The Naval Air Station Museum

Click on any picture above to see a larger view

There is so many things to see in the museum it's hard to get it all, you just have to go see it for yourself to really appreciate it. The jet engine in the center of the 5th row is a J85 and it brought back many memories, it is the first engine I worked on at General Electric when I got out of the Navy in 1952, I started out as a lathe operator and it's a good bet that I turned the compressor disk in that very engine.

After touring for about an hour we went to the IMax theater to see "Fighter Pilot" is was so real that I found myself leaning in my seat.

We had lunch at the Cubi Bar, this bar was originally in Vietnam and used by air men to relax, it was going to be torn down and the Museum found out about and ask if they could have some of the memorabilia, they got all of it in many crates, it is a museum in its self.

The most fun I had at the museum was trying to fly in a F14 trainer, I can fly a small plane but not to good in this thing. I only crashed once but did some wild things like when trying to land I got all screwed up and did a barrel roll about 100 feet off the ground. The simulator was not 100% real, I tried to see what it would do and I went straight up at about 400 mph and was still going at 97,000 feet, now I know the F14 wont do that, will it?

Pictures by Jerry