But I caught one last week and took her to Pensacola to see the Naval Air Museum, a place I've always wanted to visit. And I was not disappointed.
It's actually on the base, so get ready for the 100% security check.
Hey look--an F-14!
And just inside (after another security checkpoint), there was this Douglas A-4 Skyhawk!
And here is the only SBU-2 Vindicator left in the world. And this one only survived after being lost overboard during carrier training in Lake Michigan and being recovered and restored 47 years later! (Shown with Paige for scale.)
And here's a T-28 Trojan trainer hanging above a Grumman F9F Panther jet. Yep. I'm happy in here. And Paige is somewhat confused, as before we got here she had no idea that the Navy had airplanes.
And I found a Corsair!
Here's a Vought F7U-3 (not a 3M as marked...tsk!). Not one of the more successful early jets; they were under-powered and problematic and over a quarter of them were destroyed in crashes and they killed 21 Navy pilots and four test pilots before being withdrawn from service.
And here's a few older ones...A Grumman F4F-3 below, and a sweet Beechcraft UC Traveler above.
And here's an F3F-2 biplane. This one was also ditched at sea off San Diego in 1940. Rediscovered by the Navy in 1988, she was raised in 1991 and restored and here she is today.
By this time, Paige was like "Why are there so many?" Poor girl didn't even know yet how much she was about to learn.
More to come. Stay tuned.
https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/nnam/virtualtour/
