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Pacific Air Museum PIREP

D

dswo

Charter Member 2011
http://picasaweb.google.com/dokwok/PacificAirMuseum#slideshow/5479052070213140370

I was on Oahu this week. While I was there, I visited two sites: the two-year old Pacific Air Museum on Ford Island. Contents, while not extensive, are well displayed. There's a Zero, a Stearman trainer, a Mitchell bomber similar to the one that Doolittle flew to Tokyo, an SBD-3 Dauntless, a Warhawk, and a Wildcat. Oh, and there's what's left of another Zero that crashlanded on Niihau after Pearl Harbor. The best thing, to my mind, is that you can get really, really close to the Dauntless.

I didn't try the "Combat Flight Simulator," but there's a photo if you're interested.

Museum website: http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org
 
Nice pictures!

The A6M2 is painted a much darker green than I would have imagined, although this shade might be correct for a factory fresh A6M2. Paint tends to fade and wear rapidly when not maintained and exposed to grit, salt air and sunlight.

The Dauntless looks like it was just rearmed for another combat mission. The paint is faded and worn, really has that Pacific theater look.
 
I noticed the green shade too, was thinking maybe the lights in the hangar threw the color off a bit. It's a beautiful restoration so I would imagine they took care to get the paint right.
 
TARPSBird said:
I noticed the green shade too, was thinking maybe the lights in the hangar threw the color off a bit.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised. These were taken in low light, with an automatic camera, using "night mode," without a tripod. I thought that "night mode" (that's the moon icon if you have a Canon PowerShot) looked more natural than straight "auto" with flash, but I wouldn't trust these for color. If I'd been smart, I'd have brought the camera manual with me on the trip and studied it before museum day. But, no, I didn't think of that until it was too late.

I should also emphasize that there aren't a lot of exhibits. I wasn't alone, so we didn't do the docent tour, which takes you to the restoration hangars. But I would recommend, if you want to see the Pacific Air Museum, do it in combination with something else: the U.S.S. Bowfin sub museum, the U.S.S. Arizona, or the U.S.S. Missouri -- all of which you get tickets for at the same place. Then again, there's such a thing as museum fatigue. I like museums, and when I was 20 I would do as many as I had time for in a day. Partly this was pragmatic: I was in Europe for the first time, and I didn't know when I would get another chance. But even then, I knew I was crossing a saturation threshold, past which you can still notice conventions (e.g., in depictions of the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel always arrives from the left, holding a lily) but not actually see paintings.
 
There are a few things about that A6M2 Zero that just don't look right:
I believe the shade of green probably is pretty close to correct. (Nothing is ever exact.)
The wing gun muzzles should not portrude beyond the wing's leading edge on this plane.
There is a screen on the upper cowl intake. The A6M2 should NOT have an upper cowl (carburetor) intake.
The spinner looks too pointy but perhaps I am wrong.
The exhausts are too long.
The shape of the cowl looks too squared off. The opening in front is WAY WAY too big.
The painted manufacturers information on the left side of the cowl belongs on the aft fuselage.
In one of the pictures, there is a reflection on the top of the cowl in line with the blast tube opening at the front of the cowl. I believe this indicates the top of the cowl is sealed whereas there should be a gun trough here.
I don't think the restorer even came close to doing his homework.

The B-25J has a df loop where the top turret would be on the J. It has a twin gun tail turret though so it probably isn't one of the early ones though. (Yes I know the guns are really broomsticks, but the B-25B that Doolittle flew only had a small blister in the tail with two identification lights pointed aft at the top corners of the windoes. It isn't shaped the same.)

Was the P-40E at Pearl Harbor for December 7th? I thought there were only P-40B/Cs there.

Thanks for the pictures. They show a lot of detail, especially for the Dauntless.
- Ivan.
 
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