We said our goodbyes to the Sobels in the morning and headed to the Pima Air and Space Museum. It was an enormous facility with over 300 air planes and helicopters. There were several hangars, buildings, and a huge gravel yard filled with restored aircraft.
My favorite plane was the SR-71 supersonic stealth bomber, Blackbird. Made of mostly titanium and costing about $85,000 per HOUR to operate, it was an expensive marvel of engineering – breaking all the records for max elevation (85K feet), and speed (Mach 3.3, about 2190 mph). Only 80 or so pilots were ever trained to fly it.
Jason really liked being able to examine and touch the blue angle f18s and the Harriers. It was neat to see how the two exhaust vents on the Harriers swiveled to allow them to make a vertical take off, or rather to allow thrust vector control.
We also were impressed with the helicopter that was used to carry water. It looked like a skeleton, with hooks. Some of the amphibious planes were amazing as well.
There was a restored B-17 bomber inside the 390th Memorial building. I enjoyed getting a visual on a plane that was was very similar to the B-24 that I recently read all about in “Unbroken,” the book about Louis Zamperini.
Ian liked the tour we took around the yard, where a retired pilot told us all about the planes and their back stories. One of the planes was so large it could hold 200 troups and the wings were hollow so a person could crawl inside them to do repairs.
The boys were amused by the moon rock exhibit. It was a large 8′ by 15′ display for a tiny moon rock encased in plexiglass, about the size of almond.
From here we drove toward New Mexico and camped for the night in Rockhound State Park, NM.
