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Writer's pictureJaela Deming

January 18-19, 2024: National Naval Aviation Museum

DID YOU KNOW? At the Pensacola, Florida Naval Air Station is the National Naval Aviation Museum which houses more than 150 beautifully restored aircraft representing the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. These aircraft are spread across 350,000 square feet of exhibits and 37-acre grounds. The displayed aircraft goes back to the early years of aviation, and all the way up to modern technology. This site is also the training grounds for the epic Blue Angel jet performers. Visitors are occasionally able to catch a glimpse of these impressive pilots practicing their routine over the Naval Air Station grounds.



We ended up spending two full days at this unique (and free!) museum, wandering through the aircraft, reading stories, and taking a guided tour with a Vietnam War vet.




Captain Hank, a Vietnam patrol pilot, was our very knowledgable guide

These aviators represent the pilots in WW1, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. The change in gear and wardrobe is really interesting to observe. If you look closely, you will see a little puppy by the WWI aviator on the far left. According to Hank, the reason this pup is included in this sculpture is because pilots would take them with for warmth in their unheated, open-air warplanes. The pilots would wrap the puppies inside their giant trench coats and the dog's body heat would help keep the pilot warm during their missions. Whether this is actually true is yet to be proven, but many pictures from that era show pilots with dogs, so it is a distinct possibility.


From left to right, these men represent the aviators of WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.

Celebrating 78 years of performing, the Blue Angels continue to thrill audiences as they fly at high speeds less than 18 inches from each other, performing an incredible routine that takes skill and trust to perfect. The museum had a number of previous Blue Angel Jets on display, including these four flying in diamond formation over the special events assembly area and stage.




Because I'm not really into aircraft, nor was I able to explore and read as much as the rest of the family due to some online classes I had to complete, I can't really tell you much (if anything) about most of these aircraft. But they are cool to look at regardless, LOL.










According to Hank, the below plane is the most valuable aircraft at the museum...and it actually belongs to the Smithsonian. However, the Smithsonian didn't have room for it at the time that they acquired and restored it, but the Naval Museum had just built a massive gallery, so it found a new home in Pensacola, Florida. Hank says that at the point that the Smithsonian wants it back, they'll just have to come and look around to realize that everything at the museum has been built and designed around this big boy...and getting it out will be nigh on impossible. One of only four built, this NC-4 flying boat set out from Rockaway, New York across the Atlantic alongside NC-1 and NC-3 on May 8, 1717. The goal was to be the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. NC-2 was damaged during the testing phase, resulting in it being torn apart for spare parts to accompany its three cousins on their long trans-Atlantic flight. Forced to make an unplanned, extended stop to repair some engine trouble, NC-4 earned itself the derogatory nickname "Lame Duck," however, in an ironic turn of events, the Lame Duck and her crew would be the only one of the three to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. After NC-4's emergency landing, the three reunited farther along the path, however, increasing cloud cover and rain forced NC-1 and NC-3 to make emergency landings. NC-1's crew was rescued by a Greek freighter and NC-3's crew managed to sail their battered craft 205 miles to shore. This left NC-4 to complete the journey on her own. On May 27, the Lame Duck reached Portugal, completing the first trans-Atlantic flight in history.


Lame Duck NC-4: The first aircraft to complete a trans-Atlantic flight




The exhibit below is a tribute to Aviator Jesse Brown...the first African-American aviator to complete the United States basic flight training program and the first African-American Naval officer killed in the Korean War. Tragically, neither his body or his plane were ever recovered. He and his wingman, Thomas J. Hudner Jr., are the inspiration for the book Devotion, and the 2022 movie by the same name.







These next two planes are WWII planes recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan sometime around 2009. An estimated 150-300 planes rest at the bottom of this lake, where WWII pilots practiced landing and taking off of ships. If there was a fatality when the plane went down, no efforts are/will be made to recover that aircraft as it is considered a gravesite. These two planes (an F4F Wildcat and an SBD Dauntless) now rest at the Naval Museum exactly how they were found and pulled from the lake.




Not everyone has the opportunity to sit in the cockpit of a F-14 Tomcat that has seen active duty, LOL.

This VH-3 Marine One helicopter flew Presidents Nixon and Ford during the 1970's as part of the Marine Corps mission to provide short-range helicopter transportation to the President


To read more about any of these aircraft, click here to check out the museum's online aircraft gallery. Personally though, I'm all airplaned out at the moment, so that's the end of this post, LOL:)


Until next time, God bless!


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Noah Ballard
Noah Ballard
Jan 26

Boy, lotsa of airplanes! Great post. Oh, and that Lame Duck looks so odd!

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Jaela Deming
Jaela Deming
Jan 29
Replying to

Yep...it was practically a boat attached to wings😂

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