Posted on 08/04/2008 9:34:22 AM PDT by llevrok
PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Florida (AP) -- Ed Ellis steps across the National Naval Aviation Museum into the aircraft that was Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Chester Nimitz's flying headquarters during World War II.
"If this plane could talk," said the 67-year-old retired Navy captain, longing to hear the conversations that happened aboard the vintage PB2Y Coronado. "Nearly every Navy admiral in the Pacific was in here."
The Coronado -- the first U.S. plane to land in Tokyo after the war -- is the latest restoration project undertaken by the museum's mostly volunteer staff of hundreds of military retirees.
Located at Pensacola Naval Air Station, the museum has:
-- A seven-story atrium that features four Blue Angels jets hanging from the ceiling.
An example of the typical state of an aircraft received by the National Museum of Naval Aviation before restoration is shown on July 16, 2008 in Pensacola, Fla. (AP)-- An Imax theater that shows a film about the acrobatic flyers.
-- A flight simulator that depicts a jet fighter swooping into battle during the first Iraq war.
-- And a cafe that's a recreation of the officer's club at Cubi Point in the Philippines.
But the backbone of the museum, which opened in 1963 and has been expanded three times, is its restored planes. The museum has the Navy's S-3B Viking that President George W. Bush flew when he landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and made his "Mission Accomplished" speech about the Iraq war. The first President George H.W. Bush is also recognized at the museum -- a trainer he flew as a 19-year-old World War II flight student hangs inside.
The volunteers often draw on their own military experience to make the restorations authentic, and the thousands of hours in labor donated each year have made the volunteer program a model for other museums.
Former Navy pilot Mort Eckhouse, 79, has logged thousands of volunteer hours over nearly 20 years working in the restoration area's machine shop. The retired commander meticulously recreates rusted and broken aircraft parts on donated 1950s-era milling machines.
Mort Eckhouse, a volunteer at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla. works on fabricating a flap hinge for a PB2Y Coronado being restored by the museum on July 16, 2008. Adm. (AP)His work is tested whenever a pilot or crew member of a restored aircraft sees the finished product in the museum.
"It's a wonderful moment when they guy who actually flew the plane comes and checks it out," he said while working on a part used to attach the Coronado's vertical stabilizer. "We try to restore them as close to the factory specs as we can."
Volunteer Jeff Peyronnin, 62, has spent the last two years working on the Coronado's tail section. He and the other volunteers like to joke that it will take another 10 years before the restoration is complete. The museum estimates at least another three years to completion.
"Every time you mess with it you feel like you are touching history," said Peyronnin, who served in the Coast Guard. "I like to picture this old lady at Tokyo Bay."
Bob Matlock, 69, served as an aircraft mechanic in Vietnam. Nowadays Matlock is using his skills replacing some 10,000 rivets in the Coronado's tail section.
He winces when he thinks about the thousands of museum visitors that will climb the stairs of the restored plane and peak inside one day, scratching the paint and shaking loose some of the bolts and rivets.
A row of machine gun cases await final assembly on a PB2Y Coronado that is being restored at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla. (AP)Many of Les Schnyder's restoration projects are already on display inside the museum. The 82-year-old World War II veteran has logged more than 18,000 hours as a volunteer. His niche is restoring the blimp-like air ships that escorted convoys in World War II. Schnyder, a former Navy man, worked as a civilian contractor maintaining air ships at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.
Some of the planes were brought back to life after being pulled from the water years later. Ellis' favorite museum aircraft is an early World War II-era Brewster Buccaneer that was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. It later flew in the Battle of Midway and then became a training aircraft for pilots practicing carrier landings in Lake Michigan, where it sank following a crash. It was salvaged from the lake's depths after six decades.
Wally Farrand retired after 22 years in the Navy and now restores the museum's vintage aircraft engines, including the Brewster's. As he painstakingly went over parts from the Coronado's engine with a cleaning solvent and cloth, he joked that his best work is never seen by museum visitors because it is covered inside the aircraft.
"But everything I do here, I just love it," he said.
Very slow loading, but here’s a pic of Nimitz landing in Tokyo in the Coronado mentioned above. 29 August 1945
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h96000/h96809.jpg
I toured this museum...it was well worth the time and effort.
Do you know of a link that would list the planes in the museum?
Yes, it would and did often land in open water, as long as the water was fairly calm. One of it’s roles was to locate and rescue pilots shot down at sea.
The museum's example of the SB2A Buccaneer is actually an Army Air Forces version of the aircraft, which designated the A-34, that was delivered during World War II and operated from William Northern Field near Tullahoma, Tennessee. Either after a mishap or because of the fact that the A-34 was not the most popular or capable of trainers, the aircraft was at some point in its service pushed off the runway at that airfield into a nearby swamp. There, during the mid-1970s, collector Dave Talluchet found it and another A-34, bullet holes visible in the metal not the result of combat as is normally the case on aircraft wrecks, but rather from the rifles of hunters, who after the war found the swamp to be a fruitful spot for game.
An excellent museum to visit. Our family always made a point to go see it everytime we went on vacation at Gulf Shores. Always made a point to go early Wednesday morning in time to watch the Blue Angels go through a full practice. After watching that awesome display, everyone gets to meet them shake their hand and get their autograph. A memory your kids won’t soon forget. And there’s no admission price.
Thanks for posting.
If I ever get the Florida panhandle, I’ve got to go to that museum.
Here’s links to some images on the PBY series:
PB2Y Coronado in flight
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/PB2Y_Coronado_in_flight.jpg
Photo of PB2Y-5 in flight
http://www.stinsonflyer.com/consolac/pb2y-5.jpg
Line drawing of PB2Y Coronado
http://www.aviastar.org/pictures/usa/cons_coronado.gif
I haven’t been there in 30 years but judging from that photo it looks just as I remembered it.
ping
I was just there last week. Quite a fascinating place.
Glad to help. He might want to confirm with the museum that it's still on Wednesday mornings starting promptly at 8am. Will want to get there early because of the traffic volume and passing through the checkpoint. It will be well worth the effort. I hope they enjoy it.
Did you happen to go the day the Blue Angels practice?
Is it still on Wednesday?
–Aug. 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26 and 27 with an autograph sessions on the Aug. 20 and 27.
–Sept. 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17 and 23, with an autograph sessions on Sept. 3, 10 and 17;
–Oct. 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29, with an autograph sessions on Oct. 15, 22 and 29.
–Nov. 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, with autograph sessions on Nov. 5.
I missed it, I went on Thursday. :^(
VOA: See post #14 for Blue Angel dates.
I was there in earlier this year. Awesome place. The volunteers were fantastic.
The replacement of Aviation Officer Candidate School at NAS Pensacola with a kinder, gentler generic OCS at Newport put a real damper on naval aviation as far as I’m concerned.
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