Lone Star Flight Museum

[kiltie]

Long time no post, but I went here http://www.lsfm.org early last month.
Located in Galveston, the flight museum and its aircraft are privately owned at make their money through donations, museum admission costs, and - neatest of all - offering flights in their many airworthy machines.



Another post on the Mustang, momentarily...

 

[Skip]

Nice shots Kiltie, One plane I always want to see in the flesh since watching Baa Baa Black Sheep is an F4U... one day

 

[kiltie]

Nice shots Kiltie, One plane I always want to see in the flesh since watching Baa Baa Black Sheep is an F4U... one day

Thanks -



As evidenced by the markings, this one was a post-war build.

A personal favorite of mine and a plane I thought I'd never see in person was the Catalina. I've been especially impressed with it since finding this site a few years back: http://www.pbyrescue.com



I hope to see this one tip top if I ever make it back.

This was something else that made an impression...


...the height and shoulder space of this turret relative to my size. The seat is just off my right elbow, and then you have to lace yourself through that narrow metal band. No surprise that normal human beings can't find vintage A-2s that fit.

Galveston had plenty of other things for the WWII and general vintage enthusiast: The USS Stewart and a Gato class submarine, a train museum, and plenty of historic buildings. It was a great addition to the ever expanding circle of things to do in Texas, with regards to WWII and WWII aviation and naval history. I've put up posts on the National Museum of the Pacific War and Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, and then there's the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, the CAF in San Marcos, these things in Galveston... Next on the bill is this one in Fort Worth: http://www.vintageflyingmuseum.org ... All within four-five hours of the house.

 

[YoungMedic]

A personal favorite of mine and a plane I thought I'd never see in person was the Catalina. I've been especially impressed with it since finding this site a few years back: http://www.pbyrescue.com
.

NAS Jax was home to the PBY squadrons, They have always had one on base, Ill have to swing out there and take some pics for the board.

 

[dujardin]

thanks for those nice pics

 

[Skip]

We've gotta Cat (Black Cat) PBY6-A that flies every now and then, was lucky enough to watch it land in our local Lake. Purchased from Portugal where it was used as a water bomber, originally built in '45 where it went to the USN. Now restored to full flight capacity in late war RAAF Black overall colour scheme with serial A24-362 which served with 43 Squadron RAAF as OX-V. For the RAAF in early 1942 the Cat along side the Hudson, was the only aircraft we had capable of bombing the Japs - Brave men those lads.

Kiltie, trying to work out what the twin engined attack aircraft is with the jeep off to the left in shot, it's not a Marauder is it?

Thanks for posting these, really like this stuff, we dont have the same amount of variety as USA and Europe, in our Museums. As far as I'm aware we (Australia) never had the Corsairs, but our friends across the ditch (NZ) had quite a few.

 

[TankBuster]

Nice photos! Love that B-25!

 

[EMBLEMHUNTER]

Very nice shots, especially interesting is the AT-11 with the top gunner turret, first one I've seen with this, most of the few I've seen flying in shows are just the bomber trainers without the turret !

Also the PBY that has it nose turret , and the blisters on the rear fuselage something you don't see on many of the PBY's still around.

 

[shedonwanna]

Great museum. They were really devastated by hurricane Ike. Fortunately the airworthy aircraft were flown to safety before the storm hit the island. I live a few miles from the island and we often see the vintage aircraft in the air. Here is a photo I took on one of my many visits.

 

[kiltie]

Kiltie, trying to work out what the twin engined attack aircraft is with the jeep off to the left in shot, it's not a Marauder is it?

Lockheed PV-2D Harpoon; a long range multi-role aircraft. I didn't know it either but made sure to take a picture of the description. It reads as though this one has been in continuous use since March 1945 - save for a two year storage from '47 to '49 - seeing action as a crop duster, before being restored to it's current condition in 1991.
Cool to hear about the Black Cat!

TankBuster - If you like the B-25, I posted on the Yellow Rose with pictures from the CAF hangar in San Marcos a couple of months back.

YoungMedic - it'd be great to see more Catalina pics

shedonwanna - The museum lobby had pictures of the hangar from immediately after the hurricane; horrible. Everything washed into a big pile. But it's funny, a lot of the places I went had pictures up of their businesses "post Ike", like battle ribbons. The high water mark on Strand was over six feet, and a lot of the places had before and after pictures tacked to the walls.

 

[watchmanjimg]

Very nice shots, especially interesting is the AT-11 with the top gunner turret, first one I've seen with this, most of the few I've seen flying in shows are just the bomber trainers without the turret !

Also the PBY that has it nose turret , and the blisters on the rear fuselage something you don't see on many of the PBY's still around.

I really like the AT-11 also. Have you seen the PBY at Fantasy of Flight?

 

[Chandler]

Kiltie, trying to work out what the twin engined attack aircraft is with the jeep off to the left in shot, it's not a Marauder is it?

Lockheed PV-2D Harpoon; a long range multi-role aircraft. I didn't know it either but made sure to take a picture of the description. It reads as though this one has been in continuous use since March 1945 - save for a two year storage from '47 to '49 - seeing action as a crop duster, before being restored to it's current condition in 1991.

Since it's been in use past '45, I can let the CJ-3 (or CJ-2A with a CJ-3 windshield?) Willys slide -- a post-WW2 model.

 

[Peter Graham]

What a fantastic collection, and great photos too. Thanks for posting.

 

[Andrew]

What an amazing collection of aircraft and they're mostly airworthy??! Great stuff. Hopefully nothing irreplacable was lost in Ike. Every time I hear about tornados or hurricanes raging through the States I hope that they spare the precious historical artefacts.

Speaking of the RAAF Black Cat Skip mentioned, I had the opportunity to scamper through her a couple of years ago. I love the Cat and those blisters are just brilliant and they'd be a great spot to sit on a flight.

 

[Skip]

Nice shots Andrew, were you down my way in March a few years ago? Funny if we rubbed shoulders and didn't even know it. There was a great line up to get in the Cat, and you realise how big those blisters are until you see them up close.

Every few months or so we see it lumbering along in the sky down here, unmistakable sound from Mr Pratt Witney

 

[Andrew]

Nice shots Andrew, were you down my way in March a few years ago? Funny if we rubbed shoulders and didn't even know it. There was a great line up to get in the Cat, and you realise how big those blisters are until you see them up close.

Every few months or so we see it lumbering along in the sky down here, unmistakable sound from Mr Pratt Witney

No Matt, it was at Williamtown in '10. You're lucky you're not too far away from the homebase.