Planes of Fame Museum, Arizona

[F-32]

Here is the next batch of my Arizona road trip photo's, the cracking Planes of Fame museum. I left Tucson at 4.00am and drove 375 miles to the Grand Canyon before driving another 150 miles to the Museum and then another 100 miles or so Winslow (so I could be standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona - Eagles fans will understand) and then another few hundred miles back to Tucson to shower, change and drive straight to the airport for a 20 hour flight back to the UK with two stops on the way.

Was it worth it?

Hell yes!

There are more shots here: http://www.hanger51....f-fame-arizona/

IMG_1851 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

IMG_1841 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

IMG_1836 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

IMG_1826 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

IMG_1801 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

IMG_1793 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

IMG_1780 copy by tony_inkster, on Flickr

[Oddball]

Very nice photography there. I noticed the rear fuselage of a B29 in the third shot, do they have the rest of the A/C?

Odd.

[F-32]

Yes, actually it's a B-50 with the wing centre section from a KC-97 I believe, which is just dumped behind the outside static aircraft awaiting restoration complete with engines.

Will be nice when it's finished, it might even tempt me back for another visit!

[Paul Bradley]

Glad you enjoyed it - I used to work there! I helped re-paint the '109 - I did all the stencilling.

[F-32]

That's great to find Paul, the '109 does look spectacular! Do you have any shots taken inside the storage area? I did sweet talk the lady at the museum but she still wouldn't let me in there!

[canberraman]

Smashing pictures Tony! Is there anywhere better on Earth than Arizona for military aviation? I think not!

Mark

[RacerX]

Hmmmm. Edwards Air Force Base may have a say about best places for military aviation. As for museums, I live next to the Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB, Georgia. I really should get some photos posted from there. Lots of really interesting stuff (though mainly U.S. aircraft).

[F-32]

RacerX, if you could post some photos from Robins AFB I'd be interested to see them.

Mark, you are indeed correct, every municipal airport in AZ seems to have a little gem, not to mention AMARG, PIMA and all the other museums!

[Paul Bradley]

That's great to find Paul, the '109 does look spectacular! Do you have any shots taken inside the storage area? I did sweet talk the lady at the museum but she still wouldn't let me in there!

I think I've a few somewhere - I'll try to find them later.

[jimbuna]

Lovely shots.

[RacerX]

F-32,

We have a C-130 here undergoing maintenance that has some very interesting nose art. I'll grab a picture of that this morning and then take my two boys out to the museum this afternoon for some shots from there.

Derek

[Silver Fox]

Sounds like the best road trip ever but we rally need to know if there was a girl in a flat bed Ford involved?

[Paul Bradley]

Here's a few shots of the boneyard:

A pair of F-86s:

An F-105:

F-84F:

There are about half a dozen ex-Peruvian T-37s that are potentially restorable to airworthiness:

BT-13:

C-97, with engines:

And finally a couple of very unusual aircraft. Firstly, an AerMacchi 416, which I think is a license-built Fokker S-11:

And a Le Bel ducted fan experimental aircraft:

Enjoy!

[RacerX]

Foggy morning here at Robins AFB. When it lifts, I'll grab some photos from the line. In the meantime, this "hog" was here last week:

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/y500/DerekHartman/024.jpg

[F-32]

Silver Fox, the flat bed Ford was there, but the girl must have had a better offer!

Great picks Paul, thanks for posting those.

Nice Hog RacerX, I certainly didn't get bored of seeing them flying out of DM during my trip, the dry spell of Hog activity in the UK made sure of that.

[RacerX]

As promised, here's a photo of a C-130 here at Robins for maintenance with some very cool nose art:

A C-130 Talon stripped down:

Our C-17 prepped for depot maintenance:

And finally, a pair of Raptors that stopped by earlier in year:

[F-32]

Very impressive piece of nose art, and really good to see a stripped down C-17, certainly different to the normal grey scheme!

[RacerX]

When the C-17 is stripped of paint, it really shows off how much composite is on the aircraft. More than most people think, I'm sure.

[mekon]

Thanks for posting, the boneyard stuff is really sad to see, hope they can get some of their projects up and running soon. The stripped C-17 is surely worthy of a build, really interesting to see her stripped down like that.

[TCinLA]

For those who don't know, the Constellation is "Bataan," the personal aircraft of General Douglas MacArthur. And it flies.

The Bf-109G-10 "yellow-13" for a long time was the only one in existence, and back in the 1970s, it was the airplane the guys from Revell went out to Chino (where it was at the time) and measured to do the still-nice 1/48 Bf-109G-10 kit they released back in around 1977.

The rear section of the B-50 is from the B-50 "Lucky Lady II," the first airplane to fly around the world non-stop in 1947 using aerial refueling - the forward fuselage is on display at Chino..