I’m driving to Granite Falls, MN this morning. It’s only about an hour SSE of Morris, so I’ll still be in the middle of nowhere in west central Minnesota. A while back, though, I was searching for local museums and discovered this one: the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum. I was surprised. This looks like a big deal with all kinds of old US aircraft from the the 1940s, and many of them still fly. I’ve been planning to visit it all summer long, but those plans got wrecked by a torn meniscus that limited my mobility — I’m feeling much better now, so I think can handle walking around some hangars and watching airplanes fly by. My brother and I used to bicycle out to local airports all the time just to watch private planes buzz by, so this is going to bring back memories.
I’ve been to the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, as well as the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle, and while this museum is a bit smaller than those, tomorrow is special: they’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US Navy & Marine Corps, so an additional assortment of aircraft are flying in. How can I resist? I want to see a P38 Lightning, an F4U Corsair, and an F6F Hellcat. Eighty year old airplanes still flying!
Tickets are still available, so if you’re a Minnesotan interested in this sort of thing, maybe I’ll see you there.
If you when to Air and Space but didn’t go to Udvar-Hazy, you really missed out. It’s an amazing aviation museum that nobody seems to know about. They have a Space Shuttle. And the Enola Gay. And an SR-71. Plus a plethora of other interesting civilian and military aircraft.
There’s also the Air Force museum in Dayton, OH. But since it’s all military, I enjoyed Udvar-Hazy more, even though it’s smaller.
Today is also the air and water show on Chicago’s lakefront, a colossally bad idea in my opinion. They’ve been doing this for many years, often with collateral damage. For some reason the fighter jet pilots think it’s funny to see how close they can get to the high rise buildings without actually crashing into them. Yesterday they were practicing all around the area. Several buildings had shattered windows as a result. My sister lives on the 33rd floor of a senior facility near Wrigley Field where they buzzed the area during the Cubs game. She said she could make out one pilot’s face as he executed a tight turn between her building and the one across the street. I’m afraid that some day one of these assholes will make a mistake and take out a residential neighborhood or school while they’re showing off for each other.
Sadly after the crash a few years back here in Dallas, I don’t know that we have them or will have old planes fly afain
But growing up in Iowa, I once got to go inside a B-17, saw a F-111, and got to see a B-29 fly in formation once. I loved air shows
I’ve been to a couple of air shows, but I grew up not far from a SAC base so I saw B-52s everyday coming in for landings, plus F-101 Voodoos and F-106 Delta Darts, sometimes not that far above tree top level. Others too, of course. During the first Iraq war, I was going for a walk in the neighborhood at night and heard the strangest sounding aircraft ever. No lights but I could tell it was directly overhead. I later learned they were flying SR-71s out of that base at that time.
I’ve been to the EAA Fly-In at Oshkoshafew times, plenty of WWII warbirds on the tarmac.
Edit:
…Oshkosh a few times.
@Akira #8:
Are you sure? Oshkoshafew does sound like a valid name.
@ 8
LOL. As a life-long Wisconsinite, I can appreciate that joke. After all, we’ve got cities named “Mukwonago,” “Winneconne,” and “Oconomowoc.”
When I was a kid, our family would often stay at the Tucson Inn. It had an F4 Corsair mounted on a post as if it was about to dive into the swimming pool. This was when Black Sheep Squadron was on TV, so I was very aware of this model of fighter plane.
I always thought the P-38 was cool plane. I used to play “Warbirds” an online flight sim game and it was my go-to fighter. The P-57 comes a close second.
Or P-47?
Ugh! I meant P-51. Thanks PZ, my brain is turning to mush.
@1. drksky
That does sound awesome and I would love to go and see that – the Discovery orbiter which I watched lanch many times – always online at home sadly – especially! :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_F._Udvar-Hazy_Center
Unfortunately, my lack of $$$ and free time won’t permit me too – and even if they did therre’s no way I’m travelling to the USA again now when Trump and his evil ilk are in charge. Which could well be the rest of my lifetime. Sigh.
@11 Akira
If you liked the P-38 and P-51, you must’ve loved the P-82 Twin Mustang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-82_Twin_Mustang