Marc's Public Blog - Flying

I have 3 big picture galleries here:

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:

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

Of course, a sizeable portion of the collection is outdoors, which most of the year, is in somewhat unberable heat, but thankfully in november, it was only mid 80's. Normally you can get a narrated tour in a tram, but during covid, they were cancelled, so I just went on foot. Unfortunately a lot of description plaques were missing, or pointed to unreachable web pages :-(

unconventional propellor bomber that was improved with small jet engines

super gumpy

even some french planes

english electric

multiple migs

There were a few airliners, that felt a bit out of place:

They did have some really cool plane paintings:

Normally, the museum also has a tour of the graveyard in a bus, the huge amount of planes that are sitting around the airport, some decomissioned and dismantled, while others are technically ready to be re-used if needed. Unfortunately, again, with covid, that tour has been cancelled, and I heard it might not come back.
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.

It was great that we were able to visit after arriving in Tucson:

this is the actual size of the warhead

they also have a very nice short RF antenna

Outside is unassuming:

but if you look through the right window, you see the titan missile, impressive view

a few side displays

But after a set of stairs, we got down, and it was really cool:

the whole room is kept completely level

I won mission commander

the launch key was actually pretty simple

ready to launch

missile launched

we gave the key to Jennifer for a second launch

From there, we had a look at the missile launch room across the corridor:

Definitely a special experience, really happy we got to see this.

I didn't know the planes left from Tinian by Guam and there was a plan for them to land at Iwo Jima, and have a 2nd plane take the bomb and try again if the weather didn't allow for the first plane to reach the targets:

mission #1

mission #2

It was so an artillary range:

We had a look around the rest of the base, not much left:

Most of the planes were at the main location, a few were in another location around 1km walk away (not super convenient). The collection had a nice mixture of planes, including the most soviet planes I've seen in a single museum:

Most of the planes were in hangars:

for a change, that was a museum with proper warnings :)

very early airliner with only 6 person capacity

interesting, this plane had radiator cooling lines on its wing

The secondary location looked close on the map, but was actually a fair walk away on city streets:

And with just a few minutes to spare before they closed he hangars 30mn earlier than then expected closing time, I barely finished the museum. It was well worth the visit.

The museum focuses on Alaska related planes, and they have a good collection thereof:

choose your ski

pilot licenses used to have pictures on them

The day prior, we went to the smaller air museum in Fairbanks. It's much more compact:

cool, the japanese designed float planes that would fit inside a submarine

We left Anchorage not too late and headed towards Denali. We stopped at Talkeetna for a super scenic flight around Denali with glacier landing. We were super lucky to be first plane to land on the glacier after 3 weeks where it was not possible. Even the flights that came back before we left that day were not able to land due to too much fog. Our pilot did 4 different landings to "pave" the runway on the snow for a few more planes to land behind us:

this was the same plane than our float plane, but it had skis instead

got the copilot seat again

lots of taildraggers

several glaciers

which don't always look good when you zoom

I wouldn't snowboard down this :)

beautiful field

Then, it was time for our glacier landing. This is normally the base that people who climb denali, start from. It's still a 3 week climb:

t is a big plane

Then it was time to get back in the air:

hard to tell that all that dirt is a glacier, until you see this

back to Talkeetna

After the flight, we had a quick tour of downtown Talkeetna:

cheap gas

We got back on the road toward denali, and did a stop at a nice viewpoint:

Then back on the road, and got to the visitor center by 17:15 before they closed at 18:00

and after a total of 5.5H most of which Jennifer drove (thanks), we arrived at Denali

It was then time for dinner, some food grocery shopping for our next day, and some sleep in preparation for a 05:45 wakeup. We got to see a bit of wildlife:

the delta where ephemerisle takes place

Mt Rose ski resort

Reno Airport

Pyramid Lake

And after just around 2H, we arrived at BRC:

the man looked small this year

the city was surprisingly full for a sunday mid-day, especially with the road closed

the folly was an interesting multi level structure

I wondered what this was and would out later it was the art car DMV registration line

more of the DMV line

the airport already had some customers

barely anyone at the entrance because the road from reno had been closed due to a fatal accident

the temple, kind of a weird shape for this year

the runway was hard to miss

happily on the ground

taping everything up

After a week at burning man, it was time to go back

definitely more people in the exodus on sunday afternoon

the lucky folks who made it to the road

Then, a few pictures from the flight back:

pyramid lake

truckee train

northstar ski resort

This time, I went during professional days, which meant fewer crowds (good), but a much lesser airshow (not as great, but oh well):

the line to get in was thankfully fast as everyone was pre-paid

I then went to see expo halls:

chinese jet

cool aircraft using helium for lift and hydrogen for propulsion

NGF concept

VTOL aircraft:

quadplane (multirotor for takeoff and conversion to plane in flight)

another concept

Drones:

tethered drone with unlimited runtime

It was air and space:

A fair amount of planes outside too:

next generation fighter

I went back to see the old planes that are there all year:

747 2nd floor

So, there was a small airshow, I only watched part of it given limited time and that it was a bit weak. I heard it was better during the weekend when the general public was allowed. I somehow made a few wrong turns and ended up at the Airbus private viewing lounge:

And that was it for the Bourget expo. I didn't quite have the time to see everything in one day, but saw most of it, worth the visit given that I was already there :)

interesting ripoff of the Wright Flyers

The Avro Arrow was supposed to be a Mach2+ fighter, but was sadly scrapped, dealing a big blow to Canadian aviation designs

hard to believe that jet engine fits in the Havilland Vampire

interesting twin boom design, jet exhaust was pointing down, so you couldn't do a static runup without melting the runway :)

Havilland Vampire is definitely an interesting early jet

Also, nearby was the aviation section of the Military Museum:

Canada used CF104/starfighters are nuclear bombers