Pima Air & Space Museum

Today we stayed in Tucson, and visited the Pima Air and Space Museum. Afterwards, we drove by Davis Monthan AFB Boneyard, before stopping for a very late lunch or early supper, and then back to the guest house. There is a lot of history at Davis Monthan Boneyard, and worth your time to google it. Some of that history includes shutting down the Naval plane storage at Litchfield Park, (where my dad has ties to with his flying and a side job or two), and moving those aircraft to Davis. There is also a lot of aviation history on display at the Pima Museum. A little of my own history in aviation. Many, if not most, pilots live and breath aviation. For me, it was only a job. But one I enjoyed and had a lot of pride in. I started my aviation career with the USCG. I trained with the Navy on the T34 and T44, and then transitioned to the C130 with the Air Force, before being stationed at USCG Station Sacramento, and then my last tour at USCG Station Kodiak. My dad is a general aviation pilot that does live/breath aviation. He has built several experimental (a title given to home built aircraft) airplanes. Also, for many years he worked as a Electronics Technician at Goodyear Aerospace. There, one of the many projects he worked on, was a mapping system (GEMS) related to the SR-71 Blackbird. During my USCG career, I piloted one of our C130’s to the Boneyard. The one I photographed today, may be that one. After the USCG, I flew B727s, B757s and B767s for American Airlines. I retired early, drove school bus until retiring from that, and now enjoy traveling and boating. So anyway, today reminded me a little of my history, and was special seeing one of the projects my dad worked on. (We’ll visit him in another week.) Just a little more background on a couple of the pictures, where Find Penguins doesn’t allow enough space to fully describe the photo. The EZ, was a plane one of my dad’s friends took me up in and let me fly. Its claim to fame is it's designed to be very resistant to traditional stalls. It is also the airplane model that John Denver died in. The Bede 5J is the world’s smallest jet. Its predecessor was the BD-5 propeller driven aircraft, which came after the BD-4. My dad’s first homebuilt was the BD-4, and my brother and I spent several of our younger years helping him build it.Læs mere