Images of Pima Air & Space Museum – Tucson, Arizona, taken in January 2018.

It’s been at least 20 years since I last visited the Pima Air & Space Museum so another trip was long overdue. I set out on a clear 77 degree January day (the wind chill pushing the temperature down to a brisk 75 degrees which I only mention to set the scene for all my northern and eastern friends so they clearly understand the sacrifice I was making) and spent the afternoon walking through the now sprawling facility. Although impressive all those many years ago, the museum is now one of the largest aviation museums in the country with over 100,000 square feet of indoor space and over 300 aircraft! It is an incredible collection including everything from the classic B-29 and B-52 bombers to the SR-71 Blackbird, Air Force One used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and an assortment of jet fighters, transports, aerial tankers and helicopters.

Having served in the army in the late 70’s and specializing in aircraft avionics, I actually worked on two of the later day aircraft represented in this collection; the UH-1H helicopter (in South Korea) and the OV-1 Mohawk Observation aircraft (in Germany). Additionally, after leaving the service, I also worked on the Stearman biplane for use in the movie “The Pursuit of DB Cooper” (1981) starring Robert Duval and Treat Williams (see the images: https://pbase.com/jfp_photo/hollywood_in_tucson ). So along with the history lesson and the basic “cool factor” it was also a personal walk down memory lane.

I spent about five hours roaming the grounds and finally decided to leave when the temperature plunged into the high 60’s but I could’ve easily spent the entire day and highly recommend touring the museum if you ever find yourself in the area.