Vacation-Day 5

Well kids today we visited the Pima Air & Space Museum.  There are two parts to the museum...one that has a ton of old planes that have been restored for the museum and across the street is a boneyard.  We visited the museum first.

As you will see below there were a ton of planes of all shapes and sizes.  I would have had to take notes to explain them all which I didn't do so hopefully you can figure them out from what I do remember.

 

There were 4 hangers of planes on the property and this was the first one.  The museum is run by volunteers and retired pilots which gave the walking tours.  They added a lot to the stories but after about the 4th plane they were moving way to slow for us so we went on our own.

 

This is the plane from a James Bond movie when he flew it sideways through a barn...Octopussy!

Lands in the water

This is a bomber...your mother is looking up in the chamber where they kept the bombs

This is the Blackbird which is the fastest plane ever at Mach 3 and flew the highest at 81,000 feet!

 

This next part of the museum was outside

 Airforce One from back in the early 60's.

3 props on each side

Helicopter that picks up containers

 

After the museum we got on a bus to go across the street to see the boneyard.  There are 3800 planes here and they said 20% of them will go back in to service.  Once a plane is stored here it is brought to the left side where it sits for 1 year.  After 1 year the military can request that it stays longer or if not it is sent to the right side where they take it apart for future parts.  They also buy a few commercial jets for training against terrorists attacks. This site/area was picked because of the dry non humid weather.

They wrap all the parts of the plane that can be damaged by the sun with white plastic

 

If an engine is removed it is placed in these containers

If you look in the background you can see how many planes are here and this is only one side.

 From there it was off to Guadalajara Fiesta Grill for dinner and margarita's but since I am still in the 8% club I had water.  This is another restaurant that your grandparents come to on a regular basis.  They have happy hour specials from 5-7 and they make a great margarita so both your mother and grandmother were happy!

 

 

A lady makes the salsa at your table and to your liking...hot or mild

 

They also have a 3 man band that goes around to the tables

 

 Fun day but a hot day...certainly should be added to your bucket list but only if you have a hat like mine to wear.