Arizona, Tucson - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - Pima Air & Space Museum

Pima Air & Space Museum sets on 80 acres just outside of Tucson.  It is home to around 300 planes.  Senior admission here was $12.75 each.  We had an enjoyable four hours here.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been for us to be able to see inside of some of the planes.

 

 

About 150 planes are displayed outside.  We walked around to look at these first while it was a little cooler.  We were scheduled for a bus tour through the “Boneyard” at noon.

 

 

Lockheed L-049

 

Lockheed C-141B Transport

 

 

Greg spent some time with the Tennessee Air Guard training on planes like this.

 

 

Convair B-36J

 

 

Super Guppy Cargo Transport.  The outside planes are sealed to keep out the dust so they look quite different than when they were in their glory days.  This was one of the oddest looking planes here.

 

 

Cessna T-37B trainer plane, “Tweet”, was one of the last ones Greg worked on when it was converted to a fighter plane.

 

The C-119C Flying Boxcar.  Greg worked with the loadmasters loading cargo on these in Columbus, IN.

 

There were a couple of “contemporary art” planes, not sure what their story is.

 

For the “Boneyard” tour we got on a bus to go to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base which was nearby.  This tour was an extra $7.00 each.  The “Boneyard”/Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group is the only place where military planes are currently retired.  Some are here for a short while until they are sold, some are used for parts for current planes, some are parted out, and others just end up being shredded for scrap metal.

 This one is being prepped for storage.  The engines are taken out and stored in pods to keep them from deteriorating.   The planes themselves get a lot of latex sprayed on to keep them in good shape.

 

 

These planes are being taken apart so the parts can be used on other planes or sold.

 

 

When we got back to the museum we visited the Flight Grill for lunch.  We tried the Titan Missile Burger.  We should have split one neither of us could finish it, which is a good thing.  This sandwich is two grilled cheese sandwiches with a burger, bacon, onion rings and ranch dressing between them.  I didn’t read the full description before I ordered it – it was a great sandwich, just not good for us.  It's a good thing we walked most of the day.

 

 

Four buildings house a variety of planes from WWII to present.  This memorial to the U.S. Military personnel who served on the Berlin Airlift sits outside one of the hangers.

 

 

This B-29 takes up most of one hanger.

 

 

 

 One of the employees volunteered to take our picture.

 

 

Remember seeing these on “MASH”?

 

 

Planes like this Corsair were featured in the movie, “Planes”.

 

 

The B-17 wreaked havoc on Germany.

 

 

This SR-71A Blackhawk is the second one built, the oldest survivor.  It rolled of the assembly line October 29, 1964.  It has a length of 107 feet 5 inches.  Its maximum speed is 2193 mph.

 

On the other end of the spectrum is the Starr Bumble Bee.  In January 1984 it was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest aircraft ever flown.  That record has since been broken.  It has a length of 9 feet 4 inches and has a maximum speed of 180 mph.