π
2020-11-19 01:01
in Flying, Nflying
As part of driving across the southern states back to CA, we were in Tucson. The museum is indeed in Pima, next to Tucson, and more an Air Museum than a Space Museum, but the Air Museum bit is quite good. It's a distant second to the national museum of the airforce in Dayton, OH, but it's still worth a good 6-7H. It would be worth more time if all the planes outside had better descriptions, or working QR links (most of them pointed to a non working website, which was a shame).
I have 3 big picture galleries here:
Hangars: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jw4X62bi1M8tigdm7
Flightline: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KPqTNyfyfNBG295W8
Graveyard: https://photos.app.goo.gl/teWebDopAA1TtE8W6
While in Tucson, and after vistiing the Tucson Titan Missile Museum the previous afternoon, I was there bright and early, 30mn before they opened at 09:00 :)
A good portions of the displays are in 5 different hangars:
Some hangars had a mix of things:
Interesting pieces were japanese planes and a pilot guided cruise missile trainer:
I had never seen this portable helicopter. For some reason, it never became popular, I wonder why :)
More planes and helis:
So, I hired an uber to drive me close to some of the fences around the area, and I jumped out in a few places to take some pictures: This is a better idea of what it looks like from the sky: So that was it. It wasn't a complete visit since I wasn't really able to see the graveyard from inside, or get a good description of the outdoor planes in the museum (they were missing plaques and had non working QR codes), but it was the best that could be done during covid times, and it was still quite enjoyable :) It's definitely a unique collection.
a D21 drone, meant to be launched from the A12, the first version of the SR21
interestingly, there were severals warthogs flying outside that day
unconventional propellor bomber that was improved with small jet engines
So, I hired an uber to drive me close to some of the fences around the area, and I jumped out in a few places to take some pictures: This is a better idea of what it looks like from the sky: So that was it. It wasn't a complete visit since I wasn't really able to see the graveyard from inside, or get a good description of the outdoor planes in the museum (they were missing plaques and had non working QR codes), but it was the best that could be done during covid times, and it was still quite enjoyable :) It's definitely a unique collection.
See more images for Tucson's Pima Air and Space Museum