Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH

Gary meets Bob Hope at USO Program

This guy looks petty good for a dead guy.  No, silly, Bob Hope.  Actually a poster in the Air Force museum.  

We were two days visiting the enormous facility.  There is no charge for entry, but watch out for the trinket and food prices!  

When we approached the doors we saw the sign that said no knives or food or drink.  Well, I carry a pocket knife, so Eloise waited for me to go all the way back to the car to drop the knife.  It was a large parking lot, and we were way back.  I caught up to Eloise, went thru the doors and we ran into an usher who said we cannot take our water bottles into the museum.  Huh.  Yep.  Back to the car with the bottles.  (We noted the "no drink" sign, but figured it was only for commercial drinks...not water.)

We've been at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio for 6 days.  We're staying in the base RV park.  It's really nice.  It has two rows of pull-thru w/50 amp, water, and sewer, and one row with just water and 50 amp,  no sewer.  Nice restrooms too, but we don't use the parks' very often, much preferring our own facilities.

Pretty Remarkable Quilt

Hope the text here is legible, it's really pretty interesting.

Eloise w/RF101

RF101C Data

 The aircraft above was the type that my squadron in Thailand consisted of.  It was impressive, because it flew over North Vietnam, usually without fighter escort, to take pictures to tell where to bomb next.  They were unarmed and at the mercy of the Surface to Air Missile emplacements by Charley.  They were a daring bunch of pilots.  At the time I was something like Radar O'Reilly as the Orderly Room clerk.  Or, personal lacky to all!  Some of you know the very sad story about me and one of the pilots.  Not going there in the blog, but if you ask sometime I'll tell the story.

We also had some of these, but they were relics even in 1967/68 when I was there:

A-1E



The B-36 is just my favorite aircraft.  It didn't play a role in any war, but it was just fantastic.

B-36

B-36

B-36

  It had 6 turbo props, facing rearward, and it had double jet pods on each wing for occasional boost too!  It was a forerunner for in-flight refueling.  Can you see the jet getting fuel from the B-36 wing tip in the photo?

Check out this main landing tire that was on the early model of the B-36.  Read the text about just how heavy and huge it was, compared to the later photo of the tires in later models:

"normal" landing gear

Some of you vets will remember the Jolly Green chopper..

 It played a really big part in Southeast Asia, saved lots of lives.

Here's a pretty plane.  

XB-70 Valkyrie

Some of the patrons were taking rides in the different simulators.  I can't say whether there was a charge for the ride or not:

JFK's Air Force 1

It's a truly amazing place, and it houses so many aircraft, some of them really, really huge like the B-52, the B-2, and the B-1:

On the inside of the C-124 we find this:

 
 And this:

I didn't see a privacy curtain, it was just on the wall as we walked by.  I sort of gave it a good look, but I think I would need some instructions....

Okay, I've got more pictures of really neat planes, and some rockets, but that's enough museum for one blog.  

Near to the Air Force base was the area that the Wright brothers used to refine their aircraft.  The flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina proved they had something that could go in a straight line for 59 seconds.  What they needed to do was to be able to make turns and stay aloft.  That is what they accomplished  when they returned to Dayton.  

They used a pasture for their experiments.  The owner gave them permission, but only if they didn't bother his cows and horses.

Notice the catapult.  A team of horses raised a 1600 pound counter weight to give the airplane a takeoff

This is a description of how it worked.

 Eloise and I have remarked how we were schooled in the Kitty Hawk event but had very little information beyond that as to how the brothers progressed.  Well, now we have the "rest of the story".  I personally think the Kitty Hawk thing is overblown compared to what they accomplished here at the Dayton pasture.

Ultimately they began a flying school and trained both the military and civilians.  We were shocked to learn that they charged the lordly sum (in those days) of $750 to learn to fly an airplane.

 












The last photo will be one describing a flight when Orville's father was on the plane, exclaming "Higher, Orville, Higher!! I don't know if you can read the sign but it says this was the only time Orville and Wilbur ever flew together.  Their father had made them promise not to both fly, guess he wanted to have at least one son left when they were finished.  It was also the only time their father ever flew. 

Wilbur Wright and his father

 We leave Dayton heading north....somewhere.