Former Soviet and East German Military Bases in the GDR – Pictures from Above

December 23, 2019July 29, 2022 CarloRLeave a comment

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At the end of WWII, the territory of conquered Germany was split in four sectors by the then-Allies – the US, Great Britain, France and the USSR. A substantial part to the north-east of the country fell in Stalin’s hands. A few years later, following a re-organization of all territories occupied by the Red Army during WWII, the Soviet part of Germany was turned into a communist-led state known as German Democratic Republic (‘GDR’, or ‘DDR’ in German language).

Especially from a military standpoint, similar to Poland, and later Hungary and Czechoslovakia, this produced a kind of cohabitation. As a matter of fact, besides clearly backing the communist dictatorship in occupied countries, the Soviets did not quit at all from newly acquired western territories. On the contrary, thanks to the position on a potential war front had the Cold War turned hot, the westernmost Soviet-controlled countries – with the GDR on top – were stuffed with Soviet military bases, and hundreds of thousands troops. These shared the map with the national military, which in the GDR were known as NVA (an acronym standing for the German equivalent of ‘National People’s Army’).

The national and Soviet forces often took control of separated military facilities, and while operating in a coordinated fashion, they were substantially different entities. As said, this was typical to many Soviet-controlled countries. Yet especially on the relatively small East German territory, of high strategic value thanks to the shared border with the West, the total number of tank bases, training academies, air bases, missile bases, nuclear depots, shooting ranges, etc., reached an unrivaled world’s peak, when compared to the population or the size of the country.

Following the crisis leading to the end of the GDR in 1989, and the collapse of the USSR roughly two years later, all these military assets turned surplus. The German reunification, and the disappearance of a significant military opponent in the close vicinity of the border, triggered a rationalization of military resources in Germany. Most of the NVA bases were closed. The Soviet-controlled installations were evacuated more slowly – it took until 1994 to bring back to their Russian homeland the thousands of troops and tonnes of material stationed in Germany. Once returned to Germany, also most of these bases were deactivated and closed.

Since then, the fate of these former military facilities in Germany has been in the hands of local governments or national initiatives. As a matter of fact, following a few decades spent as ghost bases – a real paradise for urbex explorers! – most air bases have been converted into solar power plants. Some of them have retained an airport status, either with a very reduced runway, or in some cases being turned into full-scale commercial airports. There are exceptions too, as some are still at least partly abandoned, and while invaded by vegetation, they are still totally recognizable especially from above. Other bases, like tank bases or nuclear depots, while mostly earmarked for demolition, have been comparatively better ‘preserved’ – at least, they have been attacked by the state more slowly, so there is still much to see there.

You can find on this website several reports about quite a few of these military bases in the former GDR – especially airbases – from a ‘ground perspective’. Sometimes, it is difficult to appreciate the size, shape, as well as their concentration over the former GDR territory. In order to better show these aspects, now here you have a portrait of many of these bases from the air!

The photographs in the present post are from a single, two-hours flight on a Cessna 172 single-prop aircraft. The flight took place in July 2019. As you can see from the locations pinpointed on the map below, on our route we met not less than 15 former (or still active) military items. And this is just a short trip mostly in southern Brandenburg – i.e. the region immediately south of Berlin.

This report is a complement to other chapters on this site, yet it is especially interesting on its own, as a comprehensive bundle of aerial pics on this subject is not easy to find!

Sights

Points of interest are listed following the flight plan, which was flown roughly as on the map, in a counter-clockwise direction, starting from Reinsdorf Airfield.

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Stolzenhain

This one-of-a-kind facility – there were actually two such depots, but one is today demolished and inaccessible – used to be a major storage for nuclear weapons for the Soviet Western Group of Forces, which included all Soviet troops stationed in the GDR.

The bunker is today closed, but it apparently lies on private land, hence sparing it from being turned into something else (or simply flattened) by the local government. You can see a dedicated report in this chapter.

Vegetation has grown wild in the area, but from above you can clearly spot the rectangular perimeter of the external concrete wall. From north to south, an internal road crossed the rectangle in the middle.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Depot Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The bunkers are half-interred, hence from above you can barely spot the entrances. These are aligned along a service road arranged in a hexagonal shape.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Depot Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

To the south of the bunker area, you can spot a former group of barracks and an access road heading west. Construction and demolition works are taking place in this area.

Abandoned Soviet Nuclear Bunker Depot Stolzenhain Objekt 4000 – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Control and Reporting Center Schönewalde

This is an active military installation, and actually quite an advanced one. It is tasked with monitoring the air operations over a large part of the airspace over Germany.

The origin of this half-interred technical installation can be traced to the 1970s, when the site was activated under responsibility of the NVA. Following the end of communist rule and after German reunification, unlike many others this site was not demolished, but instead it was developed further, and pressed into the defense chain of NATO since the mid-1990s.

Control and Reporting CRC Point Schönewalde NATO German Air Force Bundeswehr – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

You can see many half-interred warehouses, garages for trucks, a smaller radar antenna to the west of the complex, close to a helipad.

Control and Reporting CRC Point Schönewalde NATO German Air Force Bundeswehr – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

There is also a larger antenna to the northeastern corner of the CRC.

Control and Reporting CRC Point Schönewalde NATO German Air Force Bundeswehr – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Holzdorf Air Base

This large airport used to be an airbase of the NVA. It is one of the few airports from the Cold War in the GDR which were turned into a full-scale modern airport. Today it is a base of the Bundeswehr, i.e. the German military.

As we approached from north, you can spot first typical large communist buildings, forming a citadel which is likely still today hosting troops and their families. There is also reportedly a flight academy for helicopters in this complex, north of the airport.

Holzdorf Air Base former NVA East Germany (DDR) Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The airport features large hangars for military helicopters to the northwest of the runway.

Holzdorf Air Base former NVA East Germany (DDR) Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

A rather old-styled control tower can be seen to the south of the runway.

Holzdorf Air Base former NVA East Germany (DDR) Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Falkenberg Air Base

We reached the southernmost point on our flight with the former Soviet base in Falkenberg. This old base dating to the 1930s went on to be developed into a Soviet base home to fighter aircraft, MiG-23 and later MiG-29. Close to the airfield, there used to be a SAM missile battery (to the west of the runway).

Approaching from the north-west, you can notice a small ghost town and a large technical area, with what appear to be big unreinforced maintenance hangars, today used for something else by local companies.

Falkenberg Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The airport is today dedicated to light aviation activities. The runway has been shortened, and sadly large portions of the original airfield have been covered with solar cells.

Most interestingly, in the trees to the northwest of the runway, you can spot four unfinished aircraft shelters – possibly of the type AU-16, which could host both the MiG-23 and MiG-29. They look like short concrete tunnels. They should have been covered with land, but works were interrupted in 1990.

Falkenberg Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

More aircraft shelters – completed – can be found to the east of the field, today used for storage, as it is often the case.

Falkenberg Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Finsterwalde Air Base

This installation was operative since WWII, when the large hangars and control tower still in place to the south of the apron were built. The base went on serving as a Soviet base, hosting fighters and fighter-bombers of many kinds along its illustrious history. A visit to this site, with its nuclear depot, can be found in this chapter.

Approaching from the southwest, we flew over the nuclear storage bunker, made for nuclear warheads to supply aircraft operating from here. The columns once holding the crane to lift the warheads can be clearly spotted.

Finsterwalde Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) Nuclear Bunker – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

There is also a group of Soviet-style houses for the families of the troops. Apparently somebody is still living there!

Finsterwalde Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) Nuclear Bunker – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The base was enlarged with reinforced shelters to the north and southwest of the runway. The large hangars to the south are still in use with local companies, some of course connected with flight operations – this airport is still active for general aviation operations.

Finsterwalde Abandoned Soviet Base East Germany (DDR) Nuclear Bunker – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Enroute to the next waypoint, we flew over a natural preserve, which offered some quite spectacular sights.

Naturpark Lausitz – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Alteno-Luckwalde Air Base

This airfield north of Finsterwalde was a reserve airport of the East German NVA. While never developed to the extent of primary airfields, it was among the few reserve air bases to receive an asphalt runway.

Today, the view is rather desolating – the airfield has been totally covered with solar cells.

Alteno Fliegerhorst Luckau Abandoned NVA East Germany (DDR) Air Force Base – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Brand-Briesen Air Base

This WWII base was selected for quick and substantial improvement since the early Cold War years, and went on to be one of the most developed Soviet air bases in the former GDR. In the beginning it hosted Ilyushin Il-28 bombers, but in the jet age it was home to a number of different squadrons and aircraft types. You can find the results of the exploration of a part of this base in this chapter.

Approaching from the south, you first spot an immense hangar, conceived at the turning of the century for commercial airships, and later turned into a water park – Tropical Island.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

But more interestingly, to the south of the airfield – unusually far from it, actually – you can find a depot for nuclear weapons, to supply the aircraft operating from the base. Similar to Finsterwalde, the pillars once holding the crane for lifting the warheads can be clearly seen.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Still to the south of the airfield, the local citadel for the troops is today an interesting ghost town.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

As you may notice, the airfield is today closed, and has been largely converted into a recreation park. Incredibly, they decided to build an array of small houses on the former premises of the airport, and in close proximity to the monster airship hangar.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Yet some relics from the past function of the air base are to be found scattered around. These include aircraft shelters, and more rare engine testing facilities – V-shaped concrete walls emerging from the grass nearby some of the shelters.

Brand Abandoned Soviet Air Base Nuclear Bunker East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Kleinköris Air Base

This airbase was activated in the late 1960s as a reserve airfield for the East German NVA. It was used for exercises, and as a home base for helicopters of the Volkspolizei, i.e. the police of the GDR. After deactivation, it was used as a military storage for a while, and finally closed.

Kleinköris Löpten Abandoned NVA Air Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The appearance, perfectly evident from the air, is rather unusual – it features a long grassy runway, with concrete taxiways at the ends. To the reports from the time, this is the original configuration of the airbase. Luckily, it is basically still intact.

Kleinköris Löpten Abandoned NVA Air Base East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Wünsdorf

The name of this small town will be forever linked to the two military high commands which were headquartered on its premises – Hitler’s OKW first, and the command of the Soviet Western Group of Forces for the full span of the Cold War. You can find a dedicated chapter here.

From above, you can get a nice view of the extension and shape of this military town, as well as good portraits of some of the highlights in it. Approaching from the southeast, you first meet the most famous building in Wünsdorf, the officers’ house. This majestic building dates from the early 20th century. It knew an extensive renovation during the Cold War years, as an officers’ club for the Soviet Red Army.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

This huge building features a statue of Lenin on one side. In the wings to the back, you can find a swimming pool and a theater. The round building with a mural is a late Soviet addition, and once hosted a circular panorama painting.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The high command occupied the buildings north of the officers’ club, today converted into something else.

Another highlight of Wünsdorf are the many bunkers. These include the Maybach bunkers from Hitler’s era, once hosting the OKW. These were designed for deception as living houses, but could withstand aerial bombardment. They were blown by the Soviet, with only partial success. The Zeppelin bunkers, like cusped concrete towers, were designed to resist bombardment, by deviating air-dropped bombs falling from above along the sidewalls and down to the ground nearby.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Soviet bunkers were located very close to the array of Maybach bunkers. They are largely interred, and from above you can see some concrete tunnels in the trees.

The railway line and station is an historical track from the time. The Wünsdorf-Moscow line operated in both ways on a daily basis. The service was suspended only in 1994, at the very end of the withdrawal of the last occupation troops to Russia – for many, the symbolic end of Soviet occupation.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The buildings for those stationed in Wünsdorf and their families were really many. Today this town, having lost its original core business, is largely uninhabited.

Wünsdorf Soviet Nazi Military Headquarters Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Sperenberg Air Base

Not far from Wünsdorf, you can find the former Soviet air base of Sperenberg. This immense transport base used to be a major logistic base for the Soviets, which operated from here with their monster cargo planes. More on this base can be found in this chapter.

Approaching from the east, you first meet the buildings for the troops, to the east of the airport and close to the village.

Sperenberg Soviet Airlift Air Force Base Transport Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

An aerial view allows to clearly capture the shape of the base, with two large parallel taxiways with a huge array of parking bays for transport aircraft, and a long runway – still basically intact! – to the south.

Sperenberg Soviet Airlift Air Force Base Transport Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

A large hangar with an inscription in Russian can be found to the east, whereas a small terminal building can be spotted ahead of a large apron to the west.

Sperenberg Soviet Airlift Air Force Base Transport Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Today the airport is closed, but rumors have surfaced more than once concerning its evaluation as a third airport for Berlin. This may justify its missed conversion into another desolating field of solar cells.

Kummersdorf Military Laboratory

A bit of an outsider here, Kummersdorf holds a very relevant place in the history of war technique thanks to pre-Soviet activity. In the late 1920s the Germans established here an experimental laboratory especially dedicated to novel weapons. It can be said that western rocketry was born here, since the group of Walther Dornberger, later joined by Wernher von Braun, started operations on liquid-propelled rockets in this lab.

Activities later moved to somewhere else, and finally landed in Peenemünde – see this dedicated chapter.

The laboratory in Kummersdorf was used also during WWII to test captured material, especially enemy tanks. Following the end of WWII, the Soviets took over the facility, but turned it into a more standard military base.

Kummersdorf Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

The red barracks in typical German style can be clearly seen from above. Most of the post-WWII depots are falling apart, but the area is really huge.

Forst Zinna Military Base

This base is located to the northeast of Jüterbog-Altes Lager, a huge Imperial, Nazi and later Soviet military complex, including two shooting ranges, a few airfields, an academy and many barracks.

Forst Zinna base was operative in the years of the Third Reich, named after Adolf Hitler himself. It went on to become a large base for the artillery groups training in the nearby shooting ranges. A dedicated chapter can be found here.

Forst Zinna Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

From above, it is clear that demolition works are slowly wiping out the base. Yet there is much housing left to visit. Typical German buildings share the area with shabby Soviet ‘socialist housing’. A bridge passing over a major road and railway track going to Berlin links the base to the shooting range north of it.

Altes Lager Shooting Range and Barracks

The shooting range north of Forst Zinna is pointed with concrete control towers. The area is very extensive, and quite more convenient to explore from above!

Juterbog/Altes Lager Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Closer to Altes Lager, many barracks can be seen aligned along a major road. From the style, these appear to be from an older time than the Soviet occupation years.

Jüterbog-Altes Lager Training Academy

This pretty unique piece of architecture dates from the years of the Führer, and used to be an academy for air force technicians. It was later turned into a military academy for Soviet staff, and a KGB office was reportedly active here too. A report can be found in this chapter.

From above you can better capture the plant of the complex. The half-circle to the north hosted a big theater in the basement.

Juterbog/Altes Lager Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Most strikingly, in the western part of the complex you can see sporting facilities which have been completely refurbished, and are actually in use. These include a football field and some tennis courts. There is also a pool, but this has not been refurbished.

Jüterbog-Niedergörsdorf Air Base

This large air base was jointly operated by the NVA and Soviet air force. You can find a report in this chapter.

Approaching from the northwest you can see aircraft shelters, whereas to the northeast you find an array of large maintenance hangars. These have been turned into something else, including a test driving facility, which chopped part of the original apron.

Juterbog/Niedergörsdorf Soviet NVA Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

To the south of the runway, the base used to feature a large number of parking bays for helicopters. The runway has not been physically cut, albeit a central section of the original concrete has been taken away. Air operations today are apparently limited to ultralights and trikes.

Juterbog/Niedergörsdorf Soviet NVA Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

A menacing army of solar cells is attacking the perimeter of the base from the east! An unmissable sight next to this base (to the east) is a former aircraft shelter turned into a private collection of Soviet memorabilia – Shelter Albrecht (covered in this post).

Juterbog/Niedergörsdorf Soviet NVA Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Enroute to the next waypoint, you can clearly spot from the air a military hospital complex (see this chapter) – rather famous among urbex fanatics… – and other service buildings.

Juterbog/Altes Lager Soviet Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Jüterbog-Damm Air Base

This base dates to the years of the German Empire. It was forcibly demilitarized after WWI, but strongly developed in the years of the Third Reich, with the construction of large concrete hangars and service facilities, and a grassy airstrip good for fighter planes of the era.

Following conquer by Soviet forces, the airbase was partly dismantled, but at some point a SAM battery appeared on this site.

Today you can appreciate the size and special shape of the concrete hangars, a true engineering masterpiece from pre-WWII years.

Juterbog-Damm WWI-WWII Luftwaffe Air Force Base Abandoned East Germany (DDR) – Aerial View Picture Luftbild

Landing in Reinsdorf

Finally, you can see here a vid of the perfect approach and landing into the touristic airfield of Reinsdorf, about two hours after take-off!

Practical Notes

This flight was carried out from Reinsdorf Airfield (ICAO: EDOD), located about 10 miles southeast of Jüterbog, the most sizable town in the neighborhood. The airfield is roughly 1 hour driving south of downtown Berlin, very easy to reach with a car.

The flight would have not been possible without the help of a fantastic couple, Mrs. Kolditz and her husband, who own a nice French-built Cessna 172 from the mid-1960s, D-EBLD, portrayed here.

Cessna 172 D-EBLD Flugplatz Reinsdorf East Germany – Scenic Flight

There are some features making this very aircraft ideal for aerial pictures. Besides the high-wing configuration, this exemplar features a side window which can be completely opened, allowing for an unobstructed view of the scenery below.

The man is a former NVA pilot, something that must have played a part in him accepting to set up this very unusual flight plan! His great ability as a pilot helped much in having the aircraft in the right position to take the desired aerial pictures.

Thanks to the availability of the Kolditz family, setting up the flight was an easy task, even operating from abroad and through much Google-translation!

Another key-element in this adventure was Federico, a friend of mine sharing my passion for flying, who lives in Berlin, and played an essential part in co-financing the flight and translating between me and the pilot, as – perhaps incredibly, considering the content of this website… – I don’t speak German.

If you are interested in sightseeing flights south of Berlin, I suggest inquiring with the folks at Reinsdorf, a very active airfield with many facilities for touristic and pleasure flights. Website here.

Warbirds in Texas

December 9, 2018September 28, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

The immense state of Texas is in the foreground of the panorama of historical aviation, thanks especially to the CAF – the Commemorative Air Force (website here) – which maintains and operates some of the Nation’s finest airworthy warbirds. This privately financed, non-profit organization feeds the programs of many airshows everywhere in the US, and carries out an invaluable function in preserving the legacy of many aircraft designers, manufacturers and military servicemen especially from WWII and early Cold War years.

The birth of the CAF in Texas is not just by chance. The Lone Star State bolsters an extremely long and rich tradition in aviation. Training airfields were established in Texas earlier and in a number greater than any other State during WWI. Fort Worth was the birthplace of one of todays few surviving major airlines in the US – American Airlines – back in the early 1930s.

Aircraft manufacturers associated with Texas include Consolidated – most of the iconic WWII B-24 Liberator bombers were manufactured in Fort Worth – and North American. Consolidated later merged into Convair, owned by General Dynamics since the Fifties. Many aircraft of the Cold War era were actually manufactured in Fort Worth, including the record-breaking B-36 Peacemaker and B-58 Hustler, or the highly successful F-16 Fighting Falcon, still in service today in many air forces of the world, as well as a good deal of other types. As of today, Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopters are both headquartered in Fort Worth.

Needless to recall, Houston has been one of the major focal points of world astronautics since the beginning of the space age.

In such a cultural setting, and considering the general financial wealth and the abundance of oil typical of Texas, it is not surprising that warbirds, even though fuel-thirsty and expensive to maintain, are present here in an exceptional concentration. Where possible, they are maintained in airworthy conditions, otherwise they are kept in great consideration in world-class air museums.

This post covers only four rich collections out of the many you can find in Texas. Two of them are ‘airworthy collections’, whereas in the other two warbirds are preserved for static display. Considered together, these four sites are probably already a good reason for an aviation-themed trip to Texas!

Photographs are from an extremely hot August 2018.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Cavanaugh Fligth Museum, Addison, TX
Fort Worth Aviation Museum, Fort Worth, TX
Lone Star Flight Museum, Houston, TX
USS Lexington, Corpus Christi, TX

Cavanaugh Flight Museum, Addison, TX

This renowned collection just west of downtown Dallas is split between a big group of exceptionally well-kept and airworthy prop-driven aircraft, and a number of warbirds on static display, some of them jet-powered. Website here.

The museum occupies a few hangars on a very busy general aviation airport (Addison Airport), where executive jets, helicopters and smaller propeller-driven aircraft operate all around the clock.

The collection is hosted in four hangars and on an external apron where you can walk around freely. Not all aircraft are around here at any time, some having been flown out to some airshow, or for maintenance. In the first hangar you can find a handful of perfect airworthy replicas of WWI fighters from both sides of the front line.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Just besides are a North American B-25J-NC Mitchell, a ground strafing version of the famous medium-range bomber, and a veteran of WWII.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Mitchell

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Mitchell

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

There are also a Vultee SNV-2 Valiant, a De Havilland Tiger Moth, a Ryan PT-22, all training planes from the Forties. In a corner you can see also a Piper L-4J, the military version of the J-3 Cub, and a Stinson L-5E, similar to the former in shape and mission type.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Ryan

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Tiger Moth

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Cub

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Valiant

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Pitts

A Pitts Special aerobatic biplane is hanging from the ceiling in an inverted attitude.

The second hangar hosts a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell, an ubiquitous US military trainer from the Forties, in a distinctive light blue colorway with a yellow fin. Together with a yellow Stearman N2S-4 Kaydet biplane and a North American T-6 Texan, both good old trainers, they share the scene with a handful of stunningly preserved icons from WWII.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Texan

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Stearman

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Stearman

These include a Grumman F-4 Wildcat and a massive Grumman TBF Avenger – both in the dark blue colorway of the US Navy.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Avenger

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Wildcat

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Yak-3

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Messerschmitt

Just besides are a licensed version of the Messerschmitt Bf-109G of Nazi Germany built by Hispano Aircraft in Spain, and a nice replica of a Soviet Yakovlev Yak-3M.

Cross the apron, you can find some more great classics from the Forties. There are an immaculate Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, and two North American T-28 Trojan trainers in the colors of the Navy. In the background you can spot a sizable Heinkel He-111 twin, a licensed version manufactured by CASA in Spain.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Warhawk

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Trojan

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Heinkel 111

The last hangar shelters an aggressive Douglas A-1H Skyraider in the colors of the USAF. This version of the massive single-prop features a single seat and is especially reinforced for increased bomb load to carry on ground attack missions.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Skyraider

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Sabre

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Phantom

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Panther

This is surrounded by a series of pretty famous jet attack aircraft, including a McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II, a North American F-86 Sabre and a Grumman F-9F-2B Panther with foldable wings and the distinctive blue and red colors of the Navy.

There are also two classic fighters from WWII, a Supermarine Spitfire Mk.VIII and a North American P-51D Mustang. The latter is so polished that you can clearly see your image reflected in its skin panels!

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Mustang

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Spitfire

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Mustang

On the outside apron you can see parked three Soviet-made jets from WWII – a MiG-15 UTI and a MiG-17 in the colors of the Red Army, and a more recent MiG-21 in the colors of the North Vietnamese Air Force. Close by, a PZL Iskra trainer, once ubiquitous in the former Soviet bloc.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum MiG-15

Cavanaugh Flight Museum MiG-17

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Iskra

Cavanaugh Flight Museum MiG-17

Cavanaugh Flight Museum MiG-21

There are also a Lockheed F-104A Starfighter, a Grumman S-2F-1 Tracker patrol aircraft of the Navy with folded wings, a Republic F-105 Thunderchief awaiting restoration, and a Vought A-7 Corsair II.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Tracker

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Corsair

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Starfighter

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Thunderchief

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Corsair

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Thunderchief

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Tracker

Scattered around the museum are also a few helicopters, and even a Sherman tank.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Sherman

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

During my visit I could see two movements of aircraft taxiing out for take-off. The first was a Cessna O-2 Skymaster, a model extensively used in Vietnam for FAC missions. This has been refurbished with fake underwing rockets. You can see it in the vid below.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Skymaster

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

The second was a Douglas EA-1E Skyraider in gray Navy colors. This is the early warning version, designed for a crew of three and originally mounting a dedicated radar platform. You can watch (and hear!) the difficult startup of the huge Wright radial engine – it was around 100°F outside! – and the aircraft taxiing with folded wings. Unfolding starts only seconds before the aircraft gets out of sight.

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Skyraider

Forth Worth Aviation Museum, Fort Worth, TX

This museum hosts a little but highly valuable collection of US aircraft on static display. The museum is totally volunteer-run. These folks are doing an exceptional job preserving their aircraft. As you can see from the pictures, there are many exemplars being actively refurbished in a hangar to the back. The museum is located on the southeast corner of Fort Worth Meacham general aviation airport. Website here.

All aircraft are preserved outside, but you get access to the museum grounds through a lounge, stacked with wonderful memorabilia, technical specimens, paintings and rare pictures.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum

A showcase is devoted to the Convair B-58 Hustler, a record-setting Mach 2 bomber from the Fifties, produced in slightly more than 100 exemplars, which were all manufactured in Fort Worth. This iconic delta wing, four-engined jet was exceptional for the number of ‘firsts’. Among them, it was the first aircraft with a computerized flight control system and an integrated navigation platform. You can spot part of this analog computer, a bulky stack of black metal parts.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum

There are scale models of the Cessna O-2 Skymaster, and based on the themes of the merchandise in the museum shop there is actually a predilection for that aircraft and the Rockwell OV-10 Bronco, which had a similar mission, i.e. observation, reconnaissance and forward air controller (FAC).

Fort Worth Aviation Museum

Actually, among the first aircraft you meet outside there is a Cessna Skymaster. I was so lucky to visit on August 19th, the National Aviation Day, when the museum recruited many veterans to stay besides their respective aircraft and tell their story. I spent a little time with Doc Lambert, Nail 66, one of the pilots of FAC missions over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, who allowed me to have a long look inside his Skymaster. Among the testimonies of his war operations, he told me some anecdotes. Most FAC missions were performed with only the pilot on board, which caused a pretty high workload. Furthermore, the aircraft was not equipped to counteract any weapon shooting up from the ground. This meant that a typical flight was an uninterrupted sequence of strong turns to avoid being hit from ground fire, something that also helped in searching for grounded crews, or enemies hiding in the jungle. As a result, you had to be accustomed to such way of flying, or a strong sense of nausea would come to disturb you pretty soon. This regularly happened with visiting high-ranking USAF staff on demonstration flights…

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Skymaster

The museum owns another Skymaster, which was undergoing refurbishment in a black livery at the time of my visit, similarly to an operational USMC version of the OV-10 Bronco.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Skymaster

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Bronco

Best preserved aircraft on the front row, which are clearly visible from the public road ahead of the museum, include a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star training aircraft, and a Northrop F-5 Tiger II in a fake Soviet camouflage once used by aggressors in flight academies.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Shooting Star

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Tiger

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Shooting Star

On the same row you can spot a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, a type in service since the early Sixties, and shown here painted in the colors of the Navy. The beautifully restored Vought A-7B Corsair II nearby was deployed to Vietnam three times with VA-25 on board USS Ticonderoga and USS Ranger.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Corsair

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Skyhawk

Next is a massive Republic F-105D Thunderchief, a very nice example of this Mach 2 fighter-bomber from the early Sixties. This very aircraft was stationed in Europe, tasked with carrying tactical nuclear ordnance. The roomy bomb bay designed for the scope can be observed from inside. After more than ten years in the USAF, this aircraft went on to serve with the Air National Guard in the Seventies, and was finally disposed of in 1983.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Thunderchief

Right besides the F-105 you find a McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II in the colors of the USMC Aviation. This very aircraft is a Vietnam veteran, and it was later converted into a target drone, but luckily never used in this role. The collection features another F-4, again a Vietnam veteran.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Phantom

Cutting edge technology from the late Seventies is represented by a Grumman F-14D Tomcat. This plane is a war veteran, it flew missions during Desert Storm and over Afghanistan, and it was often used on FAC missions and for training at home. It was retired in 2007.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Tomcat

The Tomcat is sitting next to an imposing Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter. This too is a Vietnam veteran, and suffered also some damage on combat duty. The avionics of this big helicopter are totally analog. Next to it you can find a Convair TF-102 Delta Dagger interceptor built for combat and training. This very aircraft was flown by President George W. Bush.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Sea Stallion

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Delta Dagger

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Sea Stallion

Other training aircraft on display from different ages include a Vultee BT-13 Valiant single-prop, a Cessna T-37B Tweet and a Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk. The latter was used extensively for training purposes on board USS Lexington.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Skyhawk

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Tweet

Two totally authentic Navy veterans are a Vought F-8 Crusader and a McDonnell-Douglas F/A 18 Hornet. The first spent its early career on board USS Lexington and USS Ranger in multiple cruises in the Western Pacific during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, being later assigned to several Naval Air Stations along its more than 20 years long career. The Hornet was deployed operationally from the late Eighties on board USS Midway and later on USS Independence, and spent its final years in the Blue Angels – of which you see the vivid livery today – being finally retired in 2009.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Hornet

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Crusader

A special feature of this museum is the only existing mock-up of the McDonnell-Douglas/General Dynamics A-12 Avenger II. Development of this attack aircraft was carried on in the Eighties and finally canceled by the Government. The flying wing configuration and the widespread adoption of composite materials made this platform unique, but also ahead of its times. This design was penalized by subsequent mass increases which caused its cancellation, but it represented a first chance to investigate concepts and technologies later adopted for operational aircraft flying today. The mock-up used to reside in the Fort Worth plant of General Dynamics, from where it made its way to the museum.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Avenger

Other Cold War planes include a General Dynamics F-111E Aardvark, built in Fort Worth and assigned to Japan and Europe along its long operational career spanning the years 1969-90, and a Rockwell OV-10 Bronco formerly in service with the USAF.

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Bronco

Fort Worth Aviation Museum Aardvark

Fort Worth Aviation Museum

Lone Star Flight Museum, Houston, TX

This stunning museum is located on the premises of the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base. The installation is centered on a collection of mainly airworthy warbirds and classic planes.. It is really top quality, surely among the best displays of the kind in the Nation. Besides that, they offer a well-designed, recently-made, fresh presentation of the history of aviation in Texas, as well as didactic labs explaining the principles of flight through experiments and simulators. You can find their website here.

There are also meeting rooms and galleries for art exhibitions. Really a place to be for enthusiasts of ‘flying oldies’!

The collection is not huge, but it boasts a good number of notable aircraft still flying today. In the first hangar you can find many iconic designs from the Thirties and Forties. There are a North American T-6 Texan and two beautiful Stearman PT-17 Kaydet trainers.

Lone Star Flight Museum Texan

Lone Star Flight Museum Stearman Kaydet

A centerpiece of the collection is an extraordinary Republic P-47 Thunderbolt – the fastest propeller driven aircraft ever – in a majestic colorway from WWII years.

Lone Star Flight Museum Thunderbolt

At the center of the hangar, much room is taken by an airworthy example of the mighty Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Together with a few other models, this formed the backbone of the US bombing capacity during WWII. Stunningly restored, this aircraft can be booked for pleasure flights!

Lone Star Flight Museum Flying Fortress

Further aircraft on display in this hangar are a Piper L-4H, its civil counterpart, the J-3 Cub, and a similarly looking Stinson OY-1 Sentinel in military colors.

Lone Star Flight Museum Piper Cub

Lone Star Flight Museum Stinson Sentinel

Lone Star Flight Museum Piper Cub

Lone Star Flight Museum Stinson Sentinel

A true rarity is a stylish Beechcraft D-17 ‘Staggerwing’. This aircraft was conceived in the Thirties as one of the first ‘executive aircraft’, with good handling capabilities, and nice interiors to provide good comfort on board. Despite all efforts, visibility from the front windscreen is probably not very good…

Lone Star Flight Museum Staggerwing

A Grumman F-6F Hellcat, an authentic warbird from WWII, painted in the colors of the Navy, a Fairchild trainer and an ubiquitous general aviation Beechcraft Baron complete the exhibition in the first hangar.

Lone Star Flight Museum Hellcat

Lone Star Flight Museum Ryan

Lone Star Flight Museum Baron

The second hangar hosts both prop-driven and jet-driven aircraft, most of them airworthy or otherwise being restored. The most classic designs in this room are a North American B-25 Mitchell medium-range bomber, a Douglas DC-3, a Douglas SBD Dauntless and a Grumman TBM Avenger.

Interestingly, the Mitchell is the only in the world painted in the colors of the Doolittle Raiders. This very aircraft did not see action during WWII, but later being flown by the CIA on covert missions, it was involved in JFK’s failed attempt to invade Cuba, overflying the Bay of Pigs in the days of operations.

Lone Star Flight Museum Mitchell

The DC-3 flew extensively with American Airlines and later TransTexas Airways – later to be ingested by Continental, hence the livery – and is still airworthy today. Both the SBD and TBM on display are from WWII days, and are still flying today after restoration work.

Lone Star Flight Museum DC-3

While possibly disappearing in front of its illustrious colleagues in this hangar, an honest Cessna T-41 Mescalero represents here the training branch of the armed forces. This is basically the military version of the C-172, probably the aircraft manufactured in the highest numbers in history, and a platform where pilots of all sorts spend part of their training still today. The colors are very nice, and this aircraft is the cheapest you can rent for a ride at the Lone Star Flight Museum.

Lone Star Flight Museum Mescalero

Lone Star Flight Museum Dauntless

Lone Star Flight Museum Avenger

Lone Star Flight Museum Dauntless

Lone Star Flight Museum Avenger

In the same hangar you can find also (slightly) more modern aircraft. There are three jet-powered aircraft from the early Cold War period. One is a Lockheed T-33A trainer, a very successful aircraft sold in high numbers in the late Forties. More impressing is an authentic Soviet MiG-15, which spent its years in service with the Chinese Air Force and saw action in Korea, opposing the F-86A in the first jet vs. jet campaign in history.

Lone Star Flight Museum Shooting Star

Lone Star Flight Museum MiG-15

A Polish-built MiG-17 in an incredible ‘Red Banner’ celebration colorway completes the trio.

Lone Star Flight Museum MiG-17

Close to the exit you can find a beautifully restored Douglas A-1D Skyraider. This aircraft is airworthy, and is an authentic veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam war, where it reportedly sustained extensive damage but was not shot down.

Lone Star Flight Museum Skyraider

Lone Star Flight Museum Cobra

There are also a Sikorsky helicopter used for commuting to oil platforms off the coast of Texas, and a Cobra attack helicopter.

Outside, as a gate guardian on one of the access roads leading to the base, you can spot a NASA Boeing 707 used for zero-gravity flights on behalf of Johnson Space Center.

Lone Star Flight Museum

Lone Star Flight Museum Clipper Painting

Lone Star Flight Museum 707 NASA

Lone Star Flight Museum NASA 707

USS Lexington, Corpus Christi, TX

‘Lady Lex’ – as it was affectionately called by its crews along its illustrious career – is an Essex class WWII aircraft carrier, and with 40 years of active service is by far the one that enjoyed the longest service life. Since the late Sixties it operated as a training platform, where many pilots of the Navy learned how to perform a carrier landing.

Today this majestic vessel is permanently moored on the bay of Corpus Christi, where it is home to a fascinating history museum covering her long operational history. The corresponding website is here.

USS Lexington

Highlights of the visit are first of all the ship’s bridge, from where you can also profit from a vantage view of the flight deck and of the bay – and of the thunderstorms afflicting the area in mid-August, of course.

USS Lexington

Similarly interesting are the lower deck where aircraft used to be stored. This is huge, and some historic aircraft can be found here as part of a number of small exhibitions.

USS Lexington

The forward compartments recall the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and display also some artifacts from the time, including pieces of the ill-fated battleship Arizona, and a banner belonging to the older CV-2 Lexington – CV-16 being the number of this vessel in Navy inventory.

USS Lexington

An unusual topic is movies – some great scenes of ‘Pearl Harbor’ Hollywood drama starring Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin were shot on USS Lexington, including an apparently genuine take-off of a B-25 from the flight deck! Other motion pictures partly shot on board Lexington are ‘Midway’ and the series ‘War and remembrance’.

Part of the quarters of high-ranking staff can be visited, including a canteen. These were typically used only when the ship was moored.

USS Lexington

Interestingly, it is possible to walk along the side decks of the ship, where anti-aircraft guns can be found and closely inspected.

USS Lexington

Finally, the flight deck hosts a number of aircraft, representing many types in service with the Navy, most of which found their way on the modernized flight deck of this old carrier, during combat assignment or on duty as a training vessel. Being exposed to a salty atmosphere and to the intense sun of the Texan coast, these aircraft have been somewhat coated, which gives them a ‘mock-up appearance’, but this is just an impression, for these aircraft are real and on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation.

USS Lexington

The aircraft to the stern of the ship are all pretty classic, and represent types which were actually flown from USS Lexington. They include the Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk trainer, the early Cold War Grumman F9F-8T Cougar fighter jet and the loosely similar McDonnell F2H-2 Banshee. This was designed as a fighter, but it was selected to cover primarily the reconnaissance role.

USS Lexington Skyhawk

USS Lexington Banshee

USS Lexington Aircraft

USS Lexington Hornet

USS Lexington Cougar

A workhorse which saw combat in Vietnam and all down to the First Gulf War is the Grumman A-6 Intruder, a tactical bomber with good penetration and low-level attack qualities. Differently from the Grumman F-14 Tomcat nearby to the bow of the ship, the Intruder could be operated from the relatively small deck USS Lexington.

USS Lexington

USS Lexington Intruder

USS Lexington Tomcat

USS Lexington Intruder

The Vought A-7 Corsair II attack aircraft and the North American T-2C Buckeye trainer both saw action from the deck of the Lady Lex. The Douglas A-3 Skywarrior is possibly the heaviest type to be operated from Navy carriers on a regular basis, and it is here represented by a tanker version in a blue colorway. Also this type was actually operated from the Lexington.

USS Lexington Corsair

USS Lexington Buckeye

USS Lexington Corsair

USS Lexington Buckeye

USS Lexington Skywarrior

Two Great Flying Aircraft Collections of the Northeast

December 9, 2016December 24, 2018 CarloRLeave a comment

Aeronautics has a great tradition in the US, as witnessed by the many air museums and collections pointing the territory of the Country from coast to coast, with a density unrivalled in any other place of the world.

Some of these, like the museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH, the Udvar-Hazy branch of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. or the museum of the Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL, stand out for their size and the completeness of their collections, as well as for rare or unique items they preserve – not just prototypes or experimental aircraft, but also ‘last exemplars’ of once widespread species.

Among less extensive collections, all with something interesting to showcase, there are some featuring not only a static exhibition, but also shops for carrying out restoration work, and capable of maintaining a group of flying aircraft. The following photographs are from two such places I visited in Pennsylvania and upper New York state.

National Warplane Museum – Geneseo, NY

Also known as ‘1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum’, this museum is located at the end of Big Tree Lane, to the west of the little town of Geneseo, home of a campus of the State University of New York – actually the museum can be spotted from the campus. The collection there is hosted mainly in a single large hangar, located to the south of a field with a fairly long grass runway.

The collection is made up of flying aircraft and aircraft awaiting restoration to a flying condition. This makes the place unique, in the sense it is basically an active airbase for historic aircraft more than a museum.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

At the time of my visit there were two examples of great Douglas designs, a C-47 Skytrain and an A-20 Havoc. The former is a surviving WWII veteran, more recently flown back to Normandy – where it had dropped paratroopers during the operations of the D-Day – for the 70th anniversary of the disembarkment. Both are in flying or almost-flying conditions.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

Other Douglas aircraft here are an A-26 Invader and a more rare B-23 Dragon, a twin-engined bomber of the pre-war years awaiting restoration. The A-26 suffered a nose gear collapse in summer 2016.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

An interesting sight is an exemplar of North American B-25 Mitchell, in the attack – possibly ‘G’ – version with a monster 74 mm cannon in the nose compartment.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

A more unusual sight in this part of the world, an Antonov An-2, which at the time of my visit was having the engine refurbished.

Most notably, the place is the home base of a Boeing B-17, but I couldn’t see it on my visit for it was away for taking part in an airshow.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

I am not totally sure all aircraft actually belong to the local collection, as due to the quality of the shop I guess they bring in some aircraft from other places for restoration or specific maintenance.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

On the outside there are a handful of statically preserved aircraft. These include another C-47 used during WWII for the perilous flights between India across the Himalaya to continental China and the British colonies occupied by Japan, and a Fairchild C-119 Boxcar, having served in many continents in the years following WWII, and presented here in the colours of the RCAF.

National Warplane Museum Geneseo 1941 Historical Group

The site is busy with historical rides and airshows, you can find news and further info on their website.

Mid-Atlantic Air Museum – Reading, PA

This museum is located on the northern side of Reading Regional Airport, an intermediate size infrastructure with two asphalt runways for general aviation and regional commercial flights.

In the museum it is possible to find many aircraft in flying or nearly flying conditions, together with an extensive collection of planes on static display.

Among the highlights of my visit, I could see a beautiful North American B-25 Mitchell in perfect flight condition. Another interesting aircraft is a Douglas R4D, a naval version of the C-47. I came to the museum looking for this exemplar in particular, since I had seen a photo of it in my childhood on the great book by Arthur Pearcy ‘Sixty Glorious Years’, and also flew in the virtual version of it on many trips in the good old MS Flight Simulator 98… Plus I always liked the bare metal colors with minimal trim adopted by the NATS.

Mid Atlantic Air Museum

A truly unique sight of the museum is the Northrop P-61 Black Widow. As of late 2016, this aircraft is still undergoing a lengthy restoration notably to a flyable condition, which would make it the only flying P-61 in the world – of the only four surviving today.

Mid Atlantic Air Museum

Another very uncommon sight is one of the two surviving prototypes of the Custer “Channel Wing” from the early Sixties. This design was based on the idea to exploit the acceleration of the flow nearby the propellers to generate extra lift on purpose-designed, circular shaped wing sections. Unfortunately the aircraft failed to enter the market, but the idea was not just fancy, for blown flaps and accelerated aerodynamic flows are solutions not seldom used on aircraft today. A wind tunnel model of the same aircraft can be found in the entrance hall.

Mid Atlantic Air Museum

A rare aircraft in the US, you can spot a Vickers Viscount turboprop formerly of Capital Airlines, a company with its roots in the Northeast and Pennsylvania, later to merge into United. Another liner on display, a 1952 Martin 4-0-4 in the colors of Eastern.

Mid Atlantic Air Museum

A Fairchild C-119 Boxcar formerly of the Marine Corps and many other aircraft can be admired in or around the main hangar of the museum. Some very knowledgeable volunteers help with the tour and are available for questions. At the time of my visit, I could not see all the aircraft in the collection for some of them were away to take part in airshows.

Mid Atlantic Air Museum

They operate a very informative interesting website.

Appendix: Local Airshow in the Amish Country

As I was visiting the area of the Amish tradition in southern Pennsylvania, about 35 miles southwest of Reading I came across a curious airshow at the Smoketown Airport S-37.

Smoketown Airport Airshow

For sure the strangest thing flying that day – and for many days before and after – is a kind of paragliding, propelled flying-jeep. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about this curious project, but as you can see from some pictures below it really can fly.

Smoketown Airport Airshow

Flying over Moosehead Lake & Lobster Lake, Maine

October 9, 2016December 24, 2018 CarloRLeave a comment

Probably not so famous for bush-flying activity as other locations on the West Coast, especially British Columbia and Alaska, the easternmost state of the US – Maine – has still much to offer in this sense. Besides the beautiful coast going from Portland to the famous Acadia National Park and the border with New Brunswick, the central and northern part of the state are totally wild areas, with few roads and many lakes, forests, wildlife and breathtaking panoramas you can appreciate from the air.

Similarly to the Rockies in the West, the Appalachians constitute an ideal backbone of all states in the North-East of the US. Of course, being far elder than their western counterparts, the Appalachians seem less massive and their peaks are not so high, yet the almost isolated domes of the last mountains of this range in Maine make for very unusual sights.

The wild features of this land, as in other parts of the US and Canada, make it a perfect place for bush flying and related photo opportunities. Determined to explore this part of the country from the air, in a party of three we found a nice company to fly with, with a base in the nice town of Greenville, ME.

The following photographs were taken during our stay there in 2011.

Getting there

We booked with Currier’s Flying Service – website curriersflyingservice.com. The planes of this company are all beautiful floatplanes, and in summer they can be spotted resting on water in a protected cove – named ‘West Cove’ – on the western border of the town of Greenville, the largest town on the shores of Moosehead Lake.

The small nice wooden terminal of the company is clearly indicated and can be found besides the main road (West Street), just before passing a railway bridge leaving from downtown Greenville heading for N.15 and Quebec City.

Sights

We had booked in advance via phone, and we were greeted by Sue, the wife of the owner, Mr. Roger Currier, who is also the pilot. We profited of a short time waiting for Mr. Currier to have a look at his incredible mechanics shop and hangar, which looked like it had come out of a National Geographic’s documentary or a book on open range explorations!

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Shop

Besides an array of radial engines, including one with a fully assembled two-bladed propeller, we could see a hangared Cessna 195 on floats – Mr. Currier owns two of these, we flew on the other white and blue painted one -, a canoe, a historic small truck, and tons of engine parts, propellers, deer antlers, tools and cabinets. Going to the nearby pier, we could see the other aircraft belonging to the company, the Cessna 195 we were to fly on – I had expressly asked for this, due to the extreme rarity of this model on a world scale -, a modern Cessna 180 Skywagon, and a larger and nice De Havilland Beaver, a more common site in the Northwest, as Kenmore Air operates some on a regular timetable even from downtown Seattle.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Pier

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Beaver

After meeting with Mr. Currier we boarded the 195, with me in the front right seat – I am a pilot, so I’m often offered the first officer’s seat on similar occasions, just in case! This aircraft has only one yoke, which can be shifted to the left or to the right, leaving the not-in-command seat with much room. This and the fact that 195 has a high wing with no struts, similarly to the Centurion and Cardinal models, make this airplane a perfect choice for observation and photography missions. Those in the front seats enjoy a great lateral visibility, but the huge radial engine limits the view to the front, at least on water – things improve a bit in flight.

Furthermore, the two seats in the back are arranged in a saloon configuration, with much legroom and very good, unobstructed visibility to the sides – optimal for photography.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

We taxied on water to the north for a while and took off to the south, making a left U-turn over Greenville and setting course again to the north. Another seaplane hangar, larger than that of Courier, can be spotted close to the center of Greenville. It used to be the home base of another flying service company, named Folsom, once famous for operating one of the few Douglas DC-3 on floats ever manufactured. Also the hangar of Jack’s Air Services can be spotted nearby.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Pier

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Following the eastern shoreline of Moosehead Lake stationing at a 1600 ft above sea level, hence at a convenient zoom-lens distance to the ground, I could take pictures of the many coves and bays, including Sandy Bay, Lily Bay and Spencer Bay. From the photographs, it is clear that soon after leaving Greenville you really get into the wild. Looking east you can see in the distance mount Katahdin, the easternmost peak of the Appalachians.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Spencer Bay Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Approaching Spencer Bay you get a beautiful close view of the Spencer Mountains and Spencer Pond.

Spencer Pond Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Spencer Pond Mountains Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Spencer Pond Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Further north we reached Lobster Lake, again a wild area.

Lobster Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Turning west and then south we moved along the western shore of Moosehead Lake. I faced the sun in this part of the flight, and the plexiglass canopy didn’t help with the light, so the pictures are a bit blue-filtered. The most prominent feature of this second part of the flight was Mount Kineo, with the distinctive knife-cut shape, and Kineo Cove nearby.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Mount Kineo

Getting closer to Greenville we could spot some beautiful homes with direct access to the water, some with a floatplane moored nearby.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Mount Kineo

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Touching down on water is not softer than landing on a runway – this was my first time – but the aircraft stops quite more rapidly than on a runway.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Cessna

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Beaver

After landing Mr. Currier set off for another trip with two couples from Florida on the Beaver, taking off to the north.

Moosehead Lake Greenville Maine Currier Beaver

Before leaving Greenville we had a stop by the Folsom hangar and by the local general aviation airport, where we found Folsom’s famous DC-3. The plane has been converted to the usual wheeled configuration. Furthermore, it looks damaged, resting in a marked right-banked attitude.

Folsom Hangar

Greenville Douglas DC3 Folsom

The flight took about an hour, a very enjoyable experience I would surely recommend if you are visiting this part of the country!

The Aerospace Valley

June 24, 2016October 19, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

Among the most intriguing places for aviation enthusiasts, the ‘Aerospace Valley’ is the name attributed to the flat desert area extending North of the town of Palmdale, which can be reached with an about 70 miles drive north of central LA along N.14.

This large desert basin, which extends further north to Mojave, some 35 miles from Palmdale on N.14, encompasses two installations of major relevance for the history of aeronautics and for todays air power research, namely Edwards AFB and the close-related Plant 42.

The former has been developed for decades basically with aircraft testing in mind, and is located on the dry Rogers Lake. Today it is still an active AFB, home of the 412th Test Wing and other units. It is also operating a NASA research center named after the first ever moon-walker Niels Armstrong. The installation has more than ten runways, some of them paved in sand. Visiting is obviously prohibited – there used to be planned visits, but this appears to be not any more the case today. This site is really huge, and would offer many interesting sights to the enthusiast, including some relics from the past abandoned in the desert far from the main buildings of the base – some buildings and runway have moved over time for convenience and trying to cope with the natural movements of the desert sand, altering the slope and shape of the dry lake basin.

Obviously, the base is constantly guarded, so you may come close to it but you cannot really get close to what is in it without an authorization. In any case, I found exciting just being around where the sound barrier was passed by Chuck Yeager in 1947, and if you like deserts of the westernmost part of the country, touring this area would be interesting just for the natural setting – and even more if you are an aeronautic-minded person.

Plant 42 is actually not a totally separated entity from Edwards AFB. It is a unique installation, where some of the most iconic aircraft factories in the history of US military airpower – Lockheed ‘Skunk Works’ division and Northrop-Grumman – have some of their production and assembly hangars. These are all around the same airport, which is not an airbase – in the sense it’s not home to any units of the USAF – but is nonetheless owned by the Government and leased to the companies operating on it. Today Plant 42 is configured to supply and support test aircraft operated at Edwards AFB.

There is also the NASA Dryden research center installed on the premises of this airport, which is physically located on Plant 42 but is nonetheless administrated by Edwards AFB.

Even though Lockheed moved its Skunk Works division here only after the assembly of all exemplars of the SR-71 well in the Eighties, it was here that during the last decade of the Cold War the Blackbird fleet underwent maintenance. Also the reactivation of the U-2 production line with the TR-1 in the years of the Reagan administration implied production of new aircraft was carried out here.

Other most notable items produced here include the Space Shuttle orbiters – the hangar for their assembly is still standing and can be clearly spotted. Northrop produced here the world-famous F-5, before merging with Grumman. Today Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed and Boeing have active support lines here.

As you see, the area has been a focal point for aeronautics since long, fully justifying the name of ‘Aerospace Valley’.

But it’s not over. There are more sights of the kind around. Mojave has been for long a place for storing aircraft of all sorts and size – a properly sized airport, capable of operating a Boeing 747, obviously being a promptly answered necessity for companies in that business – taking advantage of the dry climate of the Californian desert. Literally tens of large liners of all sorts can be found parked waiting for reactivation, resale or scrap on the apron of Mojave airport. In more recent years, the place has grown to higher fame for being used as a base for space tourism operations. Consequently, the airport has been proudly renamed ‘Mojave Space Port’.

The following photographs from these and other sites in the Aerospace Valley have been taken during a visit in summer 2014.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Aerospace Valley – View and Hangars
Skunk Works
NASA Dryden
Blackbird Airpark
Edwards Air Force Base
Milestones of Flight Air Museum (closed)
Mojave Space Port

Aerospace Valley – View and Hangars

There is a panorama point with a placard approaching Palmdale from N.14. From there you can see Palmdale and reach beyond to Plant 42.

Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works Blackbird

Among the hangars scattered around the area of the airport in Plant 42, it is possible to see the Boeing facilities, with new Boeing liners around. One of Boeing’s hangars has an asymmetric roof. This is where all Space Shuttles were built, the higher part of the roof made to fit the tall tail of the orbiter. The name ‘Northrop-Grumman’ can be seen standing above the airside door of probably the largest hangar of all. Both Boeing and Northrop-Grumman occupy the northern part of the airport.

Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works Blackbird

The emblem of the ‘Skunk Works’ can be spotted on the Lockheed-Martin hangar to the south-west of the complex. Further East the NASA Dryden facilities occupy the south-eastern part of Plant 42.

Skunk Works

In front of the gate of Lockheed ‘Skunk Works’ on Plant 42, at the end of 15th St. E in Palmdale, it’s possible to reach a small park with an F-16A and an F-104N, both Lockheed designs. These exemplars were used for testing by NASA Dryden research center, and are actually on loan from NASA Dryden. The F-16A is the only civil registered aircraft of the type, where the F-104N, one out of three specifically designed for NASA for pilot’s proficiency and for use as chase aircraft, logged more than 4000 hours flying for NASA.

Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works Blackbird

Note: I involuntarily triggered a security inspection having ventured by car on the road running along the Lockheed hangar nearby the gate – the road is called Lockheed way. This is probably because the road is private property of Lockheed – even though it runs along the outer side of the fence. I was spotted and reached by pickups of Lockheed security – nothing bad, but better avoiding this if you can. The hangar with the Skunk Works emblem can be photographed from a little further, near the railway track to the west of the airport.

NASA Dryden

Two sights attracted my attention on the apron of Plant 42. Both could be clearly spotted from 40th St. E in Palmdale, running along the eastern side of the plant. Placidly parked on the apron where NASA Douglas DC-8 – as far as I know the only one still operated by NASA, which is using it for satellite testing, new sensor testing, space vehicle telemetry and atmospheric studies – and the massive Space Shuttle Carrier N911NA. Today the latter is on permanent display in Palmdale, the photos were taken before it was prepared for display. This is one of only two Boeing 747 converted for transporting the orbiter, the other (N905NA) being in Houston.

Dryden Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works Blackbird

The DC-8 is being operated by NASA Armstrong research center, from the ‘neighbor’ airbase of Edwards, but I found it at NASA Dryden.

Note: photographs of what is on the apron of Plant 42 from the distance are virtually impossible during the day due to excessive thermal turbulence close to the ground. Consider going near sunset for avoiding such annoying effect.

Blackbird Airpark

This spectacular exhibition can be easily reached driving on E Ave. P, to the South of Plant 42, Palmdale (website here). It can be clearly spotted from the road. The most peculiar display is to the front of the small museum building, and is composed of three Lockheed ‘black’ aircraft, namely an A-12, an SR-71 and a U-2. Also there are a D-21, a ramjet propelled drone mounted on a modified A-12, the engines of both the A-12 and SR-71 and of the U-2, and two different spooling mechanisms for starting up the engines of the A-12 and SR-71.

This is the only place on Earth where an A-12 and a SR-71 can be spotted together.

Blackbird Airpark Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works

Close to the door of the museum building there are models of the A-12, probably built for wind tunnel testing. Inside the building, first and foremost you can find some air conditioning… there are also artifacts, videos and a nice shop with books and items about Plant 42 and the three ‘black’ aircraft outside. I personally met Bill Flanagan, who collaborates in managing the airpark on a regular basis, and is a former RSO on the SR-71 – he was very nice and told me many interesting stories about the aircraft outside on the apron. Some of the vids you can see there (they are also selling a DVD) were shot by Mr. Flanagan on duty.

Blackbird Airpark Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works

Many other aircraft can be found on the Joe Davis Heritage Airpark, accessible to the back of the small museum building.

Joe Davis Blackbird Airpark Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works

Edwards AFB

I tried to approach the area from the south (Redman and 120 St. E), knowing some relics can be spotted in the desert in the area. Unfortunately, turn back signs begin to appear much earlier than reaching the real gate of the base. I didn’t risk going further, so unfortunately I couldn’t take good pictures of the base. You can appreciate the size of the installation from the zoomed photos below.

Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works

Milestones of Flight Air Museum

This place is located in Lancaster, on the eastern side of William J. Fox Airport, close to the station of the National Guard.

Again, a very short visit – the place was closed, contrary to the opening times I had found on the web. To be honest, it looked like the museum was not actively maintained any more. Nonetheless, there were some interesting items outside the museum hangar.

Milestones of Flight Lancaster Aerospace Valley Plant 42 Edwards NASA Lockheed Skunk Works

The white civilian B-25 was reportedly owned by Howard Hughes. The wings have been removed, but strangely enough the tires are inflated.

Mojave Space Port

It’s not hard to spot this huge airport, to the north-east of the small town of Mojave. Access to the terminal is along Sabovich St. At the end of it you have a good and convenient spotting place close to a low fence.

Mojave Space Port Aerospace Valley

When I visited, aircraft on the apron of the airport included at least three Boeing 747, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 and various DC-9, possibly a Boeing 720, and various other exemplars.

Mojave Space Port Aerospace Valley

There are several companies operating on the airport, including parts resellers, aircraft resellers and industries connected with space flight.

Among the rare aircraft I saw around, a Lockheed TriStar operated by Orbital, a Sweden-made SAAB Draken, and an Italian Aermacchi MB326.

Mojave Space Port Aerospace Valley

Leaving the area of the space port to the south, I spotted a Douglas DC-8 used as a gate guardian.

Note: expect mild security checks when spotting in the area. I was reached by car and briefly interviewed by a lady of the security service, who had noticed I was taking pictures from close to the airport fence. I explained I was just taking pictures, she said goodbye and left without further troubles.

Soviet Ghosts in Germany

Sights

Soviet Nuclear Bunker Stolzenhain

Control and Reporting Center Schönewalde

Holzdorf Air Base

Falkenberg Air Base

Finsterwalde Air Base

Alteno-Luckwalde Air Base

Brand-Briesen Air Base

Kleinköris Air Base

Wünsdorf

Sperenberg Air Base

Kummersdorf Military Laboratory

Forst Zinna Military Base

Altes Lager Shooting Range and Barracks

Jüterbog-Altes Lager Training Academy

Jüterbog-Niedergörsdorf Air Base

Jüterbog-Damm Air Base

Landing in Reinsdorf

Practical Notes

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Cavanaugh Flight Museum, Addison, TX

Forth Worth Aviation Museum, Fort Worth, TX

Lone Star Flight Museum, Houston, TX

USS Lexington, Corpus Christi, TX

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National Warplane Museum – Geneseo, NY

Mid-Atlantic Air Museum – Reading, PA

Appendix: Local Airshow in the Amish Country

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Getting there

Sights

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Aerospace Valley – View and Hangars

Skunk Works

NASA Dryden

Blackbird Airpark

Edwards AFB

Milestones of Flight Air Museum

Mojave Space Port

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