20 February 2007

Road Trippy - Day 5

Free Wifi - A symbol of civilization.

The Pensacola Regional Airport (PNS) is my kind of place; on the small side. Airports like Newark, Los Angeles and Houston creep me out for reasons I can't really articulate. I like a small- to medium-sized airport, like Eugene, Kansas City and Pensacola.

Just came from a real treasure - The National Museum of Naval Aviation. You could spend 12 hours at that place. The variety of aircraft is thorough, from the efforts of Orville and Wilbur to the FA18. It's almost too much to photograph, so I shot some of the unique fuselage graphics used to identify squadrons.


I also shot many of the "calling card" plaques left by flight groups and squadrons at Cubi Bay Cafe in the Phillipines, and now hanging in the diner at the museum.

When you get to see all the planes together in one place, you really get to appreciate the engineering, utility and inventiveness by those who design and fly planes. It's no such a good bomber? Fill the belly with camera equipment. You say a C-130 is too big for a carrier landing? Here's the plane that did it many times. Can't hit Tokyo with bombers because it's too far away? Meet Doolittle's Raiders. The fact that a retired marine drove our tour bus during the outside portion of the tour didn't hurt a thing.

They're calling my flight.

UPDATE: JetWay? We don't need no stinkin' JetWay:

UPDATE 2: The view from seat A-16, 7:20 PM, O'Hare Airport :

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