Come with me for a trip to Pioneer Village. We’ll explore a heavy dose of aviation within these walls, but we can’t overlook the crazy (in the most affectionate sense of the word) breadth and depth of his collection of all things American and mechanical.
Albin Longren: The aviation pioneer you don’t know
Longren did not have any formal education as an aeronautical designer and engineer. He also lacked any flight training. Neither stopped him from achieving success with his original biplane, the Longren Topeka.
Martin bombers: From World War I and beyond
Glenn Martin, characterized by some biographers as a prim and proper son who doted on his mother, was also an aviation visionary who leapfrogged his early bomber successes into a growing line of warplanes for the Air Force, Navy, and foreign customers.
When the Mustang served up a dive bomber
Unthinkable for a pure fighter, the dive bomber versions of the Mustang incorporated a sturdy set of dive brakes that extended above and below the wings when rotated into the slipstream by stout hydraulic actuators.
A toast to the importance of aviation
“Aviation is even more widely interesting than prohibition.”
When F-86s challenged a B-24
Today that B-24J Liberator occupies a place of honor in one of the Pima Air & Space Museum’s buildings where it still wears a mix of U.S. and Indian markings.
Company creating fleet of jet airliner firefighting aircraft
Neptune Aviation will be the first company to use the Airbus A319 to fight fires.
The Bakersfield Boeings: Dusters to dust?
A footnote in aviation history, the converted crop duster Boeing 203s remain elusive.
Upscale, unique, and useful
Prototype aircraft of the World War II era, whether or not they pointed the way to a long production run, were sometimes discarded once their primary flight test work was concluded.