Pima Air Museum in Tucson Arizona - My Favorite Air Musuem

This was a really neat little ultralight you could climb in and control

The is the SR-71 Blackbird - the fastest spy plane in the world - capable of 2000 MPH. It once flew from Los Angeles to Washington DC in 90 minutes

Harry always wanted to fly in a little Mercury capsule - around the world

Lulu is going to Germany in June - but not in this German plane

This is a Russian Mig - 19 - I think a commie pilot stole it and flew it to Japan

This is what the Blue Angels looked like in 1957 when I first saw them at Willow Grove PA

This 10-engine B-36 was the second plane to carry an atomic bomb. It had 6 backward propellers and 4 forward jets

This pregnant guppy was used to carry NASA rockets to Cape Canaveral in the 60s

This plane was used to John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to campaign in 1960

This is the world's smallest flying people carrying plane. Wing is 6 feet wide total

Because of its desert climate - Tucson is the place where US warplanes go to die. Thousand are stored on the desert in mothballs - others are cut up and melted down.

Pima Air Museum is a non profit company run by a bunch of ex-military pilots. When the plane are being cut up in the boneyard at David-Monthan Air Base - they save one of each for the museum. they have over 300 different aircraft there - most of them in outstanding condition.

When Nancy worked at the University of Arizona in 1992 and 1993 - we used to be members of this museum. It cost $15 per visit per person. For $45 you got a yearly pass that allowed you to bring guests along to see the planes. The boys and I used to hang out there in the 100 degree desert air - and read about the planes. Since the humidity was below 10% - it was a really neat place to be. Sometimes we had the 300 planes to ourselves.

Last week Lulu and I visited the museum. It was a bittersweet place - enjoying the plane but wishing for the times when our little family would go there to spend time together.

Most of the planes were outside - but a few of the most historic ones were in air conditioned pole buildings.