17:12: VFA 151's plaque with a silhouette of the USS REEVES, who one of their pilot's bombed on October 20, 1989. We gave the pilot a "door" prize later, the watertight door he blew off the hinges...
My wife’s and I favorite museum. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been there. The amazing thing is that every time I go, they have managed to squeeze something new in.
I have visited this museum about 7 times, most recently last October. It just keeps getting better. The second floor is worth a visit. That helicopter with the Nixon dummy is the actual helicopter he departed the White House on after resigning. The plane with GW Bush's name on it is the one he landed in on the carrier for the infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech.
Thank you Nicolas for the update tour! I received my Naval Officer Commission there in 1988 after AOCS. It sure has grown since then. I will definitely have to go back for a refresher. USN 1987-2008.
I've been to many aviation museums across the US, from Pima to the National Museum of the US Air Force to the Smithsonian and many smaller museums in between. But Pensacola holds the top spot. It has the best mix of rare aircraft, historically significant planes, and access to the history of any museum I've visited. I need to go back.
Dude, you walked right by the SBD Dauntless , she's a Veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack and the Battle of Midway!, the AVG (Flying Tiger) P40 is displayed to honor those Naval Aviators (like Greg Boyington USMC) who joined Colonel Claire Chennault's American Volunteer Group (AVG), and the B25 was there as a Doolittle Raider (you know Thirty Seconds over Tokyo), other-wise Great Vlog!. Scott :-)
USN also flew B-25's as PBJ-1. Only correlation I am aware of with Me-262 is they were shipped to US on a Carrier. Cabot was a CVE and I was still shocked at how small Island was. Turtle was a P2V Neptune.
Anlushac11: that's Correct the US Navy and the USMC had and Flew PBJ-1's during WW II, but, the B25 in the Vlog was Painted and Dressed as a B25C Dootlittle Raider, this year was the 75th, Ann of the Raid after all, and the Me262 is the Only Two - Seat that was kept by the USN after Testing Post WW II.
Wow as a pilot I love the accessibility to the acft. Crewing on a B25 I've grown with aviation as a family that ran an airport for over 47 years. You can get near and dear to these acft. Thanks Nick.
This is one of my favorite aviation museums. Not only does it have an tremendous collection of aircraft that you can actually walk up and touch but it also has a full service bar and restaurant with the decorations from the Cubi Point Officers Club. Thanks for the video.
I volunteered there every weekend when I was stationed at NATTC Pensacola "A" school with the Navy. Would have lost my mind if I had seen the cheiftan there.
Nice vid. To chime in on stabilisation, a stabiliser can give you very smooth, sharp images even from a phone. And if it's for a phone, it's very small and portable. Might be worth it if you're going to do many more of these.
A very large museum. I will have to visit sometime. I have been all over that area but never stopped there for some reason. Haha, I JUST watched an episode of MASH, came back to finish the video, and perfect timing on the helicopter.
Mr. Moran is correct, this is a top tier museum. I have never been to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, it would certainly have more to offer. I've been to this museum maybe 10 times. I took both of my grandsons. They were a little young to appreciate most of it. Here are a few suggestions. First, eat a good breakfast. Second, DO NOT take your wife, if she is not an aviation history enthusiast. Third, go early. Start NLT than 10 AM. Fourth, bring an extra battery for your phone. Fifth, you can buy everything in the store, on line. Shop before or after. Sixth, there is now a second building with even MORE displays. There is only one thing I know that would improve the tour. Anyone that has ever worked in military aviation remembers the smell of hydraulic fluid. It's not a bad smell, but, it is always present. If they could safely contain a small amount of hydraulic fluid and have small fan blow it about, you could close your eyes and go back to "that" hanger or hanger deck. If you've read anything about military aviation, you'll want read more after a visit. One book I would recommend, it's on Audible, is "Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August-October 1942 By: Jeffrey R. Cox Narrated by: Joe Barrett". I have never read(heard) a more thoroughly researched book.
When I was stationed at nearby NTTC CORRY STATION, I spent a lot of time at the Naval Aviation Museum. A Tomcat had just placed on permanent public display the first time I went. It was the only one on permanent public display at the time. Every year the Tomcat Squadrons held a competition to raise money for charity, the squadron that raised the most would have their markings painted on the museum's Tomcat. I have been to the Air Force's Museum as well, Navy's is brighter and more "hands on" as well. I haven't been there since the expansion in the 1990s. Great video, thank you!
That B-25 outside was an exhibit about the Doolittle raid on Tokyo, which took off from the USS Hornet. and I believe the Curtis P-40 had something to do with transporting and flying them off to Pacific islands in WW2. Later the Marines used Grumman aircraft; they were tough enough for carriers and thus perfect for landing on rough airfields. My visit there in the 1988 was cut short because our wives were bored! My buddy had been in the Coast guard and he kept looking for CG planes and had to settle for the PBY.
The SBD that he showed was recovered from Lake Michigan. It is the only plane that exist that was at both the attack of Pearl harbor, and the battle of Midway. Rare very aircraft.
FYI, the 'Turtle' was a successful attempt by the Navy to set a new, and very high, record for nonstop un-refueled flight. Perth, Australia to Columbus, Ohio nonstop. The aircraft that broke that record was a B-52,....15-20 yrs. later.
This brings back memories. I visited this museum many times with my father, who was a naval aviator for 22 years. I find the Chieftain's reference at 4:05 rather amusing "the upstairs is mainly children's education". Also upstairs is the Cubi point cafe, a recreation of the infamous Cubi Point officers club originally in the Phillipines (and featured in the movie Top Gun), which was my father's favorite part of the museum.
Maj Moran, have you been to the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio? If not, I think that you would find that the size and scope of that museum will completely blow your mind. It is the oldest and largest military aviation museum in the world. Easily 2-3x the size of the Naval Aviation Museum. An entire B-36 is in one of the buildings (a huge hangar), and to give you an idea of the size of just that building, it also is home to a B-2 spirit, B-47, B-58, AC-130, SR-71, a B-50, and a Martin RB-57. Those are just some of the larger planes out of the 61 in that building. There are 4 buildings about that size, with two additional buildings, the atrium and the Missile Gallery. Just an absolutely huge, incredibly well presented and laid out aviation museum. Here is the url : www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
This place is great. Been lucky enough to visit in the flesh. got to talk to an AD-1 skyraider pilot and a german test pilot. great place and free too!
The F-14 Tomcat you showed is the F-14 that flew the last combat mission. They also have a Tomcat on loan to another museum that was the very last F-14 to launch from a carrier. As well as the sole surviving Tomcat prototype thats on the metal pedestal just outside the front doors. Another fun fact, one of the four Blue Angel painted A4 Skyhawks you showed was actually used in filming the movie Top Gun.
Yes the US Navy had OV-10 Broncos. They were flown by the Marines. Interestingly we had a squadron of OV-10 Broncos that went aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) when my squadron VFA-87 was deploying to the first Gulf War. We made room for them by leaving our S-3 Vikings behind. When we reached the eastern Med, we lined the Broncos on the fantail, run up the engines and launched them Jimmy Doolittle raid on Tokyo style to the beach. They then went overland to provide forward recon target spotting for the Marines.
Yep, I worked in support of them, Harriers and helicopters as well. We lost one to ground fire when the pilot got a little too aggressive with his 4 M60's. He and the backseater were captured.
P40 a few members of the Flying Tigers were Naval Aviators including Pappy Boyington, and the B-25 is from the Doolittle Raid. Ov-10 was the USMC which are Naval Aviators, and there is also Coast Guard Aircraft, which are also considered Naval aviators, and get their primary flight training at Pensacola.
Marine Aviators are type classified as Naval Aviators, by themselves as they wear the wings of gold and are part of the Naval Department. Marines got through the same Primary Flight Training, and in fact Naval Carrier Air Wings usually have a Marine Squadron with it. But I knew Boyington was a Marine...with you look at his squadron VMF-214 that is a Naval Designation, Heavier Than Air, Marine fighter Squadron 214, where the navy version doesn't have the M in the designation.
3:24 So, that's what Trump was referring to when he said "Covfefe"! Thanks for finally solving this tremendous, bigly mystery Chieftan! ;) Seriously though, great video, thanks for uploading this rapid tour! Keep up the awesome work! :D
It's corrugated aluminum From everyone's favorite argument mill: "The Ford Trimotor using all-metal construction was not a revolutionary concept, but it was certainly more advanced than the standard construction techniques of the 1920s. The aircraft resembled the Fokker F.VII Trimotor (except for being all-metal which Henry Ford claimed made it "the safest airliner around").[3] Its fuselage and wings followed a design pioneered by Junkers[4] during World War I with the Junkers J.I and used postwar in a series of airliners starting with the Junkers F.13 low-wing monoplane of 1920 of which a number were exported to the US, the Junkers K 16 high-wing airliner of 1921, and the Junkers G 24 trimotor of 1924. All of these were constructed of aluminum alloy, which was corrugated for added stiffness, although the resulting drag reduced its overall performance.[5] So similar were the designs that Junkers sued and won when Ford attempted to export an aircraft to Europe.[6] In 1930, Ford countersued in Prague, and despite the possibility of anti-German sentiment, was decisively defeated a second time, with the court finding that Ford had infringed upon Junkers' patents.[6] "
The Cutlass was mostly considered "bad" due to its underpowered engines, and, (due to its swept wings), needing a higher landing speed with a taller nose gear to allow the wing to "grab air". The pilots had trouble seeing the ship's deck when landing until Vought added a seat that could raise up higher when landing.
Some people are surprised when they see the small Coast Guard section in the Naval Aviation Museum. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the Coast Guard attends the Navy’s flight school and wear the same naval aviator wings of gold as the Navy’s fixed wing or rotary wing pilots.
The only legitimate reason to go to Pensacola. Also they were utilizing UAV's in Vietnam! Which I just learned relatively recently and instantly felt just a little more world-wary having learned it.
I used to work on those early AV8As. '74 -'77. I was an Avionics/Aircraft elec tech. Would have loved a shot of the tail. I could have known what squadron it represented. Possibly even recognized a BuNo, and wondered if it was one I worked on.
And that blimp gondola looks suspiciously like the most successful airship of all time: The K-class. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-class_blimp The USN used them for ASW work along the coasts and convoy lanes.
I visited in '93, and I remember they had cookie sheets under all the round engines (radials) to catch the leaking oil. Perhaps they WERE ready for flight!
The NC4 is the 1 that survived the flight, the Navy did have its own version of the B25, and recall that the Doolittle raid took off from Hornet CV8 The P40 is probably related to Boyington, who was a Flying Tiger before going back to the Marines
The AVF , the American force in China famous for the shark mouthed P-40, was primarily staffed by Marine and Navy pilots and I imagine that is the P-40 connection,
TheChieftainWoT, I wish you could of done this back in 2012 when i was stationed at NAS Pensacola. Its a good museum and well worth a look at. While your down there check out an Irish pub and restaurant called McGuire's.
It is a treasure. Like to learn something you didn't know. Do some reading on the PBY4 Privateer and the number of aircraft it shot down. Close relative of the Liberator.
How are you enjoying florida? The National Naval Aviation museum is one of my favorites, along with the D-Day museum in New Orleans. Did you get to watch the Blue Angels?
Heck in the Army Museum in Toledo, Spain, they gave me hell for touching a freaking T-26 tank! But in Pensacola you can touch most things! Great place! (Also, being spanish, I have to brag about the fact that Pensacola was captured by the spanish navy during the american revolution)
Carlos I Well, Florida was originally colonized by Spain. Pensacola in fact, is the oldest known colony in the US. The original settlement, dating back to the 16th century and founded by Tistian de Luna, was actually wiped out by a hurricane and was rebuilt later after St. Augustine.
The Turtle is a Lockheed P2V-1Neptune that set the record for longest unrefueled flight in 1946. It took of from Perth, Australia and landed in Columbus, OH after flying 11,236 miles. A B-52 flew farther unrefueled in 1962, and the Turtle still held the record for a piston engines aircraft until the Voyager round the world flight in 1986.
Thanks for the Vid. Unfortunately now it is hard for non DOD card holders to get access. I went years ago and say two things that really impressed me 1) The Contract for the purchase of the Lexington signed by Ernest King ( Know who he was ?) and George Bush Sr report card from flight school.
I believe that during the tests of the Me262 was there were Naval Aviators that tested it with the USAAF/USAF and when they were done with the tests they requested one for history sake and got the only surviving two seater.
It was based on memory from seven years plus ago from what they said on the plate. It might be the only Two seat Me262 in the US. Sorry for the detail error.
the Alabama and this place have dealt with dozens of hurricanes and at worst there is a few broken windows. Alabama is a massive steel warship it more than hurricane to damage it and the aviation museum is built to take well above a cat 5 hurricane.
Jason Irwin actually at the Alabama hurrican Katrina flooded the hanger they have damaging some aircraft inside quite heavily while the Bama has sustained slight lists along with flooding through the years due to hurricanes which after they built the enclosure surrounding it also sustained a list while on its supports from Katrina. the Drum (submarine next to the Bama) has sustained damage while it was still kept in the water and I think it has also sustained damage since they moved it on land although im not sure on that. The hanger in particular had some aircraft that were pretty mangled which could very well happen in Pensacola which did received slight damage in the early 2000s though very minor if I recall correctly.. I grew up in mobile and practically lived aboard that ship to the annoyance of my parents but the point is nothing is safe from nature
What’s funny was he recorded this video a day after I left the museum I went there for vacation on September 5th I went to the museum on the 6th and left the state to go home the day he recorded XD damn it I missed my chance to say hi but this museum is my child hood and I love to go to Florida whenever I can just to go to this museum
