arizona: aircraft recovery center (ARC) | pima air & space museum | arizona desert | champlin fighter aircraft museum

Pima Air & Space Museum

Pima is located right next to Davis-Monthan and keeps most of its aircraft outdoors. Since this is the same environment as ARC, chances are that the aircraft will be in viewable condition for quite some time.

You can find out more at their Web site.

	A big ol' B-52G greets you as you transit from the parking lot to the museum proper.		This is a 2/3-scale flying replica of a P-47 "Thunderbolt." It's really cute.
	Looking down the barrels of the 30mm GAU-8A cannon carried by the A-10. Not a view you'd want to have if you're in a tank...		Here it is again. As you can see by comparing it to the mini-P-47, this thing is big.
	A full-sized simulator model of the X-15.		This is a MiG-17F "Fresco C."
	A B-52D painted as it probably would've looked during Vietnam. Rolling Thunder, anyone?		The United States' first supersonic bomber, the B-58A "Hustler" wasn't in the inventory for long.
	A WB-66 "Destroyer" bomber in its weather information-gathering variant.		A closer shot of the WB-66. The B-66 was the USAF's version of the Navy's A-3 "Skywarrior."
	My dad flew as an Electronic Warfare Officer aboard an EB-66 "Destroyer" (the electronic warfare variant) during Vietnam. As a USAF captain stationed at Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand, he had a picture taken before a mission. This is a reasonably good recreation of that photo, especially as I was going from memory of the original. One of these days I'll get the original scanned and post it for comparison.		This particular plane played a vital role in America's air-technology quest and during the space race: It launched the X-15 during its test flights. I believe it launched several other advanced aircraft during its career, but I can't remember for certain.
	A close-up of various mission stencils on the NB-52A. If you look closely, you can see these are X-15s.		A side shot of the WB-66.
	An EB-47E "Stratojet," America's first jet bomber to enter active service. This particular plane is another electronic warfare variant.		This is one big airplane, the C-124C "Globemaster."
	Just how big is the C-124? Well, the shadowed person in the circle is me, standing fully upright at a hair under 5'11". I'm standing in front of the nose wheel at the lowest part of the plane's belly. Like I said, big.		A KC-97G "Stratofreighter," air-refueling variant. As you can tell from the wings and the fuselage below the bulge, this is essentially a modified B-29.
	A high-altitude WB-57F "Canberra." It's essentially a jet-powered glider, although not on quite the same scale as the U-2.		A YC-14. This was Boeing's entry into a competition for a short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) cargo plane. The competition was dropped, eventually (essentially) resurrecting itself many years later as the C-17.
	Two C-121 "Constellation" aircraft. The one on the right is in TWA colors, while the one on the left is an EC-121T "Warning Star."		With the big pod on top and the gigantic radome on the bottom, this is no longer a pretty aircraft.
	A KB-50J "Superfortress" tanker. The KB-50 is a modernized B-29 with the inclusion of jet engines on the outer wings. Just outside of the jets are the pods containing the refueling hoses.		A head-on shot of an A-6E "Intruder." The air intakes are only about 5 feet or so off the ground, which makes them really dangerous on an aircraft carrier's crowded flight deck.
	A side view the A-6, emphasizing its tadpole appearance.		In this shot, Aaron gets sucked into the air intake of an F-15A.
	The F-14A "Tomcat," still the Navy's premiere air-intercept fighter 25 years after its introduction.		An F-105D "Thunderchief" fighter-bomber. This plane was originally developed to carry tactical nuclear weapons, but spent the most effective part of its career flying "Wild Weasel" anti-SAM missions over Vietnam. It was also heavily used to bomb North Vietnam, in a classic example of how not to use a tactical fighter.
	One of my favorite fighter-bombers, and first in the "Century" series, an F-100C "Super Sabre."		Described variously as "a missile with wings" and "The Widowmaker," the F-104D "Starfighter."
	Dead-center down the nose of the F-104.		Well, what do you know... an A-10!
	As a tank (or "Scud" missile) crewman, the very last thing you wanted to see coming down out of the sun during "Desert Storm." Of course, it probably was the last thing you ever saw...		This plane just cracks me up. It's a B-377 "Super Guppy," built to carry rocket parts. The whole plane literally hinges open to stuff rocket boosters inside. Just like the KC-97, this is another (if more extreme) modification of a B-29.
	An A-26K "Invader." Although it's still technically a medium bomber, I'll bet it was a lot of fun using the 8 .50-caliber machine guns up front.		Another F-105. Smile for the camera...
	A MiG-15UTi "Midget" jet trainer, in Polish colors.		A Russian MiG-17PF "Fresco D." The yellow blob in the intake houses an air-intercept radar.
	Back inside, this B-17G "Flying Fortress" is part of an exhibit dedicated to the 95th Bomb Group (H). This plane is just gorgeous.		A closer look at the nose of "I'll Be Around."
	Showing off the left waist and ball-turret gunners' positions, as well as the bomb bay.		The .50-caliber "stinger" at the rear. This guy was really isolated from everybody else.
	Peeking inside through the crew access door, looking forward. On the left is the .50-caliber gun for the left waist gunner's position, to the right is that of the right waist gunner's position, and the yellow tank in the middle supplies oxygen for the ball-turret gunner. The bulkhead in the background is the rear section of the bomb bay.		From the same door, looking backward. The twin glints of light to the left are from the flash reflecting off the tail gunner's windows. The big green hood in the foreground is where the tail wheel retracts during flight.
	In another hangar, we have a B-25J "Mitchell" medium bomber. This is the type that "Doolittle's Raiders" flew to bomb Japan in 1942.		This shiny aluminum plane is a B-29. I'm sure the balloons on top were not normally used in wartime...
	Big, shiny plane. This part of the museum was getting set-up for some event later that day, which explains the tables.		Looking up (way up!) at the tail of "Sentimental Journey."
	Another one of my sorry panoramic shots, this time of an A-10.		The YC-14 from the side.
	An RA-5C "Vigilante" reconnaissance plane. Originally intended as a supersonic nuclear bomber for the Navy, its design of a bomb release chute between the engine outlets caused all kinds of problems, not least of which was the fact that the bomb could get caught up in the turbulence following the bomber and end up "chasing" it!!