A former passenger terminal houses the museum — Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO.

Historic exhibits at the Edward J Peterson Museum — Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO.

Mural "You Are Going into Combat" (J.L. Smith, J. Sherborne) — Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO.

The "his" referred to here is 1st Lt Peterson — Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO.

Raytheon MIM-23 "Hawk" — Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, CO.

Making family memories in front of a Lockheed EC-121T "Warning Star" — Peterson AFB, COS, CO.

The Airplane Restaurant is housed in a KC-97 air refueling tanker — Colorado Springs, CO.

Inside the KC-97 ... waiting for lunch to be served — The Airplane Restaurant, Colorado Springs, CO.

Scenes one would not ordinarily expect to find in a restaurant — Airplane Restaurant, COS, CO.

CoSprings: Peterson AFB & The Airplane

January 7, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 21 °F

"Golden Legacy, Boundless Future ... Your Nation's Air Force" ~~ from a plaque in front of the Edward J Peterson Museum ~~

Another gorgeous blue-sky day filled with sunshine. And a high of 54F. Our luck is about to run out, however, as a cold front is moving in later this week ... with possible flurries on Friday. Better take advantage of the good weather for another outing. That Aylin and Murat will be leaving tomorrow to return to Turkey was another reason to be out and about. We decided to stay local, so after breakfast at home we headed over to Peterson AFB to check out a museum I had read about.

Peterson AFB was established in 1942 as the Colorado Springs Army Air Base on the site of the original COS municipal airport. In fact, the museum we visited is housed in the Art Deco building that used to serve as the passenger terminal for the facility. The base — and the museum for that matter — is named after 1st Lt Edward J Peterson. He was the Operations Officer of the 14th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron and the first Colorado native to lose his life at the base in the line of duty.

After watching a short video explaining the history of Peterson AFB, one of the volunteers was quite gung-ho about giving us additional information about the exhibits before taking us outside for a tour. Alas, we had lunch reservations and didn’t have the two hours he said it would take for the full tour, so we had to cut him off short. Instead, we wandered through the static aircraft displays at the museum on our own. A small exhibit to be sure, but interesting nonetheless.

After a quick shopping run to the BX, we left the base to have lunch at The Airplane Restaurant. Mui had called ahead for reservations to ensure that we’d be seated “in” the plane and not in the add-on room ... though the airplane wing and various memorabilia in this secondary location would have made it just as interesting to dine there.

The Boeing KC-97 tanker in which the restaurant is housed is a fully intact aircraft. Built in 1953, the plane refueled aircraft around the world before it found another life as an eatery. This was made possible by the fact that the crew of the aircraft managed to find the Azores and didn’t have to ditch in the Atlantic on their way back from a refueling mission. The article I read about this had a funny turn of phrase about the incident ... saying in essence that “the KC-97’s crew ... couldn’t remember where they put the Azores ... Luckily for the crew, the plane, and The Airplane Restaurant, the Azores were rediscovered ...”.

“Passengers” who dine in the aircraft itself can peek into the “boom” area from which the operator refueled aircraft that were in “need of a drink.” It’s also possible to freely visit the cockpit ... which makes for a good photo op. We took advantage of both opportunities while we awaited our food to be delivered.

Colorado Springs has a wide variety of restaurants that serve excellent food. In the time that my family has been with us, we’ve “checked out” quite a few of them ... some more than once. While the food at The Airplane Restaurant is good, dining here is probably a one-time deal for us ... simply because there are other places with superior food that are in closer proximity to our home.

All in all, a nice “wrap-up outing” before we bid Aylin and Murat farewell tomorrow ... until we meet again mid-March when we take mom back and stay on for our annual trip to Turkey.Read more