There are 12 “official Navy†museums in the US – and of these, all but one, the US Navy Museum onboard the Washington Navy Yard in Washington DC, are privately funded. This includes the National Museum of Naval Aviation (NMNA) located on NAS Pensacola, FL where I recently spent some time getting re-acquainted with exhibits…
From the good folks at the Naval Institute:
After having spent the better part of a day re-visiting the National Museum of Naval Aviation, located onboard NAS Pensacola, there is much to post about – most good, but some others. For background, despite spending 26 years on active duty, when I left Pensacola for the E-2C replacement squadron (RVAW-120) in Norfolk, I would…
A little something for the recce crowd out there: 1. What is it? 2. What is it used for? 3. What platform is it a part of? Hint: You’ve read about it here before…look in here. Update: What Am I? — dive brakes on the martin AM-1 Mauler:
The dream was given form and fire on April 12, 1981 with the launch of STS-1, the world’s first reusable spaceplane — the Shuttle Columbia. At the controls were a crew of only two, Astronauts John W. Young, commander for the mission, and Robert Crippen (both Naval Aviators) for this first “test flight” which would…
The ongoing furor over the Board of Director’s attempt at a mid-watch hijacking of the Institute’s mission can, unfortunately, overshadow the very good work being done down in the trenches by the editorial board and legion of ink-stained wretches (and I use that term affectionately) in the trenches. Before re-directing to the BoD’s hi-jinks, I’d…
Forty-nine years ago – within one day of each other, one astronaut headed for orbit as America’s first to circle the Earth and a future astronaut opened a series of record attempts in the McDonell F4H Phantom: Images Courtesy Rex Features & NASA 20 Feb 1962: Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn. USMC, in Mercury spacecraft…
7 Feb 1950: In a demonstration of carrier long-range attack capabilities, a P2V-3C Neptune, with Commander Thomas Robinson in command, took off from Franklin D. Roosevelt off Jacksonville, Fla., and flew over Charleston, S.C., the Bahamas, the Panama Canal, up the coast of Central America and over Mexico to land next day at the Municipal…
The last pilot from the Doolittle raid, Col Bill Bower, USAF-Ret., passed away Jan 10 at his home in Boulder CO: As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, Col. Bower commanded one of the 16 Army Air Forces’ B-25s in the top-secret mission under the direction of then-Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. Col. Bower and the 79…
18 January 1911: At 11:01 a.m., Eugene Ely, flying the same Curtiss pusher used to take off from Birmingham (CL 2), landed on a specially built platform aboard the armored cruiser Pennsylvania (Armored cruiser No. 4) at anchor in San Francisco Bay. At 11:58 he took off and returned to Selfridge Field, San Francisco, completing…
