WARNING - This post contains a ridiculous amount of aircraft pictures. You have been warned.
Hi all and a very Happy Christmas for all in Australia...all of my friends over here, you'll have to wait another three hours or so.
Today we departed New Orleans, Louisiana for Pensacola, Florida requiring us to cross four states; Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The distance for today's drive was 204 miles/329km, or a little over three hours drive.
We planned on trying to get to Pensacola as quickly as possible with the hope of catching two aviation museums, one in Pensacola (The National Museum of Naval Aviation) and one at Eglin Air Force Base (The US Air Force Armament Museum). The Armament Museum is about 100km up the road from Pensacola.
Before we started we had breakfast in the hotel, and alas there were no Texas-shaped waffles ('cause we are in Louisiana); this time we had waffles with the New Orleans Saints (NFL) logo on it.
 |
| Go the Saints... |
After we headed off the journey was pretty uneventful, though shortly after leaving Louisiana we crossed the Frank Davis "Naturally N'Awlins" Memorial Bridge, a nearly 6 mile causeway formerly known as the I-10 Twin Span Bridge.
We also passed through the city of Mobile, Alabama travelling through the George Wallace Tunnel which crosses beneath the Mobile River and came out adjacent to Battle Ship Parkway, home of the USS Alabama. Crazily, we didn't stop...but that's okay we will be visiting it tomorrow, though won't be able to board the ship because it will be Christmas Day here. We didn't stop because of my plan to visit the two other museums.
We arrived in Pensacola and went straight to the National Museum of Naval Aviation which is on-base at NAS (Naval Air Station) Pensacola. In my mind I was thinking, naval aviation...meh, how big could that be? Well, let's just say that my mind was blown by the enormous size of the museum and the more than 150 aircraft on display. In fact, I would now rate this as my third favourite aviation museum (following the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre in Washington DC). The problem was, there was never going to be time to visit both museums.
http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org
Okay, as promised, brace yourselves because here's just some of the pics I took:
 |
| Grumman F-14A Tomcat (5th prototype aircraft) |
 |
| Grumman F-14A Tomcat (5th prototype aircraft) |
 |
| Grumman F-14A Tomcat (5th prototype aircraft) |
 |
| Kyle in a Grumman F-11F Tiger |
 |
| Schuyler in a McDonnell Douglas F-4N Phantom |
 |
| Schuyler and Kyle in a T-34 Mentor trainer |
 |
| Grumman F-7F Tigercat |
 |
| Grumman F-7F Tigercat |
 |
| Grumman F-8F Bearcat |
 |
| Bell HTL-4 Sioux |
 |
| Ford Mark II Model 2 Bomb Service Truck |
 |
| Bell HTL-4 Sioux |
 |
| Piasecki HUP-3 Retriever |
 |
| Vought F4U-1 Corsair and Brewster SB2A Buccaneer |
 |
| Brewster SB2A Buccaneer |
 |
| Grumman F-6F Hellcat |
 |
| Brewster SB2A Buccaneer |
 |
| Douglas SBD Dauntess |
 |
| Chrysler1940 Plymouth |
 |
| Grumman E-2C Hawkeye |
 |
| Me with the Grumman E-2C Hawkeye |
 |
| Grumman E-2C Hawkeye |
 |
| Douglas R4D-5L Skytrain |
 |
| Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk |
 |
| Grumman F-4D Tomcat (Flew last ever F-14 Combat Mission) |
 |
| Grumman EA-6B Prowler |
 |
| Grumman F-4D Tomcat (Flew last ever F-14 Combat Mission) plus trainer |
 |
| Lockheed S-3B Viking |
 |
| Grumman EA-6B Prowler |
 |
| Sikorsky HO3S |
 |
| Sikorsky HO3S |
 |
| Lockheed S-3B Viking |
 |
| Grumman EA-6B Prowler |
 |
| Vought A-7E Corsair II |
 |
| LTV F-8A Crusader |
 |
| Northrop-Grumman X-47B Mock-up |
 |
| McDonnell Douglas AV-8A Harrier |
 |
| Kyle and I driving a McDonnell Douglas F-4N Phantom |
 |
| McDonnell Douglas AV-8A Harrier and Douglas EA-1F Skyraider |
 |
| Grumman A-6E Intruder |
 |
| Northrop-Grumman X-47B Mock-up |
 |
| Grumman A-6E Intruder |
 |
| McDonnell Douglas AV-8A Harrier |
 |
| The Squadron Vehicle |
 |
| Schuyler and Kyle on the MiG-21UM Cockpit |
 |
| North American OV-10D Bronco |
 |
| Martin P5M Marlin |
 |
| McDonnell Douglas AV-8A Harrier and Bell HH-1K Huey |
 |
| Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina cutaway |
 |
| Sikorsky HO5S |
 |
| Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe |
 |
| Piasecki HUP-3 Retriever |
 |
| McDonnell F2H-2P Photo Banshee |
 |
| Chance Voight F7U-3M Cutlass |
 |
| Grumman F9F-6 Cougar |
 |
| North American SNJ-5C Texan |
 |
| Blue Angels Douglas A-4D Demonstration Team |
 |
| Douglas A-1H Skyraider |
 |
| Douglas F4D-1 Skyray |
 |
| Grumman F3F-2 |
 |
| Ford RR-5 Tri-Motor |
 |
| Curtiss-Wright P-40 Tomahawk |
 |
| Ford RR-5 Tri-Motor |
 |
| US Navy - Curtiss NC-4 |
 |
| Grumman F-11F Tiger and North American FJ-2 Fury |
 |
| McDonnell F-3H Demon |
 |
| McDonnell F-3H Demon |
 |
| US Navy - Curtiss NC-4 |
 |
| Skylab 2 Command Module |
 |
| Schuyler and I at the rear of the Blue Angels Douglas A-4D Demonstration Team |
 |
| Blue Angels Douglas A-4D Demonstration Team |
 |
| Schuyler and the Blue Angels Douglas A-4D Demonstration Team |
 |
| Me and the Blue Angels Douglas A-4D Demonstration Team |
 |
| Consolidated PB2Y Coranado |
 |
| North American FJ-4 Fury |
 |
| The Plekkers in front of a Blue Angels McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet |
 |
| Blue Angels McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet |
Once finished, we headed towards our Hotel, stopping along the way to see the Revolver Record Store, where Schuyler picked up a rare Sigur Ros vinyl single and almost bought a Sigur Ros album that he said was very rare...the $70 price tag helped him decide against buying it.
Dinner tonight was at the Indian Palace Restaurant which was really quite nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment