Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, didn't exist when I was stationed there... and it's on Ford Island, which now has a bridge to it.
Museum of Flight, Seattle
The Smithsonian, National Air and Space Museum
The Intrepid in New York City
Space Center Houston
National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton Ohio
San Diego Air and Space Museum, in Balboa Park, next to the Automotive Museum, the other museums, and the San Diego Zoo
Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Oregon
Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson
As an old Navy "Airdale", I have to put in a plug for the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.. Really great stuff there which includes a section on the old dirigibles from the '30's
ReplyDeletehttps://navalaviationmuseum.org/
thanks! I don't think we ever chatted about Navy times, when were you in, what did you do? I crewed subs, enlisted, 1989-99, and MP for shore duty at NAS Miramar 95-97, Subbase MP 97-98 to finish off shore duty time.
DeleteI've been fascinated with the Navy dirigibles, what a mind blowing craft to crew on! That would have been the best duty, imho, because the dang view, whenever you're off watch, was incomparable, slowly drifting along below
I've posted a lot of the Navy dirigibles, like this post on the Akron, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2023/03/up-to-oh-nothing-just-towing-navy.html but you can be sure they are buried in the US Navy posts, under that tab, but a lot faster to find if you click on Blimp.
Anyway, I was simply cutting down the amount of reading on the Travel and Leisure magazine article by posting their top ten.
I can't afford to travel, hell, you gotta earn a lotta cash to afford to travel, it's not the airfare as much as the damn hotels.
So, that magazine was talking up it's top ten... I've only ever been to the Smithsonian, and of course, the San Diego, air and space museums... and had no idea that I'd be able to check two of their top ten off my list. I'd have 3, if they'd made the Pearl Harbor one before I left, back in 1995, when I was done with my sea tour
HI, Jesse.. Navy times: I was in from mid 1968 until early1972.. (flunked out of Aero Engineering and signed on to have a better chance of not going to Vietnam) I did boot in San Diego then to Memphis (Millington) for Electronics school and Training device man (TD) school. II learned to be a flight simulator instructor and maintenance man and was stationed in Beeville, Texas (65 miles north of Corpus Christi, Tx) for the rest of the time.. Today, there is no TD rating and the bases where I was Diego, Millington, and Beeville are all closed... The old base at Beeville is where the Texas MIle is (was?) held.. Basically a standing start with speed at end measured.. I was back there with a friend when he set a class record.. around 200+ in his old Firebird..
DeletePensacola is a 5 hour drive for me and we used to rent a condo around there on the beach when my kids were young.. great place to visit if ya get a chance.
Oh wow, Yeah, San Diego boot camp was shut down in the mid 90s DOD punishment of California, disguised as Base Realignment and Closure, which took away a lot of DOD bases in California, or merged them, and roughly cut the amount of money flowing into the California economy from the military, by half.
DeleteNAS Miramar was closed, the Navy went to Nevada I think it was, and the marines took over as they were moved from the LA area, when El Toro which had been a blimp base a century ago.
Ain't it strange how bases were around forever in the last century, but politics shut most of them down in the past 3 decades. Maybe it makes for a more efficient military, with less money wasted on useless bases, but then, why the hell does the Air Force have so many bases in Germany? Why do we have a base in Cuba? Why bother with manning the DMZ in Korea? Seems like a waste of manpower.
Training Device rating? Cool! Never heard of it, but that must have been instrumental in so much technology getting passed down into the many ratings schools.
Sure I'm familiar with the Texas Mile, but I haven't heard about it in years. Likely, the sources that covered it, like Hot Rod, have disappeared, and it doesn't rate highly enough as news to get coverage from other outlets. Romo doesn't. Heck, there are so many great events to cover, but no one seems to do a good job of getting around to all of them. Goodwood is currently on, Pikes Peak was last week I think, and no one covers the Silver State anymore.
Those Firebirds were aero!
My Ex moved to Pensacola about a decade ago, and now she's moving to Idaho to live with her sister, not that they are both in their 70s, and single. Shame, now my buddy Mike and his wife are moving there next spring.
Second push to the Naval Aviation Museum, but also need to add Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection in Everett, WA and the the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Air & Space Museum Annex) in Virginia
ReplyDeleteI've posted about Allen's museum several times, it was bought by one of the Walmart heirs in 2022 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=paul+allen
DeleteAnd that annex, that's the Smithsonian reserves, basically, right?
Anyway, I was simply cutting down the amount of reading on the Travel and Leisure magazine article by posting their top ten.
How many museums of planes have you been to?
The Udvar-Hazy center has a lot more space than the Air & Space museum on the National Mall. They have a Space Shuttle, SR-71, Concorde, the Enola Gay and many other planes there. They also have a restoration area with viewing windows on a walkway up above it.
Deletethat's something I didn't know of in 1997 when I was there. Well, maybe they didn't have the space shuttle at the time.
DeleteThat's a LOT of big planes!
I agree! Great aero museums.. I was lucky to be able to spend time around Bellingham, Everette and Seattle on business trips; I always booked my flights so that I had some exploring time.. The ExxonMobil engineering/research center was in Fairfax, and flying in and out of D.C. gave me the opportunity to see the Udvar-Hazy.. Great stuff.
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