Warbird Information Exchange

I had the opportunity to visit the San Diego Air & Space Museum a few days ago. What a great mix of aircraft and artifacts in a fairly small setting. There was a large emphasis on children's displays as well. The Corsair is supposedly from the USS Alabama Museum and is a fresh post-storm resto. The Wildcat & Dauntless are Lake Michigan examples. The Zero is real. The Bf 109 was a replica. There was a nice mix of items from Lindbergh, Jackie Cochran, various astronauts, and the Consolidated Corp. All in all a great way to spend the afternoon.

Ken

Follow the link to see my photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/kch130/San ... directlink

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Great pics! The Apollo 9 Command Module used to be at the Michigan Space Center at Jackson Community College, which has a building named after Mission Commander Jack McDivitt. When the Space Center closed in 2004, most of its assets were acquired by the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, along with director Stu Bailey (now curator at Evergreen.) He told me he wanted to get the Command Module for the Air Zoo as well, since McDivitt was a Kalamazoo native, but he said "Wally Schirra (then San Diego Aerospace Museum Director) has more pull with NASA than me."

SN

I highly recommend a visit to SDASM. Been there a couple of times and it is a great place to visit and see the sights.

A very well done museum!

Been there a few times. A great museum. I have never made it over to their annex located at Gillespie Field however. I'm sure its well worth a visit.

_________________
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

It is.

A large part of their archive material burned up in a fire in the late 80's. After Jack Northrup died I helped his family pack up what we thought were his most important personal papers and donated them there. Unfortunately, most of it burned up in the fire.

_________________
Better is the enemy of Good.

Was the Bonnie & Clyde car still there?

In the Catalina photo, you can see two vintage cars under the F-4. You may need to check the museum site to be sure.

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Are you sure? Jack Northrop died almost three years to the day after the fire in Feb 1981. If you packed his stuff up after he died in 1981, then it must have been lost or burned somewere else!
I've not heard of the museum having two fires.

http://www.sandiegoairandspace.org/abou ... istory.php

"Before the move could take place, however, the Electric Building and most of its contents were destroyed by a devastating fire on February 22, 1978. "


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Northrop



" John Knudsen "Jack" Northrop (November 10, 1895 – February 18, 1981)"

I was probably wrong on the time line. Jack got Parkinson's disease and could no longer live by himself so Mary his daughter in-law offered to let him live with her. I am a family friend. We boxed up all his stuff and separated most of the historically important stuff and donated it to the museum as Mary didn't have that much storage space. I was still going thru some boxes after he died that we didn't donate and felt sick to my stomach thinking about how many things were lost. The creme de la creme if you know what I mean.

_________________
Better is the enemy of Good.

Roger that, thanks