Hi all,
Last Friday, I finally got the opportunity to go and visit the Flying Heritage Collection at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. The collection is fairly well known in the area, and has some of the most accurately restored warbirds anywhere, all of which are taken out and flown on a regular basis! They had a free day on Friday to celebrate the opening of their new addition- a hangar to house more of the collection's aircraft, and so I made the trip with my girlfriend's uncle and grandma. Overall, it was an awesome experience, but being a free day, it was fairly crowded, and with the layout the way it was, it was difficult to get good angles or overall shots of the aircraft. I think I managed to get some pretty good ones, regardless; these are a selection of the 805 photos I took in just over three hours...
Spitfire Mk. Vb
Fw 190A-5
Bf-109E-4
Flak 37
JN-4 Jenny
B-25J
Lancaster Fuselage
Fw 190D-13
I-16
P-40C
P-47D and P-51D
P-47D
-note the burned area on the landing gear door where the exhaust hits it when the gear are lowered...
The collection's P-47 is painted as "Talahassee Lassie," which served in the 9th air force during WWII. The man in the blue hat is Ralph Jenkins, the man who flew the real "Lassie" in WWII! He spent some time in front of the P-47, answering questions and sharing stories of his experiences- he had some very interesting stories, to say the least! He also talked about their bombing tactics, which were essentially "point the plane at your target, wait until you're about to run into it, release the bombs, and climb like heck!"
R-2800 Engine Cutaway
MiG-29UB
The only flyable Il-2 Sturmovik in the world.
The small hole in the middle of the photo is an actual bullet hole from WWII, left there by the restoration team!
Hurricane Mk. XII (Canadian-built Mk. I)
Ki-43-I
FlaK 88
P-51D
Hetzer
Newly Restored F6F-5, A6M3-22, P-51D, and P-47D
The outside of the new Hangar 2
I brought my GoPro along as well, and snapped a couple shots with it mounted on a pole (I wish I'd taken a few more with it!)
Panoramas:
I'm definitely planning on going back to see them fly the planes at least once this summer, where I'll hopefully be able to get some in-flight shots!
Also, I started work at the Museum of Flight yesterday- I spend most of my time at the admissions desk, but try to spend most of my breaks and free time getting better acquainted with the airplanes. Even the front desk is ok, though, because you can see all of the traffic coming and going on Boeing Field! Today I saw a train carrying 737 fuselages, as well as a P-8 Poseidon taking off! I haven't had the chance to pull out my little point-and-shoot camera, but I keep it close by, just in case!
Author
Topic: My visit to the Flying Heritage Collection (Lots of pics!) (Read 5129 times)
