Pima Air & Space Museum
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Seen at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s. The B-17 was primarily employed by the USAAF in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial, military and civilian targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in central, eastern and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944.[6] The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the Pacific War, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.[7]
From its prewar inception, the USAAC (by June 1941, the USAAF) promoted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a relatively fast, high-flying, long-range bomber with heavy defensive armament at the expense of bombload. It developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base. The B-17 dropped more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of approximately 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its occupied territories by U.S. aircraft, over 640 000 tons (42.6%) were dropped from B-17s.[8] In addition to its role as a bomber, the B-17 was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.
Information credit to Wikipedia
We got a chance to go to Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson and so glad we did. 87 acres of a bunch of old planes.
My Dad was in the Air Force in WWII, then worked for McDonnell Aircraft. I grew up around airplanes. Dad's been gone a long time but I have no doubt if his spirit is able to go where he wants to, this is a place he'd be, he'd love it. We did.
October 3, 2019
Pima Air & Space Museum
Tucson, Arizona
We got a chance to go to Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson and so glad we did. 87 acres of a bunch of old planes.
My Dad was in the Air Force in WWII, then worked for McDonnell Aircraft. I grew up around airplanes. Dad's been gone a long time but I have no doubt if his spirit is able to go where he wants to, this is a place he'd be, he'd love it. We did.
October 3, 2019
Pima Air & Space Museum
Tucson, Arizona
Seen at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational service. The Warhawk was used by most Allied powers during World War II, and remained in frontline service until the end of the war. It was the third most-produced American fighter of World War II, after the P-51 and P-47; by November 1944, when production of the P-40 ceased, 13,738 had been built,[3] all at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's main production facilities in Buffalo, New York.
P-40 Warhawk was the name the United States Army Air Corps gave the plane, and after June 1941, the USAAF adopted the name for all models, making it the official name in the U.S. for all P-40s. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the original P-40, P-40B, and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants.
P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and North African campaigns, during June 1941.[4][5] No. 112 Squadron Royal Air Force, was among the first to operate Tomahawks in North Africa and the unit was the first Allied military aviation unit to feature the "shark mouth" logo,[6][7] copying similar markings on some Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engine fighters.[6] [N 1]
The P-40's lack of a two-speed supercharger made it inferior to Luftwaffe fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 or the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in high-altitude combat and it was rarely used in operations in Northwest Europe. However, between 1941 and 1944, the P-40 played a critical role with Allied air forces in three major theaters: North Africa, the Southwest Pacific, and China. It also had a significant role in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Alaska and Italy. The P-40's performance at high altitudes was not as important in those theaters, where it served as an air superiority fighter, bomber escort and fighter-bomber. Although it gained a postwar reputation as a mediocre design, suitable only for close air support, more recent research including scrutiny of the records of individual Allied squadrons indicates that this was not the case: the P-40 performed surprisingly well as an air superiority fighter, at times suffering severe losses, but also inflicting a very heavy toll on enemy aircraft.[9] Based on war-time victory claims, over 200 Allied fighter pilots – from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, the US and the Soviet Union – became aces flying the P-40. These included at least 20 double aces,[10] mostly over North Africa, China, Burma and India, the South West Pacific and Eastern Europe. The P-40 offered the additional advantages of low cost and durability, which kept it in production as a ground-attack aircraft long after it was obsolescent as a fighter.
The SR-71 Blackbirds were America's preeminent reconnaissance planes. Built by Lockheed's infamous 'Skunk Works', they had a range of 3,200 nautical miles, could break mach 3 and sustain a cruising altitude of 85,000 feet… no other aircraft could top them! (These birds were kept secret throughout the '70s and into the '80s.)
The first Blackbird flew in 1964. By 1968, Blackbirds had fully taken over from the CIA's U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and remained in service through the Cold War until 1990, when satellites were deemed better and cheaper to operate.
(It's interesting to note—since these replaced the U-2s—that some U-2s have now been refurbished and returned to service… and once again they're America's only high altitude reconnaissance planes.)
This magnificent beast (the second SR-71 ever built) is on display at Arizona's famed Pima Air and Space Museum, near Tucson.
Boeing 747-122 N747GE at the Pima Air And Space Museum, Tucson Arizona, November 3, 2020. Formerly with Pan Am as N744PA.
Lockheed Constellation, VC-121A, 48-0614, Columbine, the personal transport of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum
53-3240 Douglas C-118A US Air Force
now repainted as a VC-118A in the blue presidential colors
(slide scan)
I found a shaded spot away from the planes where I watched a pair of Vermilion Flycatchers hunting near me.
Whenever we are in Tucson on birding trips, we always have to make a stop at the Pima Air and Space Museum. Elliot loves planes and I drag him all over hell and back looking for birds so we have to make this stop when we are here. This is not the place you usually look for birds as it is mostly planes. I haven't ever brought a bigger lens when we visit, but I brought my 200-600 lens and hoped I might see some things while Elliot immersed himself in plane heaven.
HDR ( High Dynamic Range)
3 shot bracket -1,0,+1
Stacked in lightroom/photoshop using nik collection suite
The fuselage of the Philippine Mar seaplane made a stop in Casa Grande enroute to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson Arizona. A lot of people stopped by to check it
0-90372 Boeing KB-50J Superfortress ex USAF...Pima Air and Space Museum, Arizona 29/01/18
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