Air & Space

My brother had always wanted to see a Guppy, and so yesterday he, Silvi and I drove down to Tucson to the Pima Air & Space Museum. We visited a number of hangars and saw a huge variety of aircraft, ranging from fighters and bombers to presidential airplanes. And of course the B-377SG Super Guppy. More than a guppy it looked like a beluga whale to me, but I found out that there is also an aircraft called the Beluga.

In Hangar 1 we saw some bizarre little planes, many of them rather cute. One of them was the Bumblebee, the smallest piloted airplane. There was also a tiny jet just like the one used on the James Bond film “Octopussy.” And a strange contraption with a backward pointing propeller attached to the top of the plane.

We went into the Space Exploratorium, where one of the volunteers insisted that we get our picture taken “on the Moon.” We weren’t sure what he was talking about, but he was so insistent that we followed him. We entered the Challenger Learning Center and found that they had a picture of the Moon’s surface with the Earth in the background and he took our picture there. Then he showed us around the Center, where they bring in school groups to simulate running a space mission. They have problems that they encounter and have to solve using protocols given to them as well as their own problem-solving skills. It turns out that they have these centers in various parts of the country (including Peoria), as well as one in Canada and another one in England. I was impressed by the programs he told us about.

Also within the Pima Air & Space Museum grounds is the 390th Memorial Museum. The centerpiece is a B-17G Flying Fortress, and we were lucky that we got to talk to a gentleman that had flown one of these during World War II. He flew 35 missions as a pilot on a B-17, including bombing raids over Berlin. He had a lot of interesting information, as well as a great story about having to make an emergency landing in England because two of the four engines had gone out, and just as they were about to land yet another engine went out, leaving them with only one.
And I got to see a F4U-F Corsair, which was exciting for me because I love the Corsair. I think part of it has to do with the stories about Pappy Boyington’s Black Sheep Squadron, and part of it is just that the Corsair, the "Whistling Death" with its bent wings, is a beautiful airplane.

I really liked the artwork on some of these airplanes—they told a lot about the crew inside, and made each airplane unique.

We only wished we’d been able to visit the interior of more airplanes, but overall we really enjoyed the visit and spent over 3 hours walking around. I’d like to return some day and also visit the AMARC (Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center) at the Air Force base across the road.