Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
tshelfer
0
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 13,560
- Reaction score
- 2,982
- Location
- Centennial, CO
- First Name
- Tim
- Last Name
- Shelfer
I took a nice little drive (in the Acura - left the VStrom home) out to Midland to visit the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Midland. I've been there several times. But my good friend Bob Bohannon, who is retired from 40 years in the air service industry (Pan Am, Emery, American) had never been there. So it seemed like a great time for nice little diversionary trip west.
If you've never been there, it's a worthwhile trip either for airplane nuts or WW2 buffs. When you walk through the museum, you are essentially walking through the chronology of the war. I took my dad (Solomon Islands 1943-45) 10 years ago and parts of it brought tears to his eyes.
Watching a video about Pearl Harbor.
A view of an open area in the museum.
Cockpit of a C54.
Part of the D-Day display.
More D-Day. This is what's left of a glider (see the wing roots?) carrying a Jeep as cargo.
This flag was flown on a landing craft on D-Day.
Obviously, close to the end of the war. There's Little Boy and Fat Man (disclaimer: not actual A-bombs), and a bigger-than-life picture of Leslie Groves & Robert Oppenheimer in the background.
At the end, we come to my favorite part: the Wall of Honor, where many families have chosen to have the names of WW2 veterans displayed for posterity.
And what am I pointing proudly at?
My dad. My brother and I donated that plaque for my dad's 80th birthday - 10 years ago.
There's an amazing gallery of nose art, possibly the best in the world. These are not reproductions; they're from WW2 combat aircraft, mostly B24s and B17s.
I only took one close-up.....
...because you're not actually supposed to take pictures in the nose art gallery. But my finger might have accidentally slipped on the shutter.
Some WW2 vets love bikes, too. One donated this.
Moving to the hanger, now. You never know exactly what aircraft are going to be there on any given day.
This is a Russian fighter, an I-16.
Fiesler Storch.
Here's a Mig 17. Yeah, it really flies.
Messerschmitt ME-108.
Cessna O-2 Skymaster.
I'm pretty sure this is an AT-6 Texan.
This is one of the planes that was "repurposed" into a Zero for 'Tora Tora Tora'. It also appeared in several other films including 'War and Remembrance', 'Midway', 'Baa Baa Blacksheep', 'The Final Countdown' and 'Empire of the Sun'.
No idea what this is. Help!
C47 in D-Day paint scheme.
Fairey Swordfish. It amazes me that they chased the Bismarck with this kind of technology.
I forget what this is. Redpill & I saw it at the Cold War Museum in south Dallas last year.
Here's a VW Kubelwagen. Basically, Nazi Germany's Jeep.
Check this cool Daimler - probably a staff car - sporting a license plate from Muelheim.
I spotted this sitting over in a corner of a taxiway. An F-111, I think.
Outside at the Viet Nam memorial, I saw this F4,
And this old F105 with a lot of "mission stripes",
And an ancient F100. Yup, many century-series aircraft saw action in Nam.
And this is my friend Bob, who was an avionics engineer before eventually moving up to executive management. Bob had a very distinguished career. Remember Eastern Airlines Flight 401? The L1011 that "flew into the ground" in the Everglades in 1972? In the aftermath of that crash, there was a need for an avionic device that would basically "shout" at the pilot if a plane got too close to the ground. Bob invented Ground Prox, or Ground Proximity Warning System. Pam Am gave the technology away to other airlines and it soon became an FAA requirement.
Well, all done. Time to hop back into the RSX. And 5 1/4 hours, nine gallons of gas, and one DQ Blizzard later, we were back in Arlington.
If you've never been there, it's a worthwhile trip either for airplane nuts or WW2 buffs. When you walk through the museum, you are essentially walking through the chronology of the war. I took my dad (Solomon Islands 1943-45) 10 years ago and parts of it brought tears to his eyes.
Watching a video about Pearl Harbor.
A view of an open area in the museum.
Cockpit of a C54.
Part of the D-Day display.
More D-Day. This is what's left of a glider (see the wing roots?) carrying a Jeep as cargo.
This flag was flown on a landing craft on D-Day.
Obviously, close to the end of the war. There's Little Boy and Fat Man (disclaimer: not actual A-bombs), and a bigger-than-life picture of Leslie Groves & Robert Oppenheimer in the background.
At the end, we come to my favorite part: the Wall of Honor, where many families have chosen to have the names of WW2 veterans displayed for posterity.
And what am I pointing proudly at?
My dad. My brother and I donated that plaque for my dad's 80th birthday - 10 years ago.
There's an amazing gallery of nose art, possibly the best in the world. These are not reproductions; they're from WW2 combat aircraft, mostly B24s and B17s.
I only took one close-up.....
...because you're not actually supposed to take pictures in the nose art gallery. But my finger might have accidentally slipped on the shutter.
Some WW2 vets love bikes, too. One donated this.
Moving to the hanger, now. You never know exactly what aircraft are going to be there on any given day.
This is a Russian fighter, an I-16.
Fiesler Storch.
Here's a Mig 17. Yeah, it really flies.
Messerschmitt ME-108.
Cessna O-2 Skymaster.
I'm pretty sure this is an AT-6 Texan.
This is one of the planes that was "repurposed" into a Zero for 'Tora Tora Tora'. It also appeared in several other films including 'War and Remembrance', 'Midway', 'Baa Baa Blacksheep', 'The Final Countdown' and 'Empire of the Sun'.
No idea what this is. Help!
C47 in D-Day paint scheme.
Fairey Swordfish. It amazes me that they chased the Bismarck with this kind of technology.
I forget what this is. Redpill & I saw it at the Cold War Museum in south Dallas last year.
Here's a VW Kubelwagen. Basically, Nazi Germany's Jeep.
Check this cool Daimler - probably a staff car - sporting a license plate from Muelheim.
I spotted this sitting over in a corner of a taxiway. An F-111, I think.
Outside at the Viet Nam memorial, I saw this F4,
And this old F105 with a lot of "mission stripes",
And an ancient F100. Yup, many century-series aircraft saw action in Nam.
And this is my friend Bob, who was an avionics engineer before eventually moving up to executive management. Bob had a very distinguished career. Remember Eastern Airlines Flight 401? The L1011 that "flew into the ground" in the Everglades in 1972? In the aftermath of that crash, there was a need for an avionic device that would basically "shout" at the pilot if a plane got too close to the ground. Bob invented Ground Prox, or Ground Proximity Warning System. Pam Am gave the technology away to other airlines and it soon became an FAA requirement.
Well, all done. Time to hop back into the RSX. And 5 1/4 hours, nine gallons of gas, and one DQ Blizzard later, we were back in Arlington.
