Ky shows Goldie the B-17 Flying Fortress
We've been to the museum at Hill Air Force Base lots of times, but I must say this is the most we've (or maybe I should say I've; the children always like it a lot) ever enjoyed it! It's always somewhat cool to see big planes, but (for me, at least) it soon grows tedious when you don't really know what you're looking at. This time we were excited to see, in person, so many of the planes we had already learned about and grown to love! :) Also, I had assigned each boy one of the younger girls to be in charge of, and it was really cute to watch them. The boys were happy to show off their knowledge and discourse upon the various planes, and the girls liked having the attention and protection of their own personal tour guides. All I had to do was sit down and nurse Theo occasionally. It was great.
We were transfixed by this piston engine, cut away so you could see the various parts at work
Goldie fastens herself into the ejector seat
Little Goldie, big helicopter (I can't remember which helicopter this is)
Daisy, with another helicopter—Seb thinks it's the Bell 205 UH1D
Ky likes this fighter jet, the F-15 Eagle. We also like F-14s a lot (the moveable wing is so cool).
My favorite military plane—the SR-71 Blackbird. I just think it is such a cool plane! Both in looks and in functionality. I couldn't believe they had one at this museum! Have they always? I was definitely more excited about it than I've been before, if so.
The "Start cart" for the SR-71. Because the engines didn't have starter motors or anything, they had to fire them up using what is basically a mobile driveshaft to get the turbines turning. There was a video about it you could watch (you can see the TV screen inside the cart here). We thought it was so interesting!
The displays inside are great, and we even got to see some missionaries (they volunteer at the museum once a week, one of them told us—what a fun service opportunity!) towing one of the planes into the building with a pickup truck, which was cool. And then the planes outside were awesome too. They have added a few new ones since I last went to the museum, several years ago.
C-124. This thing is HUGE! We ate our little picnic lunch under the wing:
KC-135 "Stratotanker"
These KC-135's are the refueling planes that often refill other planes in midair. We had even seen one flying above us as we drove to the museum earlier! The boys were very excited to see it.
B-1B Lancer. I THINK this one is new-ish, too; at least I don't remember it from before. I like B-1s, but not as much as B-2s. I really want to see one of those fly someday.
One of the biggest planes we saw was this B-52 Stratofortress. It is just enormous! You can get a sense of it when you see how tiny the two little girls look next to its landing gear.
C130 Hercules
This is such a funny helicopter. The Piasecki H-21, nicknamed the "Flying Banana." You can see why!
Some missile or other
Seb by a big propeller. We can't remember which plane this was a part of!
Anyway, great museum. We're so lucky to have it close by!
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