This is an amazing place. More than 150 aircraft displayed indoors and out. The planes are largely military, and many are on loan from the Air Force museum in Dayton or the Smithsonian Air & Space. The collection is so extensive that it a requires a one-hour tram tour just to view the outside exhibits.
The museum is right next to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, which I assume helps to provide the cadre of enthusiastic former AF personnel who work as docents. Air Force A-10 pilots were training, and then doing aerobatics, overhead as I walked among the outdoor planes.
Below are few of the planes that struck my fancy. The museum's website (link at right) has great pictures of, and information about, the planes in the collection.
A-10 Warthog ground attack plane (same as the one flying in the pic above to the right).
F-14 Tomcat. Look closely above it, and you’ll see an A-10 about to land.
The Douglas VC-118A Liftmaster turboprop used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. It was able to land on shorter runways than the faster, quieter and smoother 707 presidential jet that was brought into service during the Eisenhower years. As a result, Johnson chose to fly this old aircraft directly to the landing strip on his Texas ranch when he went home on weekends. If he took the 707, he had to land two hours away and then suffer through a long limousine trip.
Sud-Aviation Caravelle. The first rear-engined jet liner. I used to fly this plane between Luxembourg City and Paris growing up. The cockpit windows and nose-cone of this aircraft are the same as those on my favorite, the De Havilland Comet.
A big fave! The Lockheed Constellation. This one in its original TWA colors!
C-121A, a military version of the Constellation. Dwight Eisenhower used this particular plane when he was Supreme Commander in Europe after WWII.
A Boeing B-377 “Super Guppy” operated by NASA. This aircraft was used to transport pieces of the Apollo rocket to the launching pad in our moon shot program. What a shape!!
C-124 Globemaster. It's three floors tall (look closely at the picture and you'll see a man standing in front of it to give you a sense of scale). The plane is so big that you can drive an eighteen-wheeler on board and fly it away.
KB-505 Superfortress. This was a post-WWII refuelling plane. Look closely under the wings and you can see the jet engines that were added to give the craft extra power in addition to its radial propeller engines.
KC-97G Stratofreighter. When jet fighters arrived on the scene, this tanker plane became obsolete. During refuelling, to stay above the jets' stall speed, the Stratofreighter had to increase its top speed by remaining in a descent.
Convair B-58 Hustler. This early supersonic bomber was not a success.
A-4 Skyhawk. This is the type of plane John McCain was flying when he was shot down in Vietnam.
B-24 Liberator.
C-46 Skytrain. This model is most famous for flying supplies to troops in Asia during WWII.
B-29 Superfortress.
King Cobra, in front of the Sperfortress's tail.
B-17 Flying Fortress.
C-130 transport aircraft. Notice the skids so it can operate on snow!
F-16’s.
F-14’s. These are scheduled for destruction. The only F-14's currently in use belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hence the desire to get rid of spare parts.
B-2 swing-wing supersonic bomber. Note that the cockpit is only covered with a tarp. This indicates the plane is in flight-ready status, and could be prepped and flown out in perhaps only hours.
These F-4 Phantom jets are about to be rehabilitated and flown away to serve as drones by the USAF.
Here are airline 707’s that have been broken up to provide spare parts for the military. If you look closely, you can see an old BOAC liner and one that looks like it’s from Pan Am.
Here's a KC-135 that is being broken up for parts. Think of all the tails . . .
