The last week of our holiday took us to Tucson where we visited the Pima museum on 4 and 5 September. Of course this is well known museum with a vast collection of fascinating aircraft. The restauration part also houses a wide variety of aircraft but is off limits to the public. When I explored the part that can be seen from the corner with fire fighting aircraft I noticed 5 Navy CH-46's that were being worked on. I was told that these would be made active again and were to be flown to Texas in a few weeks time. They repair crew invited me to take pics and I took the opportunity to take some pics of the other gems that were there as well.
Visible from the public area is this unique NB-52A 52-0003. It is the oldest B-52 still in existence and one of only three A-models. This was the predecessor of Balls 8 and was used to launch the X-15 rocket plane.
Another oldie is this B727 N7004U from United Airlines. It was number 5 on the production line.
Some European airforces are present too such as this Saab Draken AR-116 formerly used by the Danish Airforce. Behind it the cockpit section of what seems to be a Tomcat is visible but so far I have not been able to work out which one it is (the museum has one Tomcat but that is in Hall 1).
Norwegian Airforce C-130 955 still looking fine.
Royal Airforce Jaguar T4 XX150/FY.
Two former Royal Navy Canberra's TT18's that were sold but did not have a happy end: WK142 and WJ614
A very clean looking US Army Sherpa 94-00310.
This Navy C-20G 165093 looks almost ready for business.
US Navy UH-3D 156506.
Another Navy aircraft. F/A-18A 163132/VE-210.
This Navy F-4S 155539 supposedly is destined for the Castle Air Museum (we were there in the first week of our holiday).
This Navy Samaritan 141025 was sold to Australia some years ago but is now back in the US.
This odd looking aircraft is an E-1B Tracer and was the first Airborne Early Warning platform of the US Navy. It was privately sold about ten years ago with the purpose of restauration. Obviously that did not work out well. Nickname was Stoof with a roof.
Three examples of the five US Navy CH-46's that were being worked on: 157682, 154810 and 153962.
The storage area also houses five C-7 Caribous from the US AirForce but also with a South Vietnamese Airforce past. They are in a bit of a sorry state and one of them even has its tail cut off. In order: 62-4183, 63-9739 and 62-4182.
This is what is left of C-97 XA-PII from AeroPacifico that was stored in Tucson for quite some time.
There were many more aircraft in this area (I counted about 36) but not all are as visible as this selection.
Hope you like it.