Warbird Information Exchange

Uh...you're not.

There is a cockpit section from a wrecked SR-71 that has been 'visitorized' so you can sit in it. It's sitting on the floor and you just have to walk up and sit in it.

But the A-12 that is actually on display is the centerpiece of the Great Gallery and you can't get into.

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

Oh, OK maybe that is what I saw. Still looks cool.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

I used to be a manager at the MOF, and the A-12 there is actually quite impressive...sitting with the D-21 drone mounted on the pylon between the uprights. They also have a 'cutaway' engine, as well as one of the Buick-powered 'huffers' parked underneath the plane.

Most of the SR-71's you see on display are the Air Force type, painted black...but this one is an honest to goodness CIA A-12, natural metal with black trim.

As for the F9F on display, I can remember seeing it when the MoF (I believe it was called the PNHAF or something like that back then) had a 'satellite' museum at the Seattle Center downtown at the base of the Space Needle. That's dating myself....

But the unique thing about the MoF's Panther is that it was modified as a testbed for inflight refuelling. It's got a big-a$$ refuelling probe sticking out the front of the nose...something a front-line F9F ever had. I remember when I used to give tours to school kids, they all used to think it was a 'laser' or a missile, or a big gun or something.

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

Chris,
Whenever you decide to head to the great Northwest, drop those of us here an E mail or PM and we'll all hook up @ the MoF and exchange lies..er real, true, honest to goodness aviation experiences!
Those of you in the area agree?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I'm game.

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

I'm game.

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

I'm in... unless I'm off on a roadtrip to rescue an airplane

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"They can teach MONKEYS to fly better than that"

http://www.heritageflight.org
http://www.bravo369.org

Gentlemen, it would be my honor. Beers on me.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

GOOD CALL!!! The Seattle area is flush with really fine craft breweries who all turn out some excellent varities of barley sodas.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I'm wondering that myself.
Could be two different airframes.
I don't have a copy of "An Officer and a Gentelman", but if the film shows the Cougar to have a nose mounted re-fueling probe, then it's probably the MOF's bird. If not, it's another one.
Anybody got a copy of the film they could scan trough and check it out?
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

IIRC the Navy refused any assistance in the making of this picture for whatever reason they had at the time. It's possible that the production crew requested a loan of the aircraft directly from the museum, without the Navy's knowledge? I could be wrong but maybe the locals know better if that Fort was decommisioned or not at the time.

Pete

I was there circa 1974. I went over for the Piane Field Air Fair...
I loved the location at the base of thr Space Needle. hey had the N-156 and a few other planes back then.

They were selling surplus Precise desk models of 707s and 720s (about 6-7" long) in the gift shop. They were something like $12 then. I'm still kicking myself.

Let me know if you get together in Seattle. I'd like to join in...

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

The Army closed Fort Worden on June 30, 1953. It was purchased by the State of Washington in 1957 and opened as a Juvenile Diagnostic and Treatment Center in 1958. That was closed in 1971. In 1973, ownership was transferred to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, who still operates it today. Officer and a Gentleman was released in 1981. The "plane on a stick" was just brought in for the movie.

My grandparents, mom and aunt lived on Officers' Row in the late 20's and again in the mid-1930's. I took my mom to visit her cousin in Washington State in 2006. We took a quick trip to visit Fort Worden. I heard so many priceless stories: eating popcorn behind the base theater, my aunt falling off the second story balcony of their quarters playing on the railing and knocking herself out cold, my mom's cousin vividly remembering "Uncle Jim" having him stand "right here" at Battery Kinzie when they live fired its 12-inch guns on disappearing carriages. It's still hard to believe that only three years later both my mom and her cousin are gone.

Jay

One more story for the night ...

My mom, her cousin and I are in the Coast Artillery Museum at Fort Worden. There is a formal picture on the wall from the 1930s of all the officers and troops lined up on the parade grounds. My mom and her cousin are going down the line rattling off the names of all the officers.

A museum docent notices and comes over to ask if they could identify a particular officer because the museum can't figure out who he is.

Those two were able to tell the docent who the officer was, and that from Fort Worden he was posted to Corregidor and was most likely killed when the Japanese took the islands.

Get those stories from your relatives while you can, because when they're gone, they're gone.

I can confirm the airplane was brought in from Seattle for the movie, then taken back to Seattle. About 90% of the movie was filmed in Port Townsend.
I worked security for the movie when they were in town and it was very interesting to observe.

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Frank

Aviation nut