National Naval Air Museum visit

[fordson]

For my birthday, my wonderful wife took me to the NNAM at NAS Pensacola. I went thru flight training and AOCS there and the surrounding bases from Jan ‘70 to Nov ‘71. I hadn’t really been back there for many, many years, so it was surprising how much the area and the museum have changed in that time. The museum is a world class operation on par with anything the Smithsonian or even the UK Imperial War Museum have to offer. I know a lot of us here like aviation topics and airplanes, so some photos from today. I can only load five at a time, so I’ll make a couple of posts. Thanks for looking.

 

[fordson]

And some more…..

 

[fordson]

…….and just a few more of the 200+ phots I took. Thank God digital photography is just electrons and not film. The last photo said it all…… Hope you enjoyed this.

 

[Hair Trigger]

That place is on my bucket list to see. We have an aviation museum where I live, in Hickory, NC, and almost all our aircraft are on permanent loan from the museum there in P-cola. We are now in construction for a new facility to house our aircraft, it will be a 50,000 sq. foot hangar, large enough for all our planes, including the P-3C we have which is our largest. We also have the #5 solo legacy Blue Angel F/A-18C from the last group before the Angels started flying the Super Hornet. We have the last F-14 to be retired, and the first operational F-105 Thunderchief. Our plans are for it to be a sister museum to Pensacola and the finest aviation museum between there and Udvar-Hazy.
Hickory Aviation Museum | Where Hickory Takes Flight

 

[Rudi]

Fantastic planes all! But that 2 seat ME 262 is a very rare bird.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Thanks for sharing these with us, Fordson. I've been meaning to get there for years, but haven't yet gotten around to it...it's great to 'visit' there vicariously.

 

[madmikeb]

When I'm in Tucson I regularly visit the Pima Air and Space Museum. Fun way to spend a day and I never get tired of looking at planes.

According to their website they have a P38 Lightning and a P47 Thunderbolt being restored. Never seen representatives of either plane and looking forward to them being on display.

 

[quikdraw67]

WOW. Thank you for sharing those pictures. Awesome!

 

[fordson]

Fantastic planes all! But that 2 seat ME 262 is a very rare bird.

This particular aircraft (White 35) is a Me-262B-1A which would have been a night fighter that also doubled as a trainer.

 

[Truckman]

Fantastic planes all! But that 2 seat ME 262 is a very rare bird.

The only one I've seen was at Wings Over Houston...It participated in simulated attack and defend scenarios in the air, a feat only possible by the replacement of its original Jumo engines with the more reliable GE CJ610's......Ben

 

[Greyman50]

Been years sine been there, need to return and spend a couple days as doubt one could see it all in 1 day.

 

[WR Moore]

OK, I can ID a number of the first 10 but what are #3 & #9?

 

[quikdraw67]

OK, I can ID a number of the first 10 but what are #3 & #9?

#3 is a F4F Wildcat. This was the US Navy's fighter at the beginning of the War.

#9 is a F3F fighter. The Wildcat replaced it.

Both are Grumman products.

 

[wundudnee]

got to visit NAS Pensacola twice while my son was there training. Both times we camped in the on base campground. It was a beautiful facility on the beach with many oak trees. It gave us lots of time to explore the museum. I spent several afternoons there. On our second trip there my wife got to pin on my son's wings. The pinning ceremony was in the museum under George Bush senior's WWll training plane. The pinning was led by a young astronaut. A very interesting place.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

I have visited the museum three times, the last being in 2018. The only remaining Martin Marlin P5M is on display there, and I have flight time in that aircraft. I was in Patrol Squadron 48 based at North Island in San Diego. It was the Navy's last flying boat and I feel privileged to have been on the aircrew. We spent many hours flying off Viet Nam in support of Operation Market Time.

Here are a few photos...the one showing the takeoff of the plane in the museum as it departed San Diego for Florida. The last one was taken at White Cove off of Catalina Island, the plane I crewed on for 2 years.

There are three videos are on YouTube, titled:

VP-48 WestPac64 65

Patrol Squadron 48

Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam

 

[Rustyt1953]

I visited there 15 years ago while I was in Pensacola for this:

 

[charlie sherrill]

I live a little over two hours from this museum. I frequently visit there. I have the coffee cup. not the T-shirt. This place is incredible. Leave your guns in the hotel room. Not allowed on base as they had a shooting incident there a few years ago. If you're coming through Hattiesburg,Ms. to visit the museum in Pensacola stop off at Camp Shelby, just off of U.S. Highway 49, about 10 miles south of Hattiesburg at the museum they have there. Not as much air stuff, even though they have a few old copters, lots of track vehicles, small arms, and other cool stuff. In downtown Hattiesburg there is also the African American military museum. Lots of info about African American service members. Also, not too far away is the WWII museum in New Orleans inspired by the author of the Band of Brothers series. Get there early and leave before it gets dark. While headed to Pensacola you might pass the USS Alabama on Mobile Bay in Alabama. Plenty of interesting stuff there, including a walk around on the USS Alabama, the submarine USS Drum, old aircraft, and a few military vehicles and aircraft. If you were planning a military vacation trip you could probably do all of these in three days. I don't recommend staying in New Orleans.

 

[JohnRippert]

The National WWII Aviation Museum in Colorado Springs is also well worth a visit. We took the tour that went through the rebuild hanger and were greeted with 2 Grumman F7F-3N's, which are absolutely beautiful planes.

 

[ggibson511960]

Wright-Pat AF Museum

Pensacola is still on my list. For sheer size, it’s hard top the AF Museum in Dayton where it all began. They have expanded the indoor displays to four enormous hanger style buildings that swallow everything from a Wright Flyer replica to serious aluminum overcasts; Bocscar B-29, Memphis Belle B-17, B-36, B-52, XB-70, B-58, Air Force One 707 that carried Kennedy’s body to Washington, all free admission. If you get bored with airplanes the Packard Museum is in nearby Dayton, as well as Huffman Prairie, almost as sacred as Kitty Hawk to aviation history buffs. Spent four days in the AF museum last summer. Very well curated and staffed by extremely dedicated staff, dare I say more accommodating than Udvar-Hazy.

 

[Hair Trigger]

The USAF Museum I liked better than even Udvar-Hazy and the A&S museum on the Mall. Been quite a while since I was there, you still had to take a bus to Wright-Pat to see the SR-71 and XB-70 and Presidential airplanes.