Naval Air Museum, Pensacola, FL

Last night’s much anticipated Packer game turned out to be a bust for us and the Packers.  We did meet one fellow from Oshkosh WI, but other than that the crowd was playing trivia and listening to very loud music and the Packer game was pretty much a non-event in Pensacola.  Go figure.?..

Pensacola, however, is a very nice town.  They are doing a lot of downtown revitalization, lots of nice restaurants, a new AAA baseball stadium and ten years ago they removed the sewage treatment plant from a site next to the downtown – a great first step for redevelopment.  This beautiful marina is part of that re-development effort.

Fantastic displays and information

Today we went out to the Naval Aviation Museum – a cab ride was necessary – but it was well worth the trip.  We spent almost the whole day there and took a guided tour. That way we heard all the interesting history and engineering stories as well as viewing hundreds of different American aircraft.  One memorable thing we learned; the original WWI aircraft, the Sopwith Camel (yes, the Snoopy plane) came equipped with guns mounted such that the gunfire would hit the propeller on every revolution of the prop.  This had to be addressed, and an “interrupter” was devised so that the gunfire stopped as the prop spun by the guns – thus the broken “rat-a-tat-tat” sound you hear in WWI movies with air battles.  

Blue Angles Display

We also enjoyed an IMAX movie about flight, featuring the Blue Angels, the Navy acrobatics and air show squadron.  The expertise and skill required was amazing.  It does serve to showcase the Navy, and is a great PR tool as well as fascinating entertainment.

There was a lot more, but you only get so much education with each blog.  The entire museum is built on donations and it is Huge, 350,000 sq.ft with 150 refurbished or restored aircraft.  We actually enjoyed it more than the Huntsville Alabama Air and Space museum a few weeks ago. 

Wow!

Future Loopers:  We highly recommend Palafox Pier and Pensacola for a stop over.

History from the first plane purchased by the Navy