For WWII aviation lovers

Lots of great history there, I'm sure.  Never been, but would like to see it

Schweeet  pix Zurf.  We also have a large collection of planes at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, about an hour from my home.  The WWII exhibit has about 60 planes including a Zero, Junkers 88, ME-109, Me-163 (Komet), Focke-Wulf 190 and several US planes such as a B-17, B-25, B-29, P-38, P-40 and P-51.  The Cold War exhibit includes a B-2, B-52, Mig 29, F-16, F-104 and an SR-71.  My favorites have always been the WWI planes they have there like the Spad, Fokker and Sopwith Camel.

I've been there many times but its been at least 3 years Since my last visit.  Your post has got me thinking a mid-winter trip may be in order.

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

DE

They have what I consider to be one of the most amazing WWII planes there, the Corsair F4U.  It's positioned beautifully on wires in a flight position.  I'll see if I can dig up some photos of it.  They don't have a Zero there.  They do have a Black Widow, which seems like it is all engine with just enough fuselage to hold it together.  There are some Vietnam era helicopters as well, which I think are amazingly versatile machines.  What's cool is my wife's father worked on those as an engineer. 

There's a few WWI planes there, but the really, really early French ones and not the English or American ones.  I'd like to see some of those.  I used to build a replica (actually a reproduction) of the Waco YMF-5 that wasn't too dissimilar from the Hawker and Stearman models used by the Army Air Force late in the war. 

I think what I liked about WWII is that they went into the war flying open cockpit, skin on frame biplanes and went out flying jets - in six years time (counting the China campaign).  Oh sure, there were some metal skin monoplanes, but biplanes were common for scouting and training. 

There's also a lot of commercial craft.  Here's two pictures with my Dad.  In one he's by a Cub.  He was the structures engineer for its restoration and he sat in its cockpit.  The second is him by an Apache, which for a time was the world's most successful twin engine light craft.  Dad was on the design team for that plane.  A lot of guys were, but as far as I'm concerned that's one of Dad's planes.  The particular plane in the photo has over 100,000 hours, and it was flown by the owner to Dulles airport when he donated it to the museum.  Dad laughed when he read it and said, "I bet those aren't the original engines!"   The pictures aren't too good, but I like bragging on my Dad. 

I love that old WWII iron!  My favorite plane of that era was the F4-U Corsair.  One BAD plane to tangle with, if you could get 'em back on the ground without crashing.  I understand visibility was a nightmare when landing!

Love the B-17 too.  What a tough, graceful work of art that plane was.  The B-29 was also an awesome machine...pinnacle of piston engine aircraft design.  Years ago, way back in the '80's, I was lucky enough to watch "Fifi" as she flew over Flathead Lake in Montana, flying from an airshow in Missoula to another airshow in Kalispell.  She was about a mile away, maybe only 1,000 feet up...heard the engines for 5 minutes before we could see it.  What a sight!