yardbird78

Very nice work on the 105. Darwin

Your B-29 is progressing nicely. I am anxious to see it finished. Darwin

A friend just sent me these photos supposedly taken recently of attempts to mount a newly refurbished A-4 Skyhawk on a pylon at the old NAS Alameda. Alameda is on the east side of San Francisco Bay, California. Darwin

Neat idea for mounting the engines/cowls. I will have to remember that. Darwin

A few of the 76 photos that I took of the B-47E at the SAC Museum. Forward main gear, fwd bulkhead Forward main gear, aft bulkhead Bomb bay, forward end

Cats rule! Thou shalt not argue with thy cat. Darwin

Tell "Hank" to sit down and fasten his seat belt. There is turbulence ahead. Darwin

Convair, F-102A Delta Dagger

Convair B-58A Hustler, Part 1

Targets, Part 4 M2A1 Half Track, Hollywood simply cannot make a WW-II or Korea movie without at least one of these things. M7 Priest, 107mm Self Propelled Gun M42A1 Duster, dual 40mm AAA unit

Targets, Part 3 Darwin M-2, 155mm Long Tom Howitzer

I recently visited the KNG Museum and Combat Air Museum located on the former Forbes AFB, just south of Topeka, Kansas. The KNG museum had both Army and Air Force items located just inside the old main gate. I decided to shift gears somewhat from the airplanes and post some pictures of Army stuff (targets). This just inside the old main gate at Forbes. More to follow. Darwin M-60 Patton Main Battle Tank Targets, Part 2 M-1 Abrams Main Battle Tank Turbine Engine for M-1 MBT

Nice work, but that is one GAWD AWFUL ugly mod to the nose. The aerodynamics of that must be really bad. Darwin

Glad to see a decent 1/72 D model of the Thud. Monogram's F and G in 72 are good, but all previous 72 D's are mediocre to poor. Darwin

- Yes, the Vulcan is still on display. The overview photos were taken in Hangar A and the Vulcan is in Hangar B. It could definately use a coat of paint and some air in the tires. - The SR-71 is certainly impressive just as you walk through the entrance. I had not seen one in person since I left Beale in 1977 and had forgotten just how big that thing really is, especially when viewed from the top or bottom. Darwin

P-51D Mustang at the Combat Air Museum, Topeka. This airplane is a temporary display. It came in for an airshow recently and developed a maintenance issue that kept it grounded until the pilot/owner can arrange for repairs.

Yes it is. It was in absolutely deplorable condition from 40 years of sitting out in the weather at the museum when it was located on Offutt AFB. There has been a very small crew of volunteers working on it on weekends since it was moved to the new museum in 1998. Progress is obviously slow. I took 121 pictures of the plane's details, 44 of them in the bomb bays. Darwin MK-36, Thermonuclear bomb

SWMBO and I just returned from several days vacation in northeast Kansas visiting her sister. I wanted to visit a couple of aircraft museums while in the area. Forbes Air Force Base at Topeka, Kansas, was closed in 1973 and is now home to the Kansas Air National Guard's 190th Wing of KC-135R tankers, a Kansas Army National Guard unit and several civilian aviation entities. Just inside the old main gate is a National Guard Museum that has both Air Force and Army items on display, inside and outside. Two of the old hangars on the south end of the flight line are home to the "Combat Air Museum" which has nice displays of prop & jet aircraft as well as engines and other artifacts. If you are ever in the Topeka area, these two museum are only a few blocks apart and are WELL worth a couple of hours of your time. On the way home, we went up to Nebraska and spent a day at the SAC museum between Lincoln and Omaha. As an old "SAC Weenie", I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. I kept waiting for General Curt LeMay to come out from one of the airplanes. - I took 361 photos between the two museums at Forbes and 1,044 photos at the SAC Museum. If you go to the museum web sites you can see what airplanes and Army stuff are on display. If you have any specific requests, I probably have at least a few pictures of that item. SAC Museum entrance The SR-71 and me Darwin

I am definately interested, but I am lucky to have a plan two MONTHS ahead, let alone two YEARS. I'll keep this in mind. Darwin

The USAF and/or Rockwell might have tried to hang some cruise missiles under the original B-1As when they were going through Test and Evaluation, but I doubt very much if any of them were hung under the operational B-1Bs. The B models had an 8 round rotary launcher that could be fitted in any of the 3 bomb bays, so it could carry 24 of them maximum. The normal "load out" was missiles in bays one and two with an auxilliary fuel tank in bay #3. Darwin

Do you know when or where that photo was taken? Darwin

Very nice photos of the Malta Museum. Thanks for sharing. Darwin

Always sad to see an aircraft crash, especially so when lives are lost. Darwin

Interesting. That "T" in aircraft ID block confused me at first. I did a little quick research and found out it is a KC-135Q that has had the J-57 engines replaced with CFM-56s. Darwin

The SR-71 is a bird that should still be carrying the load that no others could, to places no others could go and had the additional impact of "no knock entry" so that we could often catch them with their stuff in the open. - This web site was originally started and maintained by Leland Haynes, one of the original SR-71 crew chiefs. He went to that big hangar in the sky a few years ago and now someone else is maintaining the site. Darwin http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/kadena2.html