Adventure Time Series: TICO Warbird Museum.

     I went on a little adventure this Saturday, and it was better than I had anticipated. The TICO VALIANT AIR COMMAND WARBIRD MUSEUM was the destination, in Titusville Florida. It all started in 1977 when twelve individuals decided that they were going to find and preserve old war planes. What they have today, is rather impressive of a display. The most amazing thing about this museum, is that it is ever changing, and that can be from day to day. Quite a few of the planes in this exhibit aren't only restored cosmetically, they are restored mechanically as well. That's right, these birds can still fly, and quite a few of them are in and out of the museum when their owners decide to take them out for a small trip, or to an air show across the country.

     Enough of this let's get to the pictures, and I have a lot of them. Far more than I probably have room to put here. I'm going to have to cherry pick the best of them. I also have a little something special for you at the end of this. On to the pictures.

     Ok, I just checked, and for some reason the pictures haven't loaded onto my laptop yet. This creates quite a dilemma. I found a simple but annoying solution. I won't be able to share the majority of the photos with you tonight, but I do have a good number of them to give you an idea of what this museums houses. I should be able to have some more for you on Tuesday. This was a much larger exhibit than I had anticipated, so maybe two days is worth it. I still have the surprise coming at the end though, so just hold on.

    This is a full scale and working replica of Manfred von Richthofen plane. He is more widely known as the Red Baron. The legendary pilot for the Germans in World War II. The wonder of this craft goes out with another pilot and has arial combat shows for people across the country, and from time to time, leaves the plane at the good ol' Warbird.

     This chopper had an interesting story. It of course so service time in World War II, but the interesting part is after it's service time. It was later owned by Winnebago. That right, the company that makes RV's. The redid the entire interior to make it look like a camper, it even has a porch light still on the inner door from when it was outfitted that way. They have since reverted it back to it's original glory.

    I don't remember all the stories about these planes, but it is just so incredible to be able to get close enough to touch them, and they guides encourage you to do so. They want you to know what the planes feel like. The picture to the upper right is my favorite one of the day. That happens to be the intake for an F-14 Tomcat. I was able to stick my head entirely inside of it. The Tomcat is the same plane that is featured in Top Gun and was a juggernaut for the Air Force for quite some time.

    Alright, the lop left is a shot looking in the Restoration Hanger. I forgot to mention that they have three hangers. The first one is the WWII era hanger, then the Restoration Hanger, and lastly the Vietnam Era Hanger. You can see that they are currently working on a few planes. The total number of planes in that area currently stands at 3 with a 4th one soon to join them. The top right is an example of nose art. You probably have seen it more often as pin up girls. I have examples of that as well, but I'll save that for Tuesday. The bottom picture is the control panel for the bombardiers in the cockpit of a B-52 Bomber. The Air Force cut this cockpit off the entire plane, and used it as a training cock pit. The Warbird has restored the entire inside and is currently working on the outer shell. When it is finished it will be housed in and out of the Vietnam Hanger. They plan on cutting a hole in the wall facing the runway so that when you climb up into the actually cockpit you can look out the window and see the runway beaconing you for take off. It should be ready in a year.

      These final three shots were from the Vietnam Hanger. I really liked the top shot because it was a warning on the fuselage of the plane so that you would know just how far you could go before you would get something amputated by the propellers. Interesting little fact, on one of the planes (which was an operational plane) that I was able to go into, had those same markings on the inside. There happened to be an emergency escape hatch right there, so you knew that when you went out that hatch, you better go the right direction, or you weren't going to make it.

     That's all I have for pictures tonight. I promise more for Tuesday, and I have some really good ones coming. I hope you enjoyed these so far but it's time for the surprise. I got my first video up on YouTube and I will be able to share it with you here. I edited down as much as I thought I could and still make it somewhat not boring for you. The entire thing is 14 minutes and 54 seconds, so I hope you have a little time to kill. I'll leave you with that video, and as always, peace in and goodnight.