Pima Air & Space Museum (Tucson, AZ)

On Friday morning, we decided to extend our stay here at the Agave Gulch FamCamp located inside the Davis-Monthan AFB.  There’s so much to see and do in and around Tucson!  We paid for an additional 3 days so we could try to soak in as much as possible.   So that puts us out of here on the 21st when we will probably head over to the Escapees Park in Benson.  From Benson, we can visit nearby Tombstone and maybe Bisbee.  Then, we’ll start heading north to Colorado since the house still hasn’t sold 🙁

After paying $60 for an additional three nights, we also purchased a coupon book from the campground registration office with many half-price deals for local attractions.  The coupon booklet cost $15 and we expect to recoup the cost with the savings from the first attraction.

We then jumped in the pickup and drove just outside the southeast gate to the Pima Air & Space Museum.  We found out the museum is dog-friendly, so we were able to take little Coach along.  We brought his doggie backpack along so we could carry him around when we’re inside the buildings.

With over 80 acres and 300 planes, the Pima Air & Space Museum is quite astounding.  Click HERE for more information.

Here’s the entrance to the parking lot:

IMG_7693

And here’s the entrance to the main hangar-type building:

IMG_7813

We used our coupon booklet to get the half-price discount so the entrance fee was a palatable $15 for the two of us.

Now follow along on our tour…   I took a lot of pics as usual, but I pared them down to the following favorites in order to give you a good sample of  what’s here at this superb attraction.  Hope you enjoy…

IMG_7694
The Wright Flyer
IMG_7697
World’s smallest aircraft, the Starr Bumble Bee.

IMG_7699

Here’s a Chief Warrant Officer Four (CW4) uniform on display (Vietnam era) that I found particularly interesting since I retired as a CW4.IMG_7803

IMG_7713

IMG_7718

IMG_7722

IMG_7727

IMG_7731

IMG_7733

IMG_7779

IMG_7747

IMG_7748

IMG_7754

IMG_7760

IMG_7761

IMG_7763

IMG_7764

IMG_7766

IMG_7769

IMG_7770

IMG_7771

The new Dreamliner 787 from Boeing is now on permanent display here.  Click HERE for the news article.

IMG_7772

IMG_7773

There was even an exclusive separate hangar building for the famed B17 “Flying Fortress”.  I really enjoyed all the “nose art” on display in this building.

IMG_7787

IMG_7789

IMG_7790

IMG_7797

IMG_7799

IMG_7805

One building housed all the space related items.  They have a lunar module simulator and a space station docking simulator to play with.  I landed the lunar module pretty hard… probably caused some damage 🙂IMG_7794

Unfortunately, the bus tour for the AFB “boneyard” didn’t allow dogs, so we weren’t able to go.  It would have been an additional $7 and I’m sure worth it… but oh well, maybe another time.  At least we were able to take little Coach along with us everywhere else today.

As usual, the exit is through the gift shop… one thing I thought was especially interesting is that they sell old aircraft parts.  I wonder if they sell a lot of these items?

IMG_7806

IMG_7808
Authentic aircraft items for sale in the gift shop.
IMG_7809
Dreamliner 787 items for sale in the gift shop.

IMG_7810

Here’s a couple aerial view posters of the massive aircraft “boneyard” that were for sale.  Click HERE for some more awesome aerial views courtesy of google.IMG_7811 IMG_7812

If you like planes (and who doesn’t?) and have a day or two to kill… this is probably the most superb collection of aircraft in the world.  I highly recommend this tour.  Don’t miss this attraction if you are ever in the area!

We were pretty much beat after being on our feet all day, so we enjoyed a lazy evening and just kicked back in the Coach afterwards.  I used the evening to catch up on the previous days blog.  And now, as I write this… I’m still a day behind.

Today (Saturday) we toured Old Tucson, which is the old west town made famous as the location for more than 300 movies and TV shows.  But, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow…. 🙂