Made a visit to the Virginia Air and Space Museum (previous post), and after exploring some of the area around it and especially Riverwalk (which will be my next and third post) headed back to Richmond. A sign on the highway which told of "Air Power Park" caught my eye, so I took the exit, and headed up the road. I came to this roadside park which featured a number of interesting and rare aircraft, plus missiles of various types. The combination was both interesting and amazing. I saw a great many rare and unique items, and spent quite a bit of time walking around the site. Many of the items could use a coat of paint, and some repair, but it was still amazing to check out.
Rare planes such as this F-100 Super Sabre were common. This plane was in pretty good shape as many were, though some had seen some damage from the weather. There were a number of Vietnam era planes, some dating to the Korean War and before (though nothing earlier than just after World War II). There was even a NASA flown Hawker Kestrel which was the direct forerunner of the AV-8B Harrier which is (still) flown by the United States Marines, and the Royal Navy. In the background of this photo you can see (left to right) a US Army Jupiter missile, and a US Navy Polaris submarine missile. This is stuff you just don't see everyday!
In much better than typical shape, was this Mercury/Little Joe combination. Very, very rare, the Little Joe was made to save money (costing some $200,000 each) in testing of the Mercury escape system. The orange rockets at the very top were designed to pull the spacecraft (and its single astronaut) away from an exploding or failing rocket in the event of an emergency. Some eight Little Joe's were used to test the system. Though this system (also used on the Apollo Spacecraft) was never used in the US, a Russian crew was saved when their rocket exploded and rockets much like this lifted their capsule away and parachutes lowered them back to earth away from the blast. Such a system is being developed for the Orion spacecraft which looks much like Apollo and is planned to replace the Space Shuttle (though that program is facing some problems due to being behind schedule and over budget. Plans are to let private companies run flights into Earth orbit outside of the government (who would pay for their services) rather than running "government spacecraft".
Many of the planes were common type aircraft such as A-7's, F-86's, and F4's (not that it was not neat to see them) but also very rare types such as this F-89 Scorpion which first flew in 1948! Neat to see a very early US jet fighter (this one built by Northrop) as well as a research aircraft such as the NASA flown Kestrel. Throw in rockets such as the Jupiter (seen behind this plane) as well as some "badly needing paint" rockets such as the Nike-Ajax and the Nike-Hercules and you have a very interesting park to visit. I should also mention that admission was free, and you can't beat that in times such as these. From the condition of many of the items, it was apparent that they do get attention from time to time, so while some may need some work, others have gotten some. Air Power Park was a neat and very fun find indeed!
Made a visit to the Virginia Air and Space Museum (previous post), and after exploring some of the area around it and especially Riverwalk (which will be my next and third post) headed back to Richmond. A sign on the highway which told of "Air Power Park" caught my eye, so I took the exit, and headed up the road. I came to this roadside park which featured a number of interesting and rare aircraft, plus missiles of various types. The combination was both interesting and amazing. I saw a great many rare and unique items, and spent quite a bit of time walking around the site. Many of the items could use a coat of paint, and some repair, but it was still amazing to check out. 
Rare planes such as this F-100 Super Sabre were common. This plane was in pretty good shape as many were, though some had seen some damage from the weather. There were a number of Vietnam era planes, some dating to the Korean War and before (though nothing earlier than just after World War II). There was even a NASA flown Hawker Kestrel which was the direct forerunner of the AV-8B Harrier which is (still) flown by the United States Marines, and the Royal Navy. In the background of this photo you can see (left to right) a US Army Jupiter missile, and a US Navy Polaris submarine missile. This is stuff you just don't see everyday! 
In much better than typical shape, was this Mercury/Little Joe combination. Very, very rare, the Little Joe was made to save money (costing some $200,000 each) in testing of the Mercury escape system. The orange rockets at the very top were designed to pull the spacecraft (and its single astronaut) away from an exploding or failing rocket in the event of an emergency. Some eight Little Joe's were used to test the system. Though this system (also used on the Apollo Spacecraft) was never used in the US, a Russian crew was saved when their rocket exploded and rockets much like this lifted their capsule away and parachutes lowered them back to earth away from the blast. Such a system is being developed for the Orion spacecraft which looks much like Apollo and is planned to replace the Space Shuttle (though that program is facing some problems due to being behind schedule and over budget. Plans are to let private companies run flights into Earth orbit outside of the government (who would pay for their services) rather than running "government spacecraft". 
Many of the planes were common type aircraft such as A-7's, F-86's, and F4's (not that it was not neat to see them) but also very rare types such as this F-89 Scorpion which first flew in 1948! Neat to see a very early US jet fighter (this one built by Northrop) as well as a research aircraft such as the NASA flown Kestrel. Throw in rockets such as the Jupiter (seen behind this plane) as well as some "badly needing paint" rockets such as the Nike-Ajax and the Nike-Hercules and you have a very interesting park to visit. I should also mention that admission was free, and you can't beat that in times such as these. From the condition of many of the items, it was apparent that they do get attention from time to time, so while some may need some work, others have gotten some. Air Power Park was a neat and very fun find indeed!
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