton sub base has a sub museum. My favorite is sykorsky helicopters, not a museum but you can sit and watch em test all the new helicopters. Crashes and all.

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Saturday, November 20, 2010 5:33 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by CatPirate:
I am that dude out in the field looking over the landscape to get the manuevers down. The Bighorn, Washita, Antietam, Yorktown, and Fort Fisher at Carolina Beach.

Yeah. I've been out to Bull Run where Jackson stood "Like a Stone Wall". Living in Northern Virginia the Civil War is all around.

If you get out West, you might try Fort Phil Kearney near Banner, Wyoming. Two of the most famous Indian fights, The Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box fight, occurred here, and you can walk those battlefields. http://www.philkearny.vcn.com/index.html

Quote:
Oh Yeh let me mention The Virginia War Museum in Newport News. I really liked this one. It's not big but has alot of cool stuff. They have Spanish AM war and Korean War stuff which you don't see to much anymore. I like the 1903 Sprinfield Rifle. Just make sure you get your hat pins and pecan roll.

Also in Newport News is the Mariner's Museum, with the largest collection of marine stuff in the country. http://www.marinersmuseum.org/

If I am gonna eat banana walnut bread then I am gonna have hot chocolate with it. Starbucks stole my idea.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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