AVIATION MUSEUMS IN ARIZONA

AVIATION MUSEUMS

Being a pilot I love going to aviation museums. We are fortunate in Arizona to have 3 wonderful museums. 

Yesterday I had the chance to fly up to Valle, AZ (40G) with my friend Roger Whittier aboard. The weather at 40G, 6000 feet, in the morning called for shirtsleeves even though I had a sweater and flight jacket along with me. It was a beautiful sunny day in AZ.

The museum in Valle came about from the overflow at Chino Airport Museum in CA. Chino needed a place to show excess aircraft and chose Valley Grand Canyon airport for this task. 40G is just 40 miles south of the Grand Canyon, and when the Grand Canyon Airport (GCN) is extremely busy in the summer, 40G runs Canyon tours to make up for the over crowding of GCN.

Most of the planes at Valle are in flyable condition, unfortunately one that was not is the Steerman that had a cracked spar. This plane along with several others at Chino and Valle have been used in Movies and TV shows.

The highlight plane at Valle is the Constellation (Connie) that was used by General MacArthur. The staff at Valle opened up the Connie for us and it was a great tour. Engines start consume 40 gallons of fuel.

Pictured here is the famous Connie tail. Connie’s have a reputation, like the V Tail Bonanza, of waggle in the tail area so MacArthur always sat up front in the plane.

Flight engineers panel on the Connie

Connie flight deck

Another plane of interest, which was in another hangar, is the Ford Tri Motor. It is still flying, and due to the weight of the plane, takes a type rating to fly it. You can train in this plane and receive a Tri Motor rating at Valle.

There were several historical display cases which included personal uniforms, log books and historical data on several individuals from WWII, Korea and Viet Nam.

In the lobby of the terminal building are several vintage cars. 40G is one of the friendliest airports I have flown into and worth the trip.

There is a small museum in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, that contains the Commemorative Airforce planes of WWII. My favorite airplane there is the B17.

There are docents at the museum to give you a complete history on all the airplanes that are in the hangar and outside.

The largest museum in AZ is located in Tucson, The Pima Air and Space museum. There are several large hangars and in addition several planes are located outside.

The SR 71 is one of my favorite all time airplanes.

The F4U means a lot to me as my Father In Law flew this plane in Korea. Also in his squadron were 2 famous baseball players, Ted Williams and Jerry Coleman.

In addition to the Pima museum, a short private bus ride away is the boneyard at Davis Monthan Air Force Base. A docent will be on your bus to give you a complete history of the planes on Aviation Row. Almost every military plane is there from WWII through Viet Nam. This includes B52’s, A10’s and F4’s. There are not many F4’s left as the airforce rebuilds them as drones for target practice. They fly about 4 missions before they are shot down for practice.

B52'S at the boneyard

So if you are vacationing in AZ and are interested in Aviation we have plenty of museums to keep you busy.