Model Forum / General / Models / January 2008

You can definitely see it all in one day. Most of the aircraft are
"touchable" but the restored ones indoors tend to be roped off.

Just keep two things in mind: (a) the aircraft get HOT even in the
winter and in the summer some of them can be a couple of hundred
degrees inside (record measurement from nearby Davis-Monthan is
something like 600 F) and (b) watch out for the pesky California
Ground Squirrel burrows -- I have nearly broken an ankle twice thanks
to those critters when backing up to take a photo.

Cookie Sewell

I drive an 18 wheeler for a living and yeah, a little over 2 hours
sounds about right.  As a matter of fact the TTT ( triple T ) truck
stop is very close to the Pima museum.  Not a bad place to stop and
fill up your car and your tummy.  Keep in mind that the Pima museum is
just in one small corner of the AMARG bone-yard.  The bone-yard tour
is a separate deal. ( I think you can pay for a bus tour ).  I dropped
my trailer one day at the truck stop and bob-tailed over to the
museum.  It was summertime and I vowed I was going to walk to every
outdoor display aircraft.  Well ... that didn't last too long.
Basically you are walking in the desert.  I said the heck with that !
A B-52 is a very big aircraft ... and there are three of them
there ... and that's in just one small part of the outdoor display !
Some of the aircraft that stuck out in my mind are :  One of the
original Lear jets in the indoor display.  And outside there was an
A-5 Vigilante.  Cool beans.  Too many others to mention.

Have fun.

Chris

As mentioned, yes, you can walk right up to _most_ of the aircraft.  If
you look closely at them all, it'll take a full day, however it is well
worth the trip.  IIRC the admission is like $11, but as I said, well
worth the trip.  Brings back a lot of memories, and to actually see some
of the older Russian MiG's is incredible.  I can visualize Nikita
Krankshaft raising his fist as he shouts us down.  The museum is real
close to I-10 and on the southeastern end of Tucson, N side of the
freeway.  There are oftentimes some extremely knowledgeable people
present at some displays to chat with.  I hope to go again this spring
myself just for grins when visiting my son & family there.

As I recall, its around a 150 mile trip one way from Phx but its all
freeway in between once you're on I-10.  Be sure to Google it so you
know what the hours of operation are when you go and can maximize your
time there.  Be sure to take a camera!!!

Grandpa John

great place. easy to see in half a day.  only plane that I could go
inside was an He-111.  Missed a B-17 by one day.  Might be worth a
call to see if a certain plane is there or not.

Craig

I also *highly* recommend that you visit the Titan Museum located
about 15 minutes south of Tucson.  It's operated by the Pima Museum
and features a tour of a Cold War ICBM missile silo complete with a
Titan II missile.  I thought this was a VERY interesting tour,
especially since I got to turn one of the launch keys.

Martin

    Ummm, were you going to "cruise through", or were you going
   to actually look at the aircraft? :-)

    I spent most of the day there, shooting things, and barely
   scratched the surface. Okay, so not too many people are curious
   about the wheel wells of the, errrr... large navy blue amphib,
   (Neptune?) but I take requests...

    I also cooled my heels a bit requesting permission to "cross
   the line" to shoot their bomb truck and grader. They probably
   do not get many requests like that...

                            Bruce