of the Pima Air and Space Museum

March 29, 2007 by Brian.

Dan and I share an interest in aircraft and space vehicles, so we made a stop at the Pima Air and Space Museum. This one will be a little photo heavy, but there were a lot of neat aircraft there, so we took quite a few pictures (will take at least ten minutes to load). The first is my favorite.

Luckily, Dan-o is not yet thirty-five, so this scenario is not possible. Lord help us. Can you imagine a crazy, chew-spitting, carousing president? If not, just take a look above. Even scarier, he would have a huge arsenal at his disposal.

He probably wouldn’t be in Iraq though. He would just have them drop some bombs in the desert, while he and his “cabinet” sat around drinking beers and watching the fireworks. The world would be a lot more peaceful.

The photo above shows my favorite airplane, the F4U Corsair. It flew off of aircraft carriers and from land bases in WWII. It has 2,000 horsepower and can fly over 400 miles per hour, though control can be tough to master due to its long snout. It could also carry 2,500 .50 caliber rounds, which gave its six guns one full minute of continuous fire. That’s a lot of lead for this small plane. The japanese called it the “whistling death” from the noise made by the air cooling coils. Though I have always wanted to fly one, it’s $2,000,000 price tage means I won’t be flying one anytime soon.

“Revin’ up your engine, listenin’ to her howlin’ roar, metal under tension, beggin’ you to touch and go. Highway to the danger zone. Ride into the danger zone.” -From “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins, featured in every F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot’s favorite movie, “Top Gun.” This airplane was just recently retired. The F-18 Hornet now flies off of the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers. Sorry Maverick.

“This is a daylight raid, gentlemen. Air Force, Marines, Navy, everything we got. They’ve had three years to get ready for us. The most formidable air defenses in the history of warfare. Our job, the task of the Intruder, is to kill SAMs. Make no mistake about it, gentlemen, SAMs are where your ordnance goes. Otherwise, those B-52’s will be dead meat. We can expect a forest of SAMs and flak you can lay down on. We’ve got to cut a path through for the Air Force. We’ll be going in broad daylight with nothing to hide behind. We’ll be easy targets up there, gentlemen, but they’re counting on us. Lean into it. Let’s go downtown!” -From “Flight of the Inrtuder”

I forgot to write down what the name of this airplane was, but I thought it was neat because it gave a shout out to the best city in the world. Maybe someone out there knows what kind of airplane this is, since I neglected to write it down. 

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