Planes, Planes, & More Planes

 
The Pima Air & Space Museum is a must-see if you are anywhere within 200 miles of the place. There are 358 aircraft between 4 different hangars and the outside area. It opens at 9:00am, and Sally and I were waiting at the doors. We returned back to the VRBO at 2:00pm, meaning we spent nearly 5 hours there. Because we ate lunch there, which wasn’t that great, that’s 4.5 hours of looking at everything from one-person helicopters to a 787 Boeing Dreamliner.

First we took a 45-minute tram ride of the outdoors area, followed by slowly wandering the 4 hangars, gawking at aircraft at human level and more that hung from the ceiling. There are also plenty of displays intermeshed in between, displaying important items from the aircraft, along with gobs of historical uniforms, etc. Sensory overload!

One of those hangers was a separate museum (included with admission) entirely dedicated to the 390th Bomb Group, which flew B-17 Flying Fortresses in WWII. It houses an immaculately restored example of the aircraft. This is the plane I have wanted to see up close after reading the book, A Higher Call that I picked up in McMinnville way back in April at the Evergreen Aviation Museum.

When I said yesterday that there would be lots of photos, I took 20 or so; here are 5 of them. The top image is kind of my favorite because of the one on the right; it is a YEA-3A that is a precursor to the aircraft I flew while in the Navy, an EA-3B. The one on the left is the Air Force’s version of the plane, an RB-66. It has different engines to go with the slightly different cockpit configuration. Below, from left to right, are the B-17 Flying Fortress, a diorama of a B-17 bombing run, a B-36 (the largest piston-powered bomber ever built), and my second Super Guppy in a month.