Hill Aerospace Museum

Today we went to to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum near Hill Air Force Base.  We had driven past the outdoor display a few times, but I have never been inside before.

It began with an exhibit about the Wright brothers and looked like a collection of double-winged kites really. A docent came to tell us all about what we were seeing.  Mike and Roger nodded knowingly whenever he started calling the planes by letters and numbers.  I said things like, "Oh!  look at that silver plane over there with the cool paint job."  I don't speak letters and numbers.

It's hard to know which pictures to take, but some of the choices were obvious.  We had to have a picture of "Jolley Roger" in honor of my jolly Roger, but really I think the plane was named for a famous fellow surnamed Jolley.

Then we even found a plane clearly named for his sister!

Some of the planes had rather ferocious paint jobs, like the grim reaper, or whatever that toothed thing with the red nose is supposed to be.

When I was about 7th grade I remember that our class was taken on a field trip to  a factory in Indianapolis that made Allison engines....and here was an Allison engine, made right there in Indianapolis.

Some of the displays portrayed life on the homefront during times of war.  The blue star banners were displayed in homes who had family members serving in the war.  Multiple stars meant multiple people serving.   I still have the banner made by my grandmother to honor her future husband during World War I.  Sadly, sometimes the blue stars were replaced by stars of gold, which indicated that a service member in that home had given his life for his country.

Some of the displays showed ways that women also served.  Here are shown women working to repair a plane.

The planes filled the hall, from ceiling to floor, practically stacked on top of each other sometimes.

Planes and displays were from many time periods.  We stopped to look at a display from the Vietnam era.  The picture shows Viet Cong gear and a certificate honoring a Viet Cong fellow for killing an American.

Roger remembered his time serving near Da Nang.  He didn't realize that that service would impact him for the rest of his life.

We also watched a short video presentation about the war in the Aleutians and the difficulties of flying under the severe weather conditions there.

One area had portraits  of a number of famous aviators.  I even recognized some of their names, such as Jake Garn  and  candy bomber, Gail Halvorsen

It is a well done museum and worth checking out if you are in the area.