MiGs, Mils and Models

Miguel Relayze from Lima, Peru, recently visited the Cold War Air Museum and decided to schedule a photo shoot with us.


Miguel works for American Airlines and enjoys photography. His work at the museum will be posted soon on his pages at Pbase and Flikr. While he was taking pictures with his professional grade equipment, he and the models graciously allowed us to take some snapshots to share on our museum website. Thank you Miguel and Ladies, you are certainly welcome back anytime!


Our first job was cordoning off the restrooms for use as dressing and makeup rooms. Marie helped the ladies and kept them fresh during the session that lasted into the night.


With the temperature outside hovering at +5 Celsius (we consider that cold in Texas) and the dew point the same, it was good flying weather only for Ducks and Helicopters. The Mi-2 was unable to blow the crud away, so the ground crew fired up the heaters in the hangers to keep the models warm (or at least not as cold).


The ladies brought a number of outfits and we furnished some hats and other items to use as props, but when the photographer called for one more prop, the best we could do was offer Jon. Surrounded by Marinda, Rashell and Leslie, Jon appears afraid to move. We know this museum work is tough, but someone has to do it. We are accepting applications for more volunteers, in case anyone is interested.


The ladies were totally professional about their work. But because I was simply taking snapshots, I was able to catch some fun and funny moments with them. I did note some things that, as our society becomes truly egalitarian, desperately need to be passed on to aircraft and flight equipment designers. (#1) Aircraft steps and control pedals need to be redesigned to accommodate high heels (#2) More variety needs to be offered in flight boots, including heels and more choice of colors and stripes and oh yes, (#3) A good flight helmet should NOT mess up your hair.

All kidding aside, we wish to thank Miguel, Marie, Rashell, Leslie and Marinda for visiting and allowing us to share some snapshots with our on-line visitors. The additional snapshots below do not do full justice to these lovely ladies and Miguel's work. Please visit his page at Flikr for his processed pics from this shoot. Shots from the museum will be posted after he has time to process them.

MiG-23 Walk Around

Our Cold War Air Museum MiG-23 got a walk around with Ben (one of our valued language and technical resources) and Jon asking questions about the aircraft.



Our thanks to Ben, Jon and various associates for putting this together. Special thanks go to Kazik, our favorite "James Bond Villain" stand-in, for taking time out from his visit to help us and to Taylor for his excellent job of filming and editing under adverse conditions.

Aero Vodochody L-39 - Wash, Rinse, Repeat

A recent series of posts (select label "hot wash") on the Cold War Air Museum Blog has been about cleaning the turbine blades on L-39 Bord 107 to lower the engine peak temperature.


We're happy to report that Jon's temperature is now down to 660. Well, actually that's not Jon's temperature, that is his airplane's engine temperature. Even though some of his admirers think Jon is hot, it would be bad if he were that hot, especially since the temperature we are talking about is in Centigrade (Oops, that's Celsius for those of you born in the last half century).

We received a lot of assistance from people telling us how to perform the procedure and we want to thank everyone that contributed! The spray rig Jon made is on the maintenance ladder. A water jug fits perfectly on a drain below the aircraft. How or why they designed for this, we don't understand. But, as our local resident formerly of the Czech Republic likes to say (repeatedly), "Czechs, are very clever people".

Jon checks the patient's output. As 107 came clean, the specimen became progressively clearer.

It Takes a (Global) Village

Blog and Wiki readership at the Cold War Air Museum has really been growing.


What's been the most thrilling, however, is that a couple of people have taken the time to make an account on the Wiki and added or fixed a few of the pages. Both the blog and the wiki are truly becoming the products of a global village... museum members don't have to be "here" to volunteer, they can do it from another continent.

In particular, we'd like to thank "JUMBO" in Sofia, Bulgaria for adding to the at the MiG-21 page.

And anyone else who'd like to help, please make an account (it's easy, it's free) and add or fix up what you'd like. We use the same software as Wikipedia, so everything is under version control. If you feel that your English might not be good enough, no worries — it's much easier for us to edit a post than it is to find original information. You get it started and we can finish it up.

Anything and everything is appreciated! Thanks!!