One last post from the Museum of Avaition

And we are back. Sorry about the lack of posts, We had a slight technological problem (motherboard failure) here at the offices of Homemade Defense and were forced to find a new machine to continue the rant.

OK, one last post from the Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB.
But I saved the best for last.

This was the reason that I wanted to come to the museum. This is the SR-71A Blackbird. The SR-71 was designed to spy on the Soviet Union by flying at extremely high altitudes and at extremely high speeds. Developed in secret by by the "Skunk Works" of Lockheed, the SR-71 was one of the most expensive planes ever to fly.

Armored tail gunner position

Here we have one of the most famous aircraft of all time. In many ways it was the first real intercontinental strategic bomber, and it was the first and only aircraft to drop an atomic weapon in wartime. The B-29 Superfortress.

This is the Norden Bomb sight, one of the most valued and protected secrets of WWII. This small device, fairly low tech by today's standards, was responsible for tens of thousands of bombs hitting their targets.

Curtis P-40 Warhawk

This is the outer casing of a Mark 6 Nuclear bomb from the early 1950s

Douglas A-26C Invader
Designed for WWII, this plane was in service in the Colombian Air Force until 1980.

The U-2D Dragonlady

I'd like to thank all the nice people who made the Museum of Aviation possible (and FREE). All of you should go see it. Right off I-75 (sorta).

Even more Museum of Aviation

My favorite plane of WWII, the P-51 Mustang. Note that LTC W.E. Hopkins was an ace with five Nazi kills over Europe

The F-15 Eagle. The best fighter plane to ever fly. Don't think so? Its 104 to 0 kill ratio, the highest ever, says you are wrong.

Banner of the American Volunteer Group, the famous Flying Tigers of Burma. Guys who wanted to fly in combat so bad that they decided not to wait for the USA to declare war. They just went anyway.

Cessna A-37B Dragonfly. This was a light attack aircraft used for close air support and forward air control missions during the Vietnam War.

The nose of Waco C6-4A glider. You could see the controls, and let me tell you, I've owned bicycles that look more complicated and air worthy than this thing. The guys riding in this thing were absolutely crazy.

The HU-16B Albatross, a float plane from the post- WWII period, designed to land in the ocean to rescue downed pilots.

My favorite jet, the A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog"

The GAU-8 Avenger 30mm Gatling gun

Here is the GAU-8 unmounted from the A-10

And here is what it can do, this is the top hatch of a M-113 APC. It is more than an inch thick of armored steel. The holes in it were smooth as glass. Scary.

The C-47 Skytrain "Gooney Bird", the transport workhorse of WWII.

More Museum of Aviation

To start off, a F4 Phantom. Note that this one has a M61 Vulcan 20mm gun pod mounted under the right wing, as the F4 was the first US fighter to be manufactured without an on board gun.




Here we have one of the weirdest looking planes ever, the F-104 Starfighter. It certainly must have the smallest wings. They are extremely thin and unlike most fighters of its day, not in the swept or delta shape, but rather, a trapezoid. The F-104 was used in Vietnam as a air superiority fighter, but apparently was not very successful or well liked by its pilots.





Here we have a C-130 Hercules, which is pretty much the most useful transport aircraft ever designed. More than 2,262 have been produced and they are in the service of at least 40 or 50 nations. They first flew in 1954 and will likely be a major component of military airlift for at least another 25 or 30 years, perhaps many more. The C-130 is a very rugged aircraft and can land on very short and poorly maintained airstrips if there is a need. There are even versions with skis that they use to fly to scientific bases in Antarctica. It fulfills all sorts of roles, from general cargo airlift to paratrooper transport to electronic warfare (EC-130H Compass Call), to aerial refueling, to transporting light armor like the Marine Corps' LAV III and the Army's Stryker. Crazy folks in the Air Force even fly the C-130 into hurricanes to gather atmospheric data. If you are sitting there thinking he left out the AC-130 Gunship, scroll down.




This is an older version of the gunship, an AC-130A. The Gatling guns, both 7.62mm and 20mm, were removed, likely to be transferred to another aircraft, but the Bofors 40mm guns were still mounted.




This is the big one folks. The B-52 Stratofortress. Oddly enough, it did not seem as big as I had imagined it. But it is still seriously big.


And to end, another F4, this one has two Red Stars for two MiG kills over Vietnam.

Museum of Aviation, Robins Air Force Base, GA

I recently finally got to visit the Museum of Aviation on Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia. I have passed a billboard for the museum approximately 500 times and never made the time to go. Well, that was a mistake, because it is awesome. It is easily the largest air museum I've ever been to and definitely had a great deal of aircraft I had never seen before. So here we go. The place is so huge and full of stuff that I am going to split the pics into 3 or more posts.



For me, this B1-B Lancer was maybe the most impressive. I guess I hadn't realized it seeing the B1 on TV or the Internet, but it is HUGE. To imagine it going 700 miles per hour and carrying 50,000 pounds of bombs on a low level penetration raid is simply terrifying. There were several bigger planes at the museum, but no others that were bigger than I imagined them to be.


From the big to the small, here is the Bensen X-25A. Never mind that missile, it was not attached. One problem with the museum is that there are so many planes that it is difficult to get clean photos. Anyway, the X-25A was designed to be carried in the cockpit of larger aircraft so that if they were shot down, they could just unfold the little helicopter and fly away. Well, apparently they really did smoke a lot of weed in the 60's, 'cause that idea is crazy. Not only does it ignore the question in that comes to my mind upon considering the design. If your awesome fighter, helicopter, bomber or whatever got shot down, what chance would you have in a cheap bar stool with a lawnmower attached to it? And if you were say, bombing Siberia in a B-52, just how far would you be able to get on this thing? Well, maybe someone is paying attention, because the production was never funded.






Here we have a F-16A wearing the paint scheme of the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's flight demonstration squadron. They have been using the F-16 since 1982 and have since moved on to the F-16C and D.



Another favorite of mine, the MiG 15. One of the first really useful jets, and one of the first to apply captured German "swept wing" technology. I was only sad that it wasn't in the "Super Commie" all red paint scheme. Oh well.



This is a Martin TM-61A Matador. It is the first operational Cruise missile in the United States inventory. Sharp tacks amongst you out there may notice its similarity to the German V-1 Buzzbomb of WWII. Unsurprisingly, this is not coincidental as we took every good idea Germany ever had in the fifties. Except those awesome beer girl dresses. Where were our priorities?

First fielded in 1953, the Matador was a leap in technology. At first the Matador was piloted via radio link with a ground station and as the system used line of sight transmission, limited the Matador's range to around 250 miles. Later a system called Shanicle (Short Range Navigation Vehicle) was adapted to the missile to give it a more modern guidance system. The Shanicle used microwave emitters to guide the Matador and extended its range to 620 miles.

It was armed with a Mark 5 Nuclear Bomb with a 40 kiloton warhead and intended for use as a tactical theater weapon. It accuracy was not great and it would have likely been fired at large targets like army bases, airfields, marshaling points, supply bases and so forth. The last Matadors were removed from active service in 1962, with a total of 1200 missiles produced. The last active squadrons were based at Bitburg Air Base, West Germany, Tainan, Taiwan, and in several locations in South Korea.


Another plane that I have read a lot about, the F-111 Aardvark. Sadly, these planes are soon to be only seen in museums and boneyards, because the Air Force stopped flying them in 1998, including the EF-111A Raven, which was a dedicated electronic warfare jet. Electronic warfare is certainly not as exciting to read about as fighters and bombers, but is absolutely essential and in my opinion, we have a gap in the inventory without it. The Royal Australian Air Force still flies the F-111, but they are due to be replaced with the F/A-18 Super Hornet very soon.

Also, this particular F-111 has what every plane needs: nose art of a sexy lady.