#aviation museums

[gpstudios]

Celebrating National Aviation Day: A Tribute to Flight and Innovation

Celebrate National Aviation Day on August 19 by honoring the achievements of aviation. From the Wright brothers' first flight to modern innovations, explore the impact and future of this transformative industry.

Introduction National Aviation Day on August 19 celebrates the wonders of flight and honors the pioneering spirit of aviation. From the Wright brothers’ first flight to modern advancements, this day highlights the incredible achievements in aviation and the ongoing quest for innovation in the skies. The Legacy of National Aviation Day National Aviation Day is a day to recognize and celebrate…

[admiralgiggles]

[emaadsidiki]

Fortresses Under Fire🎨 Keith Ferris🖌️ Thunderbirds🛩️

[nocternalrandomness]

National Naval Aviation Museum - Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida

The National Naval Aviation Museum is the world’s largest Naval Aviation museum and one of the most-visited museums in the state of Florida. It features more than 150 beautifully restored aircraft representing Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Aviation. These historic and one-of-a-kind aircraft are displayed both inside the Museum’s over 350,000 square feet of exhibit space and outside on its 37-acre grounds.

[usafphantom2]

On this day in 1943, the Museum’s P-38 Lightning was accepted by the Army Air Forces. Days later, Lockheed got permission to convert it into a two-seat trainer, to accommodate an instructor to train civilian pilots. Once trained, they evaluated P-38s fresh off the assembly line.

@airandspace via X

[wheeloffortune-design]

I'm planning a hot girl autumn and it will contain writing, editing, drawing, going to writing and dnd conventions, giving panels, celebrating my 40th birthday, but most of all it will start by a flight in a 1940 biplane.

[lonestarflight]

Apollo Lunar Module Test Article no. 1 (LTA-1) at the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

Note: the round egress hatch opening. This was changed on the product version to the familiar square hatch.

Date: March 5, 2023

Photograph by Mike Peel: link

[monkeyssalad-blog]

The Yellow Rose by Jeff Hooten Via Flickr: Part of the Central Texas Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, the B-25 "Yellow Rose" recently returned to the air after a much needed engine change. According to the CAF's webpage, "Central Texas Wing volunteers spent hundreds of hours to remove the engine, prepare it for overhaul and then re-install the newly rebuilt engine." _DSC6542_HDR

[real-boeing-757]

super autism BLAST!!!!!

[aviatrix-ash]

Early WW1 era rotary engines are like my all time favorite niche aviation special interests, they are the coolest things, even if they make so little sense and made flying these wooden kites even more dangerous. The guy at the museum was like "you're a mechanic, you can be trusted to touch :)" and he totally let me spin one of the Clergets on display! I was geeking out so hard frfr x3

[dark0ta]

Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules flyovers Taken: 8/13/24 (Loud volume warning for the video)

[radarsteddybear]

Above is the Memphis Belle, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.  These bombers were used heavily throughout WWII in all combat theaters, though most significantly over Europe. The Memphis Belle was the first such bomber to complete all of her 25 missions and return to the US*, where she went on a war bond tour.  She was also the subject of a 1944 documentary and a 1990 film.  The plane was named after the pilot's girlfriend back home and was taken from the film Lady for a Night; the pinup design was provided from the April 1941 issue of Esquire magazine.

You can see the ball turret in the fourth and fifth pictures.  I can't imagine being crammed in one tens of thousand of feet in the air.  That sounds absolutely terrifying.  You can also see the very many guns sticking out all over the plane to defend itself from other planes in the air.

The final picture is of the Norden Bombsight, one of most closely guarded pieces of Allied technology during WWII (though it turned out later that the bombsight wasn't as secret--or unique--as had been thought). It allowed bombers to aim with significantly more accuracy than previously, though by today's standards, it...really sucks. For example, in one bombing that send 250 bombers to destroy a ball bearing factory, only about 1 in 10 bombs fell within 500 feet of their target, and additional raids were needed to completely destroy the target. If you look really closely in the bottom right corner of the display case, you can see that the bombsight is marked as being radioactive.

*There were a few other B-17s that finished their 25 missions before the Memphis Belle, but this one was the first to return to the States.

There are two more pictures, one of the open bomb bay and another of the ball turret, under the cut:

[admiralgiggles]

Riding off into the sunset.

[emaadsidiki]

Johnson Monoplane (1911) NASM 🛩️

[nocternalrandomness]

A B-36 Peacemaker Bomber on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona