Warbird Information Exchange

I'm going to be in San Antonio next week on business, and will have a few hours free that I would like to spend looking at local vintage aircraft.

I know that there is a collection of aircraft at Lackland AFB, along with the Air Force Traditions museum. However, I haven't been able to determine if the static aircraft or the museum are presently accessible to civilians (or worse yet, >foreign nationals<), or the hours if so. So far, my attempts to contact anyone at the base have gone unanswered.

Does anyone else here know? For that matter, are there any other must-see vintage aircraft locations in the San Antonio area?

Thanks, Martin

quote from a earlier post:



You could email base public affairs -> publicaf@lackland.af.mil as well.

regards,

t~

I think the Convair C-99 (the transport based on the B-36) is still at one of the bases in the San Antonio area. I know at one point they were talking of trying to get it to WPAFB and the AF Museum, but I don't know if that plan is underway yet.

Walt

I am sure that you can get through the gates to see the statics at the Lackland AFB parage grounds. You'll have to go through some process to get a visitor pass, but it's not that large of a deal.

As for the XC-99...I was just at Kelly Field last month and it wasn't there, so who knows where it actually is.

Check out the Texas Air Museum over at Stinson Field. Very small collection, but they have a nice Focke Wulf.

The Texas Air museum over at Stinson isn't huge, but it's interesting. Also the Alamo Liason Squadron over at Cannon Field isn't huge and it's kind of tucked away, but if you can get ahold of someone to show you the place, it's fairly nice.

If you're going to be in town Friday night (the 28th of Oct.) you might consider going to the Lila Cockrell Theatre downtown. There's a brand new WW2 documentary called The League of Grateful Sons being shown in it's world premiere that evening starting at 6:30 pm. It's part of an event going on all weekend there. The information on the film isn't up yet, but the film festival information is at http://www.independentchristianfilms.com/ I've seen a bit of the film and it's really good.

If you had time for the 45 min. drive to San Marcos, the hanger there is nice, and they have an interesting museum and a nice, large library if you ask.

Other than that, there are some warbirds in different hangars around, but no good collections really. I wish that the city had done a better job of trying to get the CAF back in the day. One would think that with all of the veterans here it would have been different.

Ryan

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Thanks for the heads-up. I've emailed base public affairs, but haven't had a reply to date.

Is the road being referred to here the "West Military drive" that I see on the map (which appears to run between two sections of Lackland)?

Thanks, Martin

[quote="originalboxcar"]quote from a earlier post:

[quote="RickH"]The Lackland aircraft are still accessible. The parade ground they are parked around is right by the road that splits the base. It is a major public road. There is also a visitor center right by the gate where they used to give a pass to walk around the planes. You had to leave your vehicle in their parking lot. But San Antonio is a loooong way from DFW area.[/quote]

You could email base public affairs -> publicaf@lackland.af.mil as well.

regards,

t~[/quote]

Voodoo, the road is Military Dr.

If you want to see the XC-99 you must enter the old main gate at Kelly and go down until you can pickup the road that goes around the end of the runway. You will turn left onto that road that becomes the old southend perimeter road. Follow it around until you come to a gate that prevents you from going any further. The XC-99 is in various states of disassembly for ultimate shipment to USAFM, it should be off of your right front fender. It is located on the south end of the WEST ramp ( where the C-5s are ). This ramp used to be controlled by Kelly West but is now considered part of Lackland, as is the runway.

There are a few statics still extant on Kelly. B-58 & F-111 are sitting next to the Lockheed Martin building as you come into the facility. The big hangars are now controlled by L-M and Boeing and they still do heavy maintenance on KC-10, C-17, KC-135. You can see them when you get on the perimeter road. The big engine on the pole is a C-5 motor.

I was there a couple months back and saw the XC-99 off in the distance. Unfortunately Air Force One was parked right next to it, so there was no way I was going to be able to get close.

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