Air Force Armament Museum

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

The plan was to head to the beach today. Duchess and I were thinking that would be a great thing to do. However, we woke up this morning to rain and more rain. Thus, it turned out to be laundry day and grocery shopping instead. We did take quite a few walks but not on the beach. By afternoon the blue skies were showing through and the rain had stopped.

I had been wanting to visit the Air Force Armament Museum so did just that. It's quite a fascinating place. And, best of all, it's free! Of course, donations are accepted. The museum is huge with many aircraft parked on the outside "tarmack". It is located just around the corner from the West Gate of Eglin Air Force Base at Fort Walton Beach, FL. Here are just a few of my favorites.

The SR-71 Blackbird was a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying at mach 3.3 speeds (2,510 mph) at an elevation of 85,000 feet! It flew it's first mission over Vietnam in 1968. Just think instead of driving a motorhome across country, you could jump in one of these and be there in a little over a hour ... phenomenal!

The MIG-21 is a short range fighter interceptor. It's considered to be the most outstanding Soviet aircraft designed since the end of WWII and has been active in every conflict since then.

F-4 Phantom II was first flown in 1958. It has a maximum speed of 1,459 mph and can fly a total of 1,375 miles. There were over 5,000 of these planes built and many of these were flown out of Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam during the Vietnam conflict.

This is the CGM Mace Missle -- check it out.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a compact fighter aircraft. It has a relatively low cost with high performance and has flown many missions including in Iraq. It has a maximum speed ability of 1,500 miles with a distance of 2000 miles.

What else is fascinating about this museum is they have on display many types of guns and bombs used in the wars as well as missles including those that can carry chemical warfare. It is an amazing museum.

Here are three bombs. Notice one indicates it's a "general purpose" bomb! I never realized there were general purpose bombs.

And, if you decide to go for a ride in one of these planes, read the red sign and do as it says and remove before flight.