Visit to Military Aviation Museum

The rain is over and we woke up to sunny skies this morning.
After lunch we drove 7 miles south down to the Military Aviation Museum at the Virginia Beach Airport. The first things we saw were the dinosaurs at the entrance to the Aviation Museum. We parked the car on the side of the entrance road and walked over to take photos of the dinosaur statues. The life-size painted dinosaurs are made out of metal plates welded together.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

After taking photos of the dinosaurs, we continued on up the driveway to the Military Aviation Museum. Our first sight was this dolphin made to look like a WWII Corsair fighter plane. We found out it is part of a local project called "A Dolphin's Promise" where companies and individuals sponsor a dolphin to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer Research.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

We entered the museum and paid the $9 a person fee for seniors and one of the volunteers gave us a quick rundown on each of the hangars and what aircraft they contained. Most of the airplanes here are flyable and on most days one of them is being flown here. However, today none of the planes were being flown.

The first hangar we went in contained WWII-era aircraft.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

Everyone was drawn to look at the 1944 de Havilland DH-89A Dragon Rapide probably

because of the beautiful and striking markings of HRH Prince Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales, who bought a Dragon Rapide in 1935. The colors are those of the Royal Guard.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

After viewing the WWII planes and taking a lot of photos, we walked outside to look at "Chuckie" a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress and one of only 13 currently airworthy.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

The only plane flying today was one flying advertising banners. We watched it take off and then come back around to hook a banner before flying off around the area - click here for a link to the movie Mike made.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

The next hangar we entered contained more WWII-era aircraft and a few antique cars.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

We even saw the 1950 Chrysler Crown Imperial Limousine used by Gen. MacArthur in Tokyo 1950-1951.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

The last hangar was located quite a distance from the two main hangars, so we drove the car out to it. There were two aircraft parked in back of the third hangar - a 1950 Junkers Ju 52 and a Navy PBY-5A "Catalina".

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

The third hangar contained WWI-era aircraft. Several of the planes had unique paint schemes. One of the volunteers told us they were painted in camouflage that would make the planes blend in with the trees when the leaves changed colors in the fall.

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

We took a LOT of photos today - click here for a link to the photo album. We left the museum a little before 4:00 and headed back to the campground. On the way back we passed by another dolphin in the "Dolphin's Promise" project and stopped to take some photos.

From Traveling to Virginia Beach

We got back to the campground at 4:20 and took some more photos around the campground. We stopped to take a photo of this golden retreiver taking a ride in a golf cart.

From Traveling to Virginia Beach