Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum - DVHAA

02/06/2020

The museums restoration crew is hard at work even in the cold!! Some new progress on the P-3!! Getting ready to roll her out soon.. You can volunteer to help! Check out the museum website for details. www.wingsoffreedommuseum.org

02/03/2020

Hello WOF followers... Some new progress on the F-4!! You can volunteer to help! Check out the museum website for details. www.wingsoffreedommuseum.org

02/03/2020

Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum - DVHAA's cover photo

01/21/2020

Hello WOF followers... Here are a few pictures of the P-3 getting closer to "rolling" to completion. Working hard is our museum restoration crew. You can volunteer to help! Check out the museum website for details. www.wingsoffreedommuseum.org

01/18/2020

Museum will be closed today 01/18/2020, due to the weather. We will re-open tomorrow at 10:30 AM.

12/30/2019

Hello FB world.. Happy Holidays!!
Here are a few F-4 pics of the restoration by the museum restoration crew. You can volunteer to help! Check out the museum website for details. www.wingsoffreedommuseum.org

12/10/2019

Hey everyone here are a few pics of the Orion P-3 in restoration by the museum restoration crew. You can volunteer to help! Check out the museum website for details. www.wingsoffreedommuseum.org

11/06/2019

ROMANTICALLY FLYING THE OCEANS IN THE LATE 1930s

If you are enraptured by the splendid era of Flying Boats then this great article is a "must read" ... click on the link below!

A well-written history and interior photographs of Pan American World Airways Flying Boats

Thanks again to our aviation history and news scout, Virg Hemphill, we can share this fascinating step back into airline history, into the pre-WWII era of the 1930’s. The age in which we sai…

11/06/2019

6 November 1935 - This Day in Aviation

A legend takes to the sky!

On the 6th of November 1935, the prototype Hawker Monoplane F.36/34, first flew at the Brooklands Aerodrome, Weybridge, Surrey, UK with Hawker’s Chief Test Pilot, Flight Lieutenant Paul Ward Spencer (“George”) Bulman, M.C., A.F.C. in the cockpit. The airplane would be named “Hurricane” and become one of the most successful fighter aircraft of World War II; especially in the Battle of Britain and the Western Desert campaign against the Nazis in Africa!

6 November 1935: The prototype Hawker Monoplane F.36/34, K5083, first flew at the Brooklands Aerodrome, Weybridge, Surrey, with Hawker’s Chief Test Pilot, Flight Lieutenant Paul Ward Spencer (“George”) Bulman, M.C., A.F.C., Royal Air Force Reserve,¹ in the cockpit. The airplane would be named...

11/01/2019

Behind the Scenes in Restoration:
A Phantom Restoration Project Progress Report:

The devil is in the details; this is an amazing look at some of the incredible and painstaking attention to detail when restoring an aircraft to pristine display status.

Our Restoration Team is quite magical!

11/01/2019

"Seven for Breakfast" an evocative
work of art by Anthony Cowland

A Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster heavy bomber makes it home to its base in the early light of dawn after bombing a Nazi target in Germany.

There will be seven more grateful crew sitting down to eggs, bacon, toast and tea at the breakfast table in the mess!

10/31/2019

The wonderful story of the three Gloster Gladiators that significantly helped defeat the massive Nazi and Axis Air Forces over Malta!

The Hal Far Fighter Flight was a British fighter unit formed during the Siege of Malta in 1940. For several weeks, the island of Malta was protected by a small force of Gloster Sea Gladiator biplane fighters, based at RAF Hal Far, which was also known as the Fleet Air Arm station HMS Falcon.

The flight is the source of the myth that only three aircraft, named Faith, Hope and Charity formed the fighter cover for the island. In fact, more than three aircraft were operational, though not always at the same time. The names Faith, Hope and Charity were applied to the aircraft many months later, by a Maltese newspaper.

The painting is by the very talented Gordon Sage ... and the photograph shows the real "Faith"

10/31/2019

The Norden bomb-sight revolutionized bomb aiming and made it much more accurate!

You can actually see one of these rare examples of the ultra- high - secret device in our Museum!

The Norden Mk. XV was top secret bomb-sight used by the United States Army Air Forces and the United States Navy during World War II, and the United States Air Force in the Korean and the Vietnam Wars. It was an early tachometric design, a system that allowed it to directly measure the aircraft's ground speed and direction, which older bomb-sights could only estimate with lengthy in-flight procedures. The Norden further improved on older designs by using an analog computer that constantly calculated the bomb's impact point based on current flight conditions, and an autopilot that let it react quickly and accurately to changes in the wind or other effects.

10/30/2019

Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum - DVHAA's cover photo

10/29/2019

"Lightning Sunrise" by Ron Leigh.

Powerful, dramatic and compelling!

My thanks to Merlin Aviation and Ron Leigh for use of this incredible image!

10/29/2019

A little nostalgia for all of us die-hard Orion fanatics!

P-3C Orlons of Patrol Squadron (VP) 45 pictured in formation over NAS Jacksonville, Florida, in 1994.

10/29/2019

26 October 1944 - This Day in Aviation

On the 26th of October 1944, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Civilian Pilot Gertrude V. Tompkins took off from Mines Field, California in a newly-manufactured North American Aviation P-51D-15-NA Mustang, on a flight to deliver it to New Jersey where it would be prepared for shipment to England.

“Tommy” Tompkins was scheduled to make an overnight stop at Palm Springs, California. She never arrived. She was later declared Missing, Presumed Dead. She is the only WASP pilot to be listed in this way.

26 October 1944: At approximately 4:00 p.m., Civilian Pilot Gertrude V. Tompkins took off from Mines Field, California (now Los Angeles International Airport, or simply, LAX) in a newly-manufactured North American Aviation P-51D-15-NA Mustang, serial number 44-15669, on a flight to deliver it to New...

10/28/2019

BOMBING UP TOMMY | Merlin Aviation Art

"Bombing up Tommy" by aviation master artist Richard Taylor ... a rare study of the pre-raid preparations for the "Dambusters" mission ...

Operation Chastise; the famous attacks on the great dams of the Ruhr valley by the Lancasters of 617 Squadron is perhaps the most daring precision air raid in the history of World War II.

As a fitting tribute, Richard Taylor’s outstanding painting depicts the scene just a few hours before departure, on the afternoon of the 16th of May 1943 at Royal Air Force station near the village of Scampton in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, as the hardworking ground crews load their Lancasters in preparation for the night’s raid.

In the foreground Lancaster AJ-T ‘Tommy’ is loaded with Barnes Wallis’ ingenious ‘Upkeep’ bouncing bomb.

bombing up tommy painting print limited edition richard taylor robert aces high military gallery lancasters dambusters 617 squadron bouncing bomb johnny johnson operation chastise aviation art original drawing remarques remarqued double pencil trudgian steve hale harri harrison wade meyers anthony s...

10/28/2019

24 October 2003 - This Day in Aviation

The end of an era!
On the 24th of October 2003, at 04:05 p.m. British Summer Time, the final commercial flights of the British Airways Concordes came to an end with the landing of G-BOAG at London's Heathrow Airport. It landed third in sequence with G-BOAE and G-BOAF after all three supersonic airliners had made a low pass over London.

24 October 2003: At 4:05 p.m. BST, the final commercial flight of the British Airways Concorde came to an end with the landing of G-BOAG at London Heathrow Airport. It landed third in sequence with G-BOAE and G-BOAF after all three supersonic airliners had made a low pass over London. G-BOAG had flo...

10/28/2019

Airborne firefighting at its most spectacular!
A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 drops retardant on the Getty Fire in west Los Angeles, California, today, Monday, the 28th of October, 2019.

A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 drops retardant on the Getty Fire in west Los Angeles, California, today, Monday, 28 October 2019. (Photo by Rick McClure/Special to the Los Angeles Daily News)

10/28/2019

The two splendid paintings commemorate the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941–1942, they were nicknamed the Flying Tigers! The aircraft were the legendary Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk".

The paintings are courtesy of the Robert Blair Art Studios ... thank you!

10/28/2019

28 October 1957 - This Day in Aviation

The start of an aviation legend and a new era in global travel!

On October the 28th, 1957 the first production Boeing 707 jet-powered commercial airliner rolled off the production line!

It was the first of an initial order of twenty of the aircraft from Pan American World Airways!

28 October 1957: The first production Boeing 707 jet-powered commercial airliner, serial number 17586 (Line Number 1), was rolled out at the Boeing aircraft assembly plant at Renton, Washington. The Model 707 was developed from the earlier Model 367–80, the “Dash Eighty,” prototype for an air-...

10/28/2019

The first regularly scheduled international flight by a United States airline was made from Meacham Field in Key West,Florida to Havana, Cuba on October the 28th, 1927 by Pan American World Airways using a Fokker F-7.

"The first regularly-scheduled international flight by a United States airline was made from here to Havana Oct. 28, 1927. This inaugurated Pan American World Airways, which later spread through the Caribbean, around South America, and across the Atlantic and the Pacific. The first Clipper was a wooden-winged Fokker F-7 capable of carrying 10 passengers 85 M.P.H. On the maiden flight it carried a crew of two and a few bags of mail to the Cuban capital in an hour and ten minutes. Passengers were carried beginning Jan. 16, 1928."

Erected 1954 by Historical Association of Southern Florida. Marker is in Key West, Florida, in Monroe County, located in the East Martello Tower Museum

10/27/2019

I always re-ignite my anger when I see or hear someone try to “lionize” Douglas Bader!

Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory and the dangerously impetuous Acting Squadron Leader Douglas Bader tried to force the highly flawed “Big Wing” theory into operation.

This article really unemotionally and fairly examines the flaws of the “Big Wing” approach and how it would have been an unmitigated disaster for the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.

Some historians have said that the “Big Wing” theory would have given victory to the Nazis!

http://bofb1940.blogspot.com/2015/07/big-wing-or-assassins-bullet.html

Despite having won the Battle of Britain with his sensible and cautious approach, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Dowding was “retired” from his post in November 1940 and his brilliant second-in-command, Air Chief Marshal Keith Rodney Park was removed as commander of 11 Group (that played a successful major role in the victory) and sent to Training Command … all due to Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory manipulating his senior government contacts; he and Doulas Bader also worked assiduously to spread slander and disinformation about Dowding and Park.

In the photograph, Dowding is on the left and Bader on the right.

10/27/2019

I have been fortunate to have found a very rare Robert Taylor remarqued print image of "Bombers Moon" which was released in 1985 and soon became one of Mr. Taylor's most sought after prints!

As their Lancaster bombers await, specialist Royal Air Force Pathfinder Force crews prepare for a high-precision, target-marking mission to attack industrial targets in Nazi Germany during the winter of 1943.

Just in.....

We have been fortunate to have secured a very rare Robert Taylor remarqued print. Bombers Moon was released in 1985 and very few copies were remarqued. As such, this early release is sure to be on many Collectors’ wish-lists.

If you are interested in this secondary market print, then please contact us via email on [email protected], or via phone on +44 (0)1223 751545

10/27/2019

CLEARING SKIES | Merlin Aviation Art

"CLEARING SKIES" ... One of the world's best aviation artists, Robert Taylor pays tribute to the USAAF Eighth Air Force bomber crews ...

The winter of 1944 / 45 was not the coldest ever recorded in England but it came close. The weather was bitter and, in what would turn out to be the last Christmas of the war, temperatures plunged across the country, bringing ice, freezing fog and deep banks of drifting snow.

Airfields across East Anglia stood bleak and frost-bound, runways kept clear of snow when conditions allowed, whilst the heavy bombers of the US Eighth Air Force remained under wraps, engines oiled, warmed and ready for any break in the banks of murky fog that would allow them to fly. And when those breaks came, the bombers were back in action ready to play their part in the final destruction of Hitler and the Nazi Third Reich. The end game was rapidly approaching and both sides knew it.

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10/26/2019

A really detailed set of function and feature diagrams of a Boeing 747. An aircraft that was literally a "second home" to those of us who traveled globally for a substantial portion of our careers ... and several memorable vacations too!

Courtesy of the Pan Am Foundation, New York NY.

10/25/2019

The tinting on the museum windows is finished, and what a difference it makes!!

Here is the report from our Historian, Virginia ...

"The artifacts will be better protected and the summer heat will "bounce off” the windows instead of the windows absorbing the heat. It is a totally different look both inside and out."

Thank you Mark and Virginia for all your work on this project!

10/25/2019

25 October 1925 - This Day in Aviation

On the 25th of October, 1925, the court martial of Colonel William (“Billy”) Mitchell, Air Service, United States Army, began at Washington, D.C …

He was really punished for his outspoken advocacy; usually delivered in a rather forthright manner! His facts could not be denied … his delivery of the facts to closed-minded senior officers was a tad undiplomatic!

Billy Mitchell had been the senior American air officer in France during World War I. He was a determined advocate for the advancement of military air power and encouraged his officers to compete in air races and attempt to set aviation records to raise the Air Service’s public profile. He gained great notoriety when he bombed and sank several captured German warships to demonstrate the effectiveness of airplanes against ships.

Twelve senior Army officers found Mitchell guilty of insubordination. He was reduced in rank and suspended for five years without pay. The fate of so many visionaries!

25 October 1925: The court martial of Colonel William (“Billy”) Mitchell, Air Service, United States Army, began at Washington, D.C. For his criticism of the U.S. Navy’s leadership in regard to a number of deadly aviation accidents, he was charged with eight counts of insubordination. (Mitchel...

10/23/2019

Some of you I am sure, remember with great longing and nostalgia the days of elegant, enjoyable, dignified and memorable air travel.

Here are some reminder souvenirs ... an especially commissioned painting for a Pan Am menu front cover, a pre-dinner drinks list and a breakfast menu.

Thank you to the Pan Am Foundation for aiding and abetting these fond memories!

10/23/2019

Ace aviation photographer Hannah Dale says that the Lancaster is her favorite warbird ...

This example is the Avro Lancaster Bomber PA474 'City of Lincoln'.

The "Lanc" is certainly one of my favorites too!

My favourite War Bird.. the mighty & magnificent Avro Lancaster Bomber PA474 'City of Lincoln' "Thumper Mk III".

© Copyrighted by Aviation Photography by Hannah Dale 2015

10/23/2019

Just breathtaking!

The wing-walkers of the Breitling Aerobatics Team.

Another amazing photograph by Hannah Dale!

'Reaaaaach for the sky!'

Breitling Wingwalkers

#superb

© Copyrighted by Aviation Photography by Hannah Dale 2015.