The Pima Air and Space Museum and a steak dinner.

 

The Museum;

Yesterday around 10:30 we went to the Pima Air and Space Museum. It is located on the south east side of Tucson.

The entrance to the museum is through the gift shop.
I wasn’t ready for the number of people in the line to get in.

The line moved rather slowly because a lot of the people were signing up for the guided tours and they had to show a picture ID to sign up.
I found it interesting that to take a tour of the museum you had to have a picture ID but you don’t need one to vote in a national election.

Most of the tours were booked up until about 3:00 so we decided that we would do the self guided tour (just walk around and look at stuff) no ID necessary.

I don’t think I have seen so many airplanes in one place since I was in the Navy.
Patti and I took well over 200 pictures but unfortunately I can only show you a small selection in this blog.

They have planes from the beginning of powered flight to the present day.

Here is what I believe to be a reproduction of the Wright Brothers plane.

I think the original is in the Smithsonian Museum.

Here is an Auto Gyro. I think you would have to be very careful about your landings with this thing you could cut off your head.

Here is one of my favorite military aircraft the A10 warthog.

That thing sticking out of the nose is a 30 millimeter 3000 round per minute Gatling gun.

Here is the smallest jet plane ever built.  It is a home built job but was almost impossible to fly.

 

Another of my favorites is the SR71 Blackbird.

I don’t know why but I expected it to be much bigger.

Here is Roy and I standing behind one of the engines that had been removed.

There were planes of every kind on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. Here are three sea planes and a helicopter.

Here is a series of pictures of various planes and helicopters.

A WWII bomber and others.

A Cobra Attack Helicopter.

A WWII PBM Avenger Carrier based torpedo bomber.

Here is an example of some of the nose art on military planes.

This is just a small sample of the planes inside the main hanger.

Then we went outside.

Here is a Super Constellation one of the last piston powered transcontinental passenger planes.
It was replaced by the Bowing 707.

 

Here is a DC6, one of the types of planes I worked on when I was in the Navy.

This is the B52 that carried Chuck Yeager's X1 rocket plane. The first plane that broke the sound barrier. You can see the pod where the X1 was connected under the wing.

 

Here is another of the type of aircraft that I worked on while I was in the Navy a C130.

Patti got some good pictures of a C130 flying over head as it came in for a landing at the Air Force base just north of the museum.

There was also an attack helicopter circling the base.

 

Speaking of helicopters here are two of the biggest choppers that I have ever seen.

This is a sky crane.

I don’t remember the designation of this one but it is bloody huge.

Earlier I mentioned nose art but here are some examples of complete plane art.

 

This one looks like it could have belonged to The Grateful Dead.

The Pima Air and Space Museum is one of those places that one would have to visit more than once to see everything. This is just a small sample of the aircraft on display. We didn’t even get to the space part of the museum and we were tired out.

A great steak dinner;

We have been hearing about Pinnacle Peak steak house for years. Last night we finally had a chance to check it out.
The steak house is in a place called Trail Dust Town; a small old west style town square (strip mall). Unfortunately we didn’t know what to expect so we didn’t bring any camera’s. The place is actually pretty cool; it has a small steam train, a covered wagon Ferris wheel and a merry-go-round. There are also old west style shops. They even have a simulated shoot out.
The steak house is very large and of course has an old west motif.
Patti ordered the Filet Mignon, I had a bone in rib eye, Suzanne and Roy each had the “T” bone.
As with all steak houses, it was a little pricy put not overly so.
The service was good, the steaks were excellent and worth every penny.

We will probably have to eat at McDonald's tonight. LOL!!

Okay that’s it for now.