More Photos of Palm Springs Air Museum (Feb 28)

[cadet77]

Here are just some of the aircraft that I saw at the museum the end of February 2010.

F8F 'Bob's Bear'




TBM


FG1D


A-26C 'Invader'



SBD


C47B


P63A 'Pretty Polly'



PBY-5A



(one big airplane)

P40N



MKXIV




(extra views for Bill Greenwood)

P47D 'Squirt VIII'



B17G 'Miss Angela'


The space is tight. Plan on spending several hours to see everything.

Fly fast, fly safe,
cadet77
Larry

[DarenC1]

Great photos. How many of the 'birds are airworthy/flown? I have a feeling the Spitfire hasn't flown for some time, though.

[cadet77]

The brochure says that all are "Flyable" except the Dauntless SBD and the Goose JRF-G-21.
The Spitfire MKXIV looked as though the tail surfaces were out for recover as part of maintenance. Someone closer to the museum may add something more.

cadet77
Larry

[ChrisDNT]

Once again, I will never understand why all these fantasy childish nosearts splashed on US warbirds, especially when there are so many amazing and perfectly documented real finishes possible

[JBoyle]

Once again, I will never understand why all these fantasy childish nosearts splashed on US warbirds, especially when there are so many amazing and perfectly documented real finishes possible

Agree!
It makes American crews look like a bunch of prurient idiots.

[PeterA]

The Spitfire scheme.

Enough to make an Englishman cry.

PeterA

[rc38pilot]

Correct guess on the spits tail feathers,I brought them up to Vacaville ca. for re-covering after the chino airshow last year...Top Cover aviation(shegetti of jelly belly mustang fame)is doing the work,they look great and will be back soon

jim A
Thunder Mustang builder/mech

[JBoyle]

The Spitfire scheme.
Enough to make an Englishman cry.
PeterA

It doen't do much for knowledgeable Americans either.

But no doubt others here will tell me..."When you get your Spitfire...".

[Pat Carry]

Very nice set of photos. I expecially like the one of the C-47 w/ the mountains in the background.

[seaknight15]

Anyone can say what they want about thease birds but I spent 15 years keepng thease up and running at flying cloud and they are still here in one form or another. Keep them flying or just keep them from the scrapper. Pappy

[Rajay]

The brochure says that all are "Flyable" except the Dauntless SBD and the Goose JRF-G-21.
The Spitfire MKXIV looked as though the tail surfaces were out for recover as part of maintenance. Someone closer to the museum may add something more.

cadet77
Larry

I don't know why specifically the Goose is not airworthy, but I have seen photos of it and although it once had the McKinnon retract float mod, it now has fixed floats again - but the floats (I've heard) are off of a Vought OS2U Kingfisher and the wingtips are still squared off for the retract mod. I know that they also put some Ham Std props back on it after it had the Hartzell 3-blades for many years.

Another interesting thing is that the airplane is still registered to Air Metal Fabricators of Arlington WA. I've spoken with Ken Orford there and he says he sold it to some guy in Utah in the early 1990's. I guess the museum didn't care about minor paperwork like the registration....

I even tried to e-mail the museum a couple of years ago and offered to donate some original half-round Goose wingtips with the original military 3x recognition lights still mounted in them. They never even bothered to respond to the e-mail.

[henning]

Nice pics there.. quite the collection.. I've always wanted to go see those...

One quick question.. I see they had the steps up next to the flying boat.. was that just to see inside the window,
or would they let you inside to see the cockpit up close for a picture or two?

thanks

henning

[cadet77]

You could look inside the Catalina. It was similar to the steps next to the Corsair.

cadet77
Larry