Where Eagles rest...

[LWW]

Not about birds, and I wasn't trying to be deceptive, but that is the motto of the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton,Ohio. It is a place I frequent often and is a rich tapestry of our aviation history...and FREE if you are ever in the area.

Icarus, who made wax wings and flew too close to the sun, in the main entrance lobby...

...the world's oldest existing plane...

...and the second version by the Wrights. Notice the upright seating position yet the plane is still built backwards to modern planes with what we would call the tail being in front and the prop in back...

...and the world's oldest licensed plane, the Wright B, and the world's 1st "modern" plane in that the tail is in the back and the props in the front. If you look close you can see the tail #'s...

...this was the B in flight recently, as was the one above it, as it led the...

...final flight of Spaceship One from WPAFB to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

LWW

 

[LWW]

These are from what I call the "SCARY wing" of the museum.

Had Hitler not been an idiot he would have won the war as they obviously had the lead in technology, just not the sense, thankfully, to use it.

The ME262 Nazi jet...

...the guided missile made for it which never saw more than limited production...

and I don't recall the number but the Nazi rocket plane...

...and the V1 vengence weapon.

LWW

 

[JonMikal]

nice LWW. i don't think i've seen Spaceship One yet. i'm in there quite often...i'll need to ask about it's location. we have a lot of Wright artifacts too. thanks for sharing!

 

[LWW]

And from the winner's side we have this recently declassified Spitfire supermarine high altitude spyplane which overflew Nazi Germany...

...and Bock's Car. This is the B29 which delivered the 2nd A bomb to Nagasaki. An interesting conversation I had that day was with a Japanese tourist who made the remark that Colonel Bock was the only one who actually KNEW what was happening, and by that they meant that the bomb had been tested in New Mexico but had never been moved. To deliver it to Hiroshima it had to be disasssembled, moved to Tinian Island and reassembled. It had also never been tested in an airdrop. The 1st crew didn't know with certainty that the thing would even work.

Colonel Bock KNEW that and rode all the way in with that knowledge rolling through his mind. Not attempting to debate here whether the choice to use the bomb was right or wrong...just that I can't imagine piloting an aircraft through enemy skies and knowing what havoc my acts would bring.

LWW

 

[sfaribault]

Nice pictures !!! I have not been by there in 5 years..

Steve :thumbup:

 

[LWW]

And in the section which has some of the declassified Skunkworks/Area 51 type stuff we have...

...the U2. Francis Gary Powers was shot down overflying the USSR in 1 of these on a spy mission. Still in service today. And...

...the SR71 Blackbird. Officially the fastest airplane ever made. It's retirement led to the speculation of the Aurora's possible existence...

...Lord vader your craft is ready. The Blackbird is my favorite...

...and the X15 rocket plane. Faster than the Blackbird but it had to be launched from a B52 so it isn't actually an airplane. As a child I was fascinated by this plane. BTW Neil Armstrong was an X15 pilot before the Apollo program...

...and the X24...

...and X2. I'm sure planes like this led to a lot of the UFO reports. Imagine being in the dark of the desert in the 1950's with a couple of shots of good corn liquor and getting buzzed by either of those 2.

LWW

 

[LWW]

The next two...

...the Predator prototype, also tested at Area 51, and...

...the 1st Raptor don't quite look right in B&W but I had s shots left.

These 2 aircraft were the guests of honor that day as it was day 1 of their display.

I wish I could post some color pics from the ceremony but those were paid for by the USAF and belong to them. They don't care how many pics you take but they are very funny about using anything they paid for and I respect that.

Thanks for viewing.

LWW