My brother and I went to visit the museum they have at the Selfridge Air National Guard base near where we live. It is only open on weekends, which I rarely have off, so this was a rare opportunity. I took way too many pictures to put here, and a twenty minute video from the inside of a sub hunter plane. The latter was really awesome, as there was a volunteer named Flash (his nickname, not real name) who was one of the air crew of the same plane back in the day. He took us from end to end inside the plane and explained everything there was, and shared a few anecdotes from his time time in the service. Like how he got the name Flash (which thankfully had nothing to do with exposing himself...)

I am going to try using Google Photos here, and see how it turns out for sharing pictures.


A Nike Hercules Missile (we had these in a base a few miles from where I live, armed with nuclear warheads)

Another view of the Nike Hercules

A Cobra

it is the skinniest aircraft ever

The famous Huey

This ought to look familiar to some of you...

The F-86 Super Sabre

Lighthammer's old ride, and A-10 Warthog

An F-4 Corsair from WWII

The size of that engine is astounding.

A cutaway showing how the guns were mounted inside the wing

The P-3 Orion submarine hunter I mentioned above

The P-3's interior looking forward. This is where they dropped its sonar probes

Two different model gatling cannons

A radar station

The info on a Nuclear Rocket designed to shoot down enemy bombers. The Cold War was something else.

The actual rocket

Some air to air missiles. If I recall the top one is a Sidewinder

Sitting in the cockpit of an A-7 Corsair

The instrument panel

My 5 inch platform heels were perfect for this (just kidding)

Looking straight ahead

In the F-16 Cockpit

The instruments

Obviously something too interesting for the public was mounted here

The joystick is on the right hand instead of between your legs

The throttle on the left

Thanks for sharing!

As you recall, I have some time in the F-4 Phantom. Acadian Sr's first aircraft was the equally iconic F-4 Corsair. The bent-wing monster had a 14 cylinder motor consisting of two banks of 7 cylinders each, one bank in front of the other. That is what gave the aircraft its massive nose. Both F-4's shared a couple things - they were both overpowered (faster than their quarry) but neither could maneuver as nimbly as their foes (Migs / Zeroes respectively).

That looks like a good time! Kinda reminds me of the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL. It’s really neat to see all the aircraft. You can also take a short drive to Mobile, AL, and go see the battleship USS Alabama! Warships and military aircraft. Sounds like a good day to me!

Love the pics of the Cobra. I remember very vividly one day during a vacation we had taken to Perdido Key, FL, which is about a 20-30 minute drive from Pensacola. Anyway, I remember sitting in my beach chair and I heard the sound of a helicopter approaching. As it got closer I noticed it was different from the usual orange and white Huey’s that are commonly spotted. This one had a super narrow profile. As it got close I recognized that it was a SuperCobra. When it was almost directly over head, you could feel the power of the rotor beating down on you. I imagined it would be pretty terrifying to be an infantryman and knowing that this thing was coming for you and your fellow soldiers. Attack helicopters are so badass!