"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Aviation-related posts
Looking for photos to add to my Promise of Air Travel folder on Pinterest, I came across this: It’s a Speedpak, a conformal cargo pod or pannier designed by Lockheed for its Constellation aircraft. It wasn’t used for passenger luggage but for extra cargo. It appears to be the grandfather of the conformal cargo pods […]
I corrected a couple of minor errors in the original post. I have since learned more about early presidential aircraft, and will share that knowledge in a separate post, coming soon. —Paul When I read the president-elect’s now-famous tweet a few days ago, my thoughts turned to two presidential fleet aircraft I show visitors at the Pima Air […]
On a motorcycle trip in April 2015 I visited and photoblogged the Planes of Fame Museum in Valle, Arizona. The Arizona facility is an annex of the main Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. This time around I pointed my Honda west toward Los Angeles and dropped in on the main facility. As with the […]
Pima Air & Space Museum is getting ready to open a new display hangar for WWII-era aircraft and artifacts. Not all the new exhibits are here … some are coming from as far away as Australia and England … so the official grand opening date is still up in the air, but the “soft opening” […]
There were three tram tours on Monday’s schedule at the Pima Air & Space Museum, and three drivers. I drove and narrated the first tour, then helped collect tickets for the second. I told the other drivers I wanted to take photos of our newest exhibit, a very rare McDonnell FH-1 Phantom. They said fine, […]
I always tell visitors to come back to the Pima Air & Space Museum at least once a year. There’ll be new stuff, I say. And it’s true. The Republic F-105D Thunderchief that’s been on display for many years had become an eyesore, its paint brutalized from constant exposure to the desert sun. I was […]
I recently updated older posts about the cars and motorcycles that have been part of my life. I thought I’d written a separate post about the aircraft I’ve flown, but when I went looking, it wasn’t here. I found it eventually — on Facebook. I don’t know why I never included it on my own […]
Last week my friend Chuck organized a trip to the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in southern Arizona. Chuck and I are docents at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson. Like me, he’s a former fighter pilot. In his USAF days he flew F-4s; later he joined the Arizona Air National Guard, […]