Virginia Aviation Museum (January 25, 2014)

 Made a return visit to the Virginia Aviation Museum which is on the grounds of the Richmond International Airport on January 25, 2014. I have bee there before, but I really enjoy visits to this very fine museum. They have a really good collection of aircraft, including the first plane to land near the South Pole (flown by Admiral Richard E. Byrd who was from Richmond, VA) and a number of planes from the Golden Age of Aviation. I always have had a very good time at this museum, which is one of my favorites in Richmond, and this visit was no exception.

This is a Spad VII, built in 1917, and is not a replica, its the real deal. Pretty cool to see one of these French designed aircraft. Though America made the airplane, aircraft manufacture was slow to develop partly due to the battles between the Wright Brothers and Glenn Curtiss. Strangely, in the end, both companies ended up merging.
The SPAD series though was one of the most produced fighters of World War 1, and was flown by many successful French and for that matter American fighter pilots in that war. 

 This is the inside of a 1935 Waco Model YOC, first time I got to see this. Got to see some extra stuff thanks to a member of the cleaning staff who flat out loves the museum (she was really excited about people being there, and loves her job..which was a real cool thing). This is a very cool aircraft, and I found it was once owned by Walter Matthew Jefferies. Mr. Jefferies was from Richmond, VA and was also the designer of the Starship Enterprise in the tv series Star Trek. I have seen the model of his design which can be seen at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. That model was surprisingly big by the way.  

 The engine seen here is one of the engines of the SR-71 Blackbird. Still an amazing aircraft, the SR-71 could fly at over Mach 3, and at such a high altitude that some of the pilots got astronaut wings.
The Blackbird was never shot down, and set a number of aviation records that still stand to this day. Not sure if there is anything faster or that can fly higher with jet engines, but this plane would still be a world class reconnaissance aircraft. Its slower brother, the U-2 is still in use today, but spacecraft replaced the SR-71 a few years ago. Richmond having one of them is a real treat.

Finally this is an overview of the museum. It does charge a small admission charge; though you can see the SR-71, the F-14 and an A-7 outside for free, but there is a lot to see inside (and I have a few more photos on my photo page. For more information, you can check the museum out on its web page (just punch in Virginia Aviation Museum into your favorite web search engine).
It is, in my opinion,  well worth a visit while in the Richmond area, the airport is just outside of town and in fact takes only a few minutes to get there from the downtown area.