Category: Guest Contributors

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Aircraft Museum WWII Naval Aircraft

40 MM Bofors, The 40 MM Bofors was, along with the 5′  38 caliber cannon,  were the centerpieces of the most effective anti-aircraft systems the world has ever seen to that point. It was widely used, interestingly, also by Germany and, to a lesser extent, Japan during the war. Several years ago, I was climbing around the interior of a C130 gunship and came upon what looked to be a Bofors. Talking to a crewman, he confirmed it was indeed a WWII era manufactured piece stripped from surplus ships and stored. The US made around 60,000 of them. They are still using WWII surplus ammo. I figured why not since the Gunships are also using 105 mm howitzers from the Viet Nam era.

A CH53 Sea Stallion helicopter. My brother-in-law flew these for the Navy back when.

This is a shot of an A-4 Skyhawk in Blue Angels coloration. If I could have a flyable aircraft from the early jet era, an A-4 would definitely be on the short list. They were the sports cars, nimble, quick, almost the opposite of the heavy and ponderous (but fast) F-4’s of the time.

A post WWII British Sea Fury at an air show.

The atrium for the US Naval Air Museum; 4- A-4’s suspended from the ceiling in formation. It’s pretty spectacular in person.

Tom’s World – 09SEP2024 – Museum Aircraft – 1

Tom’s World – 18SEP2024 – Museum Aircraft – 2

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Aircraft Museum WWII Naval Aircraft

Catalina- This aircraft was not glamorous and so, doesn’t figure into the war stories of WWII but it was probably one of the most important aircraft from the Pacific theater. It was commonly used as a scout and rescue aircraft and was the one that initially reported the location of the Japanese fleet prior to the Battle of Midway.

NAS Pensacola was the location from which all Catalina initial training was conducted. This is an actual Catalina modified to be a WWII training aid showing typical activities on the seaplane.

Army P40. P40’s were US Army frontline aircraft introduced in 1938 but were pretty much outclassed by the Mitsubishi Zero but nonetheless had a successful record against other Japanese types in the Flying Tigers prior to the US entry into WWII.

Battle of Midway: to anybody with even a passing awareness of the Pacific Theatre of the war knows of the central importance of the June 1942 battle of Midway in which the US sank 3 Japanese aircraft carriers in about 15 minutes and a 4th several hours later.  Such a decisive victory was to leave the Japanese trying to catch up for the remainder of the war. Though things were pretty tough later that year in the 5 Guadalcanal battles that created the Iron Bottom Sound populated chiefly but not exclusively by US ships. Things were pretty desperate for the first 1-1/2 years of the war.

This beautifully restored Douglas SBD, the type that actually sank the carriers, is the last aircraft remaining on earth that took part in the battle. Sometime after the battle, it was declared to be worn out and sent to the US as a training aircraft where some trainee Ensign missed an approach to a training carrier in Lake Michigan. The plane stayed at the bottom of the lake for 50 years until it was retrieved and restored to this condition.

F4U- This famous aircraft probably doesn’t need an intro. Upon its initial intro, the F4U Corsair was considered to be too dangerous and unsuitable for carrier operation because of its essentially zero forward visibility when on carrier approach. Until the British showed to Americans how to do it, the Corsair was limited to ground based Marine Corps usage. The Corsair racked up an incredible kill/loss ratio but it probably was helped by the fact that the Japanese had no means of effective pilot training to replace their losses later in the war. Unlike the US, they left their experienced pilots in the fight until they were killed, losing all of that experience.

The Corsair remained in production longer than any other US fighter and was still in  frontline use in some air forces well into the 50’s and the jet age.

In the foreground is a Pratt and Whitney R-2800, a motor that put out as much as 2800 HP in some late war versions and was used in so many US aircraft that I’d have to research to list them all.

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Tired of statues and would like to jump to another topic: museum aircraft

Most, but not all, of these shots were taken at the US Naval Air Museum, on board NAS Pensacola. I’ve been to the Smithsonian, Wright Patterson and scores of lesser museums but this museum is right at the top, world wide. The Blue Angels are based out of Pensacola, so you’ll see a lot of that. The Naval Museum concentrates on Naval stuff as you may suspect but there’s other noteworthy stuff there too, like a Messerschmitt Me 262 one of the very, very few still in existence. The ME 262 was the first ever jet to be used in combat.

This Navy NC-4 was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic. Unlike Lindberg, it wasn’t solo and it wasn’t non stop. But it was in 1919 when most aircraft had max ranges in the hundred mile range or so. This by the way, the actual aircraft, not just the aircraft type. Talk about a beautiful restoration.

Corsair: The museum tends to be crowded with stuff just everywhere competing for visual attention. I shot this picture and was looking at it wondering what could be done with it and somehow ended up here.

An F18 outside one of the museum buildings.

00683: A B25 Mitchell bomber. This was principally an Army aircraft but the B25 won fame in early 1942 when the famous raid on Tokyo was launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

A little humorsep