Hill Air Museum

[eric_stevens]

I stopped by there today and I recommend it to anyone in the Salt Lake area. It is a must see. They alot of nice airplanes. The P-38 is in great shape. The stuff that is outdoors is starting to show signs of corrosion though. The B-29"s right wing is lookking a little worse for ware. It loks like somebody bent one of the prop blades on the C-124.
On the way there I stopped by the Ogden Municipal airport and there was a dehaviland vamoire there, I was not able to get any photos of it, or a serial number but it was silver in color.
When I get home next week I will post pictures on the web From the museum

[TimAPNY]

Any wings on the B-24D they have? I've been waiting to see if they will update thier website but othing on that yet. I hope to get there someday.

[kurbelgehause]

Hi,

I was at the museum a few days ago and spoke to one of the staffers.
He said the B-24D wings are in a shop on the west coast, are overdue, and should be delivered in the near future.
The museum has built a diorama of a factory with the fuselage next to an wooden assembly platform that is positioned under the wing (or where the wing will be). It will look nice when completed.


all the best,

Ray Crawford

Kaysville, Utah

How well are the aircraft restored?

[Joe Scheil]

I really do not believe that the aircraft are "restored" at all. The P-38 is a great example of this. The aircraft was recovered from an alaskan wrecksite and was pretty rough. The basic structure was better than the Greenland P-38 in terms of structural integrity, it was in one piece. The whole thing was corroded though, while the Greenland one had no corrosion, it was just broken up by glacial action. The aircraft was recovered by the military though and thus had no chance of flying again. I guess it passed to Hill and they had a shop in California build a static display museum article out of it. They did not restore it to airworthiness, nor can it be in its current state. It must completly come apart again. None of the structure has been done to flight standard as far as I know. Spend some time with a flying 38 and a look at this one is interesting. The P-40 they have is the same way, basicly a non flying replica built on a wrecked center section. The B-29 and C-124 are outside displays, and suffer as well but are pretty well taken care of.

The Hill museum is doing incredible things with the money that they have. It seems to be considerable, as their B-17 looks great the B-24 should be wonderful, and the 38, 40 and 51 are good looking statics as well. The important thing to remember from a survivor standpoint is that the B-17 is a whole aircraft, while the new replica structure on the 38 and 40 are unable to ever fly. To me restoration is restoring and aircraft to its natural environment and capabilities. NASM seems to do this for their statics, but they start with complete aircraft as well. The Hill aircraft are good, but are a big compromise. Why not sell the wreckage of the 38 and put a fiberglass replica on gear to do the same thing? Don't have the answer. I wouldn't want to travel to see a fiberglas replica, while looking over their 38 I just wondered how much of it you could use....

Thanks for the answer. I only saw how quickly the restorations have been done, didn't know how well they'd been done. Very glad to see an early model B-24, P-38, I agree. By any chance have you seen teh static P-38 in Alaska?

HI I THINK THAT WITH WHAT THEY STARTED WITH THEY ARE EXCELLENT!!!THE P-38 WAS IN VERY POOR SHAPE AS WAS THE B-24!!!THIS IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF TRASH TURNED TO GEMS!!THEY MAY BE GROUND HOGS BUT BEING IN A MUSEUM LIKE THIS THEY WOULD NEVER BE FLOWN ANYWAY.THEY LOOK VERY GOOD FOR STATICS!!NO POP RIVETS GOOD WORKMANSHIP AND THEY ARE REAL AIRFRAMES NOT PLASTIC TOYS!IF THE P-38 AND B-24 ARENT REAL ENOUGH BECAUSE THEY DONT FLY THEN AT LEAST BE HAPPY THEY DIDNT GET SHREADED AND SENT TO JAPAN AS SCRAP!! THEIR MUSEUM IS FIRST CLASS AND I THINK THEYVE DONE A EXCELLENT JOB, LOTS OF AIRFRAMES,VERY USER FRIENDLY,MANY RARE A/C!!THIS PLACE IS A MUST IF YOUR IN THE SLC AREA.YOU WONT BE DISAPOINTED!!HATS OFF TO ALL THE MAN HOURS/MONEY THAT HAS BEEN INVESTED FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT THIS IS TRUELY A MUST SEE FOR ANY WARBIRD NUT !! THE GIFT SHOP SELLS A VIDEO OF BOTH RECOVERYS WHILE NOT OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY IT WILL GIVE YOU THE INSIGHT TO THE EFFORTS OF RECOVERY AND WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH WHAT MOST WOULD CALL JUNK!!!!I WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO SEE THIS KIND OF EFFORT PUT TOWARDS SOME OF THE JAPANESE/PACIFIC WRECKS STILL WAISTING AWAY IN THEIR JUNGLE GRAVEYARDS.I SUPPORT THIS TYPE OF EFFORT ALTHOUGH NOT FLYING THEY WILL BE PRESERVED FOR ALL TO ENJOY!!THANKS MIKE