I promised more pics from our Cold War Mancation trip to the Strategic Air & Space Museum.  On day one I didn’t even take my camera bag out of the car; we just used the day to take it all in, climbing all over everything that could be climbed, with an occasional iPhone photo.  I have grown to love the panorama feature, so I thought I’d share.  You can click on each of these photos to pop up a larger version.

As I pointed out before, you’re greeted by one of my favorite aircraft ever: the SR-71 Blackbird.  It’s simply breathtaking, and this one resides in a suitably breathtaking lobby for display.  When you take the escalators up or down between levels you travel right under this bird, and it allows a true sense of how gigantic it is.

This is the main hangar.  It contains lots of displays, models, consoles from Minuteman and other launch control facilities, videos, simulators, and rare aircraft.  Here is where I got to see a U2, the B-36 behemoth, and the B-58 supersonic bomber.  Those were three things on my aircraft “bucket list” before I ever even discovered this museum.

This is hangar two, containing spacecraft, a Soviet MiG fighter, a Space Shuttle bouncy house for the kiddos, and room for more aircraft.  They have an Avro Vulcan bomber in back awaiting restoration, which is something I’d really like to see.  That merits a return trip in the future once my boys are old enough.

Did I mention the SR-71?  What a beauty.  In addition to a ton of other cool items in the gift shop, many of which I brought home, they have a Hayne’s Owner’s Workshop Manual for this airplane.  Its pages actually include extensive history and data on the aircraft, and if I wasn’t on a tight budget I’d own one.  Someday…

You can check out more about the Strategic Air & Space Museum online, of course…that address is www.sasmuseum.com (opens in a new window).  I recommend not only scheduling a trip to visit and support this facility, but to make sure you set aside two days to take it all in.

I posted earlier about the visit by Sentimental Journey, one of the few airworthy B-17 bombers that remain.  I didn’t do the $5 walkthrough again this year, although it was definitely worth the money.  I did, however, do a couple of cool things.

One of the things was to shoot some video of them firing up the engines. Because engines like this are prone to leaking certain fluids, someone stands by with a fire extinguisher and gives a thumbs-up to the pilot once each engine has safely spun up. They start with engine #3 because it’s near the battery and gets the best crank, and work their way around the aircraft from there. My little boy thought it was pretty cool.

The other cool thing was to park out on the northwest end of the runway and let the rumbling beast roar right over our heads. My little guys thought this was a really sweet deal.

Scroll down a little bit if you want to see my interior shots of this piece of military aviation history. Check out the video above if you haven’t already. If you missed this aircraft, hope it comes by again in a few more years. More information is available online by clicking here.

According to the Tribune, “Sentimental Journey” will visit Bismarck this Thursday through Sunday. It’s a B-17 bomber available for five dollar tours and $425 rides, and it’s worth visiting. I’ve had the opportunity to check out this plane from head to toe, and here’s a preview.

I took some time a few years ago to visit the B-17 bomber that was parked near Executive Air for the better part of the work week. It’s cool to see such a piece of history, especially since it’s a piece of technology and military hardware at the same time.

It wouldn’t be a truly nostalgic WW2 era plane without some 1930’s – shaped woman painted on the side (Betty Grable in this case). I couldn’t help but think of the old 1980s video game “B-17 Bomber” on the Mattel Intellivision game console. A friend of mine had that game and the expensive Speech Synthesis module, which allowed many of its games to “talk. B-17 Bomber was one such game. Thanks to the Internet, you can listen to the introductory sound from that game by clicking here (mp3 format).

What a big machine, don’t you think? When the news of possible hail or a tornado came in last night, this plane was moved into the BP hangar on site. It barely fit; it had to be rolled in by hand, with four guys on each wheel to move its weight, and its gun almost touched the hangar doors once closed. There were “little planes” tucked under each wing as well, but the mighty Flying Fortress fit. Say that three times fast.

Payload. One of the types of bombs dropped by these planes was called a Thunderbug. That’s just one of the fun nicknames that military folks came up with for various hardware and ordinance, and it shows they have a sense of humor. These obviously aren’t real, otherwise I’d be trying to strap one onto my motorcycle for use on a tailgater! Now let’s take a walk through this majestic aircraft…

This is the forward gun turret. Note the picture of someone’s lady on the left side wall. This would be a pretty crazy place to be when the fighting got hectic! I can’t even imagine. I think the fella who did the calculations for the bomb trajectories was located up here as well as the forward gunners.

This is the cockpit, one of the few places with windows that don’t have a gun sticking out of them. It must be a challenge to taxi a “tail-dragger” aircraft like this one…in fact, a friend of mine was near an accident at Oshkosh a few years ago where a little plane cut in front of a big plane on the tarmac. The propeller of the big plane sliced right through the little one. Messy. The pilots of planes like this have to zig-zag when they taxi so they can look out the side windows; the front windows point at the sky until they take off.

The bomb bay with doors open. That rail down the middle is the “walkway” for the plane’s crew. It’s about six inches wide. I had fun sneaking through there with my camera bag! It would be best to be skinny to be on a B-17 crew. I had that part covered, but then I decided to lug my gear with me.

This is where the radio operator sat, and there are a couple of jump seats as well. It’s pretty amazing to see how many crew positions are actually on this aircraft. I may have to hunt down a book about these guys…

I would have thought there’d be more bomb space and less crew space, but I really don’t know much about aircraft. Here you can see side guns as well as bunks for crew members, who I suppose rotated resting periods. This photo is somewhat out of sequence as it was taken from the rear of the aircraft, facing forward.

Firepower. The guys manning these guns were responsible for keeping this aircraft safe from enemy fighters. To do so requires some big guns, and there are big guns all over the B-17.

For $425 or so, you can take a ride on this plane, and even sit up in the nose turret. For $425, I think they should make these guns operational. Now that would be worth running to an ATM!

The aforementioned bunks. At the end of the fuselage is where the rear landing gear is stowed, and of course another gun position.

Thus endeth the tour. This was truly an amazing way to spend my lunch hour. It’s one thing to leisurely poke around this aircraft, looking at the old technology and trying to grasp a bit of history. It would have been another world entirely to dodge German or Japanese AA fire, fend off enemy fighters from a gun turret, and hopefully make it to the intended target and back safely. Oh yeah, and deliver the bomb payload on target. The people who fight for our country are incredible, but I think of World War Two stories and am in total awe.

“Sentimental Journey” will be in town from Thursday through Sunday. For more information or to reserve a flight, visit www.azcaf.org.