Palm Springs Air Museum Feb 8th

Thursday we woke to bright skies but quite windy. Ray decided to visit the Palm Springs Air Museum ... not my thing, I stayed home did my exercises vaccumed, washed floors and then scrubbed our 18 pot light lens from the back bathroom and bedroom. :) 

So I will turn this post over to him.

Bad traffic on the way to the museum. The last storm caused the Palm Springs Wash to close two main road access points to the museum. The water is still flowing over the roads.

There's a few planes stationed around the parking lot leading to the front entrance.

F18 Hornet (notice the snow)

The entry leads into the first hangar with the following planes.

1928 Ford Model A Flatbed

1939 Buick Model 46C Convertible

1932 Studebaker backed up by the B17 Flying Fortress "Miss Angela" 

Miss Angela

The hanger contains two of my favourite WWII fighters, the P51 Mustang. Even better is these fighters are originals and painted in the 332 Fighter Squadron, the famous "red tails" of the all black Tuskegee Airmen.

Bunny

Man of War

My next favourite WWII fighter is the famouse British plane the Spitfire. The fliers in these planes are the subject in one of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous quotes "never was so much owed by so many to so few" as they saved Britian from German invasion.

This Spitfire was actually flown in WWII

There's also a B25 Mitchell bomber within the collection. 

Mitch the Witch II

Most people know my affinity to WWII bombers as my father was a WAG (Wireless Air Gunner) in a Avro Lancaster. The Lancaster could carry more bombs and fly faster that any other bomber in WWII.

I know I'm now boring a large portion of my audience. This air museum features a B17 Flying Fortress and $5 gets you a tour inside. 

Miss Angela

I paused before climbing the ladder into the very tiny hatch and thought about the 25% of airmen who went through a similar hatch and never returned.

Front gunner and bomb sight

This is my Dad's (Bill) position

Side gunner

Well worth the $5. I went in a B17 at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville OR, but it was mostly stripped down, The one in Palm Springs contains more original equipment and makes you appreciate just how tight the plane is.

Moving on takes you out to the open air portion.

SBD Dauntless the hero of the 1942 Battle of Midway

F4U Corsair, critical destroyer of Japanese Zero's

F8F Bearcat

F86 Saber Jet

P47 Thunderbolt

SR71 Blackbird

Here's a Rhinestone Cowboy helicopter for our horse loving readers.

The next stop for me is the thrid hangar containing a loaned F117 Nighthawk, the famed stealth fighter/bomber.

The last hangar (#2) I visited is fairly vacant. Apparently there is an event coming up and many of the planes were moved to the open air display. 

Bob Hope Tribute

Model featuring the "Doolittle" raid on Japan

Series of battleship models built by a husband and wife team

Interesting Tri bike

There were many other A this and F that jets covering the period from the 1950's until today but they don't interest me as much. It took me 1 1/2 hours to walk through the museum and loved every minute of it.

Once Ray got back home we sat inside for a couple of hours as it was really windy outside before going over for a hot tub to ease our old bones. lol