On The Road 2022, Hangar 25, Big Spring, Texas

 As we continued our trip westbound, we spent the night in Big Spring, Texas.  After setting up camp, we checked our Roadside America App. and discovered there was an aviation museum close by at an abandoned U. S. Air Force base.

During World War II, the Army Air Corp needed a location where they could train bombardiers and they decided Big Spring was a good location for that.

They built a large airport here with all of the facilities to begin training.

They converted Beech 18 civilian transport airplanes into simulated bombers.

This is what an original Beech 18 looks like.

They cut off the nose of the original airplane and then installed a plexiglass nose that would simulate the size and shape of the nose of a bomber.

Then, before each flight, they would install a Norden bomb sight and begin training. 

The Norden bomb sight was a very top secret piece of sophisticated equipment.  It was an improvement over the standard bomb sites that existed before World War II.  The old bomb sites had an accuracy of about 40%-60%.  The Norden bomb site raised the accuracy to over 90%.

This giant leap in technology was very secret and for that reason, the training base had a very high security area where each night, all of the bomb sights were removed from the airplanes and locked into a large vault that was guarded around the clock.

Only certain technicians with Top Secret security clearances and the bombardiers that would use the sights were ever allowed to be within eyesight of the bomb sights.

Here, a bomb sight is being loaded into the nose of the aircraft under armed guard escort before a flight.

Many of the training flights were flown by WASP pilots.

After learning all about the Norden bomb sight from the Docent at the museum, we were turned loose to explore the rest of the small museum.

The first stop was an actual nose from a B-52 bomber, that you could actually climb into.

They say simulators can be just like the real thing.  Notice the death grip Suzie has on the control yoke as she simulates flying the B-52!

View of the pilot's seat and a fist full of throttles.

As big as this airplane is, it was still cramped in the cockpit and took a contortionist to climb into and out of the pilot and co-pilot seats.

The next stop was an A-10 cockpit simulator.  This was just the cockpit portion but here is what the whole airplane looks like.

They had a Cessna T-37 jet trainer on display.

Suzie's dad was a mechanical engineer and early in his career, he was part of the engineering team that developed the J-69-T-9 jet engine used on the T-37.

Here is a file photo of a T-37 flying with a T-38.  

Both aircraft were represented at this museum because after World War II, this training base was taken over by the newly established U.S. Air Force and designated as Webb Air Force Base.

This was a great find and we really enjoyed climbing on the simulators.

We are continuing westbound and if we stumble across any more interesting finds, we will share them with you,

Tom & Suzie

On The Road 2022, WASP Museum

 As we continued westbound, we came across another interesting museum out in the middle of nowhere, at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.

During World War II, the Army had control of all aircraft except for those aircraft flown by the Navy and Marines and that Army flying unit was called the Army Airforce.

All branches of the military were recruiting as many qualified people to train as pilots as they could find to send into combat.

This left a need for support back in the U.S. 

 Someone was needed to move the thousands of airplanes that were being built out to the various training bases and active units and that is when Jacque Cochran, a famous woman pilot of the time suggested that women could fill that role.

 The Army Airforce then established a training base at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas to give it a try.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots museum (WASP) is dedicated to the more than 1000 women who trained to fly as they assisted the home front in support of World War II.

There were no women size flight suits so the Army Airforce sent extra flight suits that they felt they could do without. 

The women called the flight suits Zoot Suits.  The problem was that the Air Force decided that the only flight suits they could do without were size 44 long.

It is unclear if the Airforce sent these as a joke or because they didn't fully support the WASP idea but the women made it work. 

Over 30,000 women applied for the program but only slightly more than 1,000 made it through the rigorous weeding out process and tough physical and mental training involved.

The women were also trained in the maintenance of the aircraft because there was always the possibility of a breakdown while en-route their destination and they needed to be able to diagnose problems and fix them when possible.

It turned out that when learning to fly the various aircraft, some of the more petite women couldn't reach the rudder pedals.  The problem was quickly solved when they were asked, "How many cushions are you?"

Suzie needs 2 cushions to fly a BT-13. 

They also had to learn Morse Code.  Suzie will need a little more practice, although she learned S.O.S. quickly.

There were only 2 real airplanes at the museum.

PT-17 Kaydet

This is a picture of the WASP mascot.

Since there weren't a lot of actual artifacts to show you, here are a bunch of pictures that are pretty much self explanatory, except for this first one.

Here, a pilot is explaining "Pilot Shit".

Here is a 2 cushion pilot

They had a reunion of some of the pilots .

This was a great museum and we hope there will be more surprises as we continue westbound.  

We will keep you posted,

Tom & Suzie