New England Air Museum (NEAM)

My wife and I had returned from a trip to upstate New York in March 2015 and on our way home we stopped at the New England Air Museum.  It is a gem of a museum nestled in the tranquil woodlands next to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.  Back in 1969 it was called the Bradley Air Museum, but on October 3, 1979 the museum was struck by a tornado and almost completely destroyed.  The museum closed and was reopened in 1981. It was in 1984 that it became the New England Air Museum (NEAM).  It is owned and operated by the Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association.

The museum houses a diverse assortment of aircraft in its collection, both inside and on the grounds outside.  They have both military and civilian aircraft sections with over 125 aircraft on display.  The centerpiece of the museum is the Boeing B-29 bomber ‘Jack Hack’.  In addition to ‘Jack Hack, they also have a Lockheed Electra which is similar to the one flown by Amelia Earhart in her attempt to fly around the world.  Among the aircraft on the outside grounds is the Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster.  Its fuselage, when seen from the side, was in the shape of a wing and is one of the last ones known to exist.  The museum is currently restoring it. The B-29 was also restored by the museum in their restoration hangar.

 

AUTHOR’s NOTE: My wife and I visited the New England Air Museum again on May 17th, 2022, and the Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster was in the hangar and was restored. And one of the docents allowed me to go inside it – see below:

 

On Sundays, the museum has what they call ‘Open Cockpit Sunday’ in which patrons are allowed to climb into the cockpits of a variety of aircraft.  This is one of the museum’s most popular events.  Other events include lectures and presentations given by people in the aviation business.  Numerous educational workshops and fun activities are also scheduled throughout the year.  Interactive and static displays are placed throughout the museum along with many historical artifacts.  Connecticut based aviation companies such as Sikorsky, Kaman, Vought, Hamilton Standard, and Pratt & Whitney are highlighted with aircraft (fixed-wing and rotary), engines, and other various equipment.  They also feature WWI and lighter-than-air craft eras.

Functions such as conferences, dinners, school field trips, and birthday parties can be held at the museum.  Memberships with discounted admissions and gift shop discounts are available for purchase on site, by mail, or through the internet.  The gift shop also has an array of clothing, books, airplane models, games, and various other aviation themed novelties available.  There is also a small dining area and free parking.  They are open 7 days a week from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.  They are closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.  Please note that if you visit in the summer months the hangar sections are not air conditioned.

You can visit their website at:   www.neam.org

Charles Lindbergh – The Lone Eagle during WWII in the Pacific

Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator, was against America going into WWII. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, however, he wanted to do whatever he could for the war effort. President Roosevelt didn’t want a national hero to be involved in any actual combat lest he got hurt or killed. Also, the president held some deep resentment against Mr. Lindbergh because of Lindbergh’s activities before the war.

So, in May 1944 Charles Lindbergh became a Technical Advisor/Consultant to the United Aircraft Company which required him to Field Test the F4U Corsair with the Marine Corps at Guadalcanal. He flew on 14 combat missions. Then in June 1994 he went to the lush tropical island of Emirau (also spelled Emira). This island is in the St. Matthias Group or Islands, also known as the Mussau Islands, in the Bismarck Archipelago that makes up part of Papua New Guinea.  Papua New Guinea is approximately 125 north of Australia.

Lindbergh was stationed with the 475th Fighter Group which was part of the 5th Air Force. This group was known as “Satan’s Angels.”  He would be flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. He took part in 50 combat missions and even shot down 1 enemy plane.

As an observer he quickly calculated that the combat radius of the P-38 could be extended by 30%. A standard technique at the time was to cruise at 2200 – 2400 rpms with a fuel/air mixture set to auto-rich with the manifold pressure set to low. Lindbergh called for only 1600 rpm with a fuel/air mixture set to auto-lean and a manifold pressure set to high. This reduced fuel consumption to between 63 and 70 gallons per hour from 90 to 100 gallons per hour. The cruising speed was around 185 mph. The P-38’s used to fly a five-hour mission and come back on fumes, but after taking Lindbergh’s advice, the range of the P-38’s increased as much as 400 miles. The mission’s (bomber escort and loiter) time was increased to nine hours with fuel to spare. I doubt that the pilot’s enjoyed sitting in the cockpit for nine hours!

When Lindbergh first gave his advice for extending the range of the P-38, the pilots and especially the mechanics were against it. The mechanics thought that the engines would be put under too much strain and that parts of the engines would rapidly wear out. But after the P-38’s came back from missions; the mechanics would strip the engines down and find no abnormal wear or tear. Lindbergh was vindicated, but he chose not to lord that over anyone. He let his actions speak for him.

 

 

 

 

 

A Look at the B-52 Bomber

The historic Boeing B-52 Bomber first flew 73 years ago on April 15, 1952. The B-52’s official name is ‘Stratofortress’ but its nickname is BUFF which stands for ‘Big Ugly Fat Fellow’ (among other things). The B-52 has been used in combat missions from the Vietnam War up to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. NASA has used a B-52 (Serial Number 52-0008 – it was the 10th one off the assembly line) from 1959 until 2004 as a “Mothership” to lift aloft experimental and research aircraft on test flights. It was the oldest aircraft NASA had, and it was the oldest flying B-52. 

The idea for a long-range large bomber started in 1946. The design of B-52 was to originally have straight wings and be propeller driven. The Air Force wanted a jet engine powered bomber. Then on the weekend of October 23-24 in 1948 in a room at the Hotel Van Cleve in Dayton, Ohio the current design (swept wing and jet engine powered) was made by a team that consisted of the following people: of Ed Wells, George Schairer, Art Carlsen, Vaughn Blumenthal, H.W. “Bob” Withington, and Maynard Pennell.

The B-52 was developed to thwart the Cold War threat of the Soviet Union. It was designed to carry nuclear weapons. Boeing manufactured a total of 744 aircraft. There are currently 76 in active service and 20 in reserve.

Here are some of the specifications of a B-52, ‘H’ Model:

Wingspan: 185 feet

Length: 159 feet, 4 inches

Height: 40 feet, 8 inches

Maximum Speed: 650 mph

Maximum takeoff weight: 488,000 pounds

Bomb Load: 70,000 pounds

 

The prototype model had tandem seats like jet fighters but General Curtis LeMay who was in charge of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) wanted the conventional side-by-side cockpit. The models went from ‘A’ to the current model ‘H’. The ‘A’ through ‘G’ models were manufactured from 1952 until 1962. The last ‘H’ model (Serial Number 61-0040) left the factory on October 26, 1962. Over the years the aircraft has been modified and upgraded. Its airframe has had sections modified and strengthened due to structural fatigue. Its avionics suite has been vastly improved. There are crewmembers who have had fathers (and possibly grandfathers) that have been crewmembers.  There have been suggestions of replacing the eight Pratt & Whitney jet engines with Rolls-Royce models, but this would have been too costly. The replacement of the B-52 itself by the B-1 Lancer (nickname ‘BONE’) and/or the B-2 Stealth Bomber has been suggested but that hasn’t happened. The U.S. Air Force intends on deploying the B-52 until 2040.

The B-52 in September of 2006 became the first U.S. military aircraft to use an ‘alternative’ synthetic fuel mixture. It was 50% JP-8 fuel and 50% fuel from a process called Fischer-Tropsch (FT). This is so we will depend less on foreign oil supplies.  The U.S. Air Force is planning on having all the aircraft in its inventory using this synthetic fuel by 2011. The B-52 has a long history, and it doesn’t seem to be over yet.

 

Boeing – Airbus – GE – Pratt & Whitney – Rolls Royce, Etc.

Boeing – Airbus – GE – Pratt & Whitney – Rolls Royce, Etc.

 

Boeing has been in the news quite a lot since the two (2) following crashes of the 737 MAX Jets:

  1. Lion Air Flight 610 (JT610) on October 29th, 2018
  2. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (ET302) on March 10th, 2019

 

Pratt & Whitney:

The Machinists (Local 1746 and 700 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) went on Strike on Monday (May 5th, 2025). They eventually approved a new four-year contract on Tuesday (May 29th, 2025). The Strike was about wages, job security and other issues.