Cold War Air Museum, cold weather day

Updates have been slow this week as we have had an unusual snowfall with up to 12 inches accumulation, bringing things to a standstill in the area. Our "thin skinned" volunteers at the Cold War Air Museum are not used to working in such cold. This morning's exercise was clearing the snow from the hangar doors so some of our intrepid aviators could take the Mi-2 out for a flight.

On arrival this morning, a brisk wind still made the windsock stand out. The farm buildings just visible behind the windsock are also visible in the picture below, from "Soviet Big Iron Saturday", just three weeks ago.

 

Because the Soviets (and the Chinese) are serious about cold weather warfare, the aircraft are well equipped for the rigors of winter. More so usually, than our local pilots. This picture and several others are available on the museum website for use as computer desktops or backgrounds.

A common problem for little planes that live outside, the accumulation of snow slid off the wings and the weight of the snow remaining on the tail caused this aircraft to tilt backwards. When the snow melts, the aircraft will "plop" back down onto its' nose wheel.

We are happy that our aircraft live inside now, but when they were in military service, they saw much harsher conditions and much deeper snowfall than this.

After three days of snow and overcast skies, the sun finally came out this afternoon. Within three hours, the ramp (that had 6 inches of snow this morning) is almost clear. This group of visitors, who were fascinated by the museum's aircraft, are now fascinated with the idea of a snowball fight before the rare sight of snow completly disappears.

A cold war story, 58-0787 - The "Cornfield Bomber"

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) may be all the rage today, but during the early days of the cold war, a plane, especially a jet fighter, that landed itself without a pilot was definitely an unexpected event.

In 1970, during a training flight in an F-106 out of Malmstrom AFB in Montana an aircraft and pilot got themselves into a flat spin. During his unsuccessful attempts to break the spin, the pilot lowered half flaps, rolled in takeoff trim and throttled the engine back to an approach power setting.

Since a flat spin in an F-106, was generally considered to be non-recoverable, the pilot then did the next thing the flight handbook said to do -- get out of it, i.e., eject. After the pilot did just that, aircraft 58-0787 recovered by itself and established a wings level low rate of descent

When the local Sheriff arrived on the scene above, he found an aircraft with no pilot sitting on the ground in a snow covered corn field, with the engine still running.

Despite some damage to the bottom of the fuselage, the aircraft was recovered and returned to active service, albeit with a new but inglorious nickname, the "Corn Field Bomber". In 1986, when the aircraft was retired, it was placed on permanent display at the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio.

Hat's off from the Cold War Air Museum to this spirited survivor!

Current ex-Soviet Aircraft in Afghanistan

The Cold War Air Museum is happy to hear from readers who want to share their pictures and stories. Andrew has written us from Afghanistan to share some of his pictures from the "constant airshow" of former Soviet aircraft over there. A KC-135R IP in the Air National Guard, he is currently flying the Air Force's newest recon jet (the RC-700A, Global Express). In addition to being an avid student of Soviet aircraft, Andrew owns and flys a Yak 52! Thank you, Andrew!

Andrew and a Mil Mi-8MTV

Andrew and an Antonov An-32

Andrew and a Kamov 32

Antonov An-124, second largest aircraft in the world after the An-225.

(We're still looking for Andrew in this picture)

Cockpit of the An-124

Mil Mi-26

Antonov An-12

Antonov An-12 wreckage in a minefield

More Miguel's MiG Models

Miguel, photographer and museum associate, has used the aircraft at the Cold War Air Museum as a backdrop for his work before. Our cold war era aircraft, equipment and uniforms help accent his work.

This Saturday he photographed Sarah, a professional model from the DFW area who was excited to augment her portfolio with something more unusual.

 

The weather was freezing, the wind was blowing, but Sarah was a real trooper. Here she is posing with one of the museum's L-39s in a cold war era uniform.

Always the professional, it's hard to tell from this photograph that she was mere moments away from becoming an ice sculpture.

Inside, Sean and Rene were able to locate some heaters and Miguel got these terrific shots with the Mi-2 helicopter and MiG-23 supersonic interceptor.

  

As the MiG is undergoing restoration it was possible to put Sarah in the front seat of the Sparka and let her light up the caution and warning panel without fear of her setting off the pyrotechnic charges that would normally be part of the ejection seat. The result was this very unusual photo of Sarah and the "christMiG tree" lights.

Our thanks once again to Miguel for letting us use some of his photos on the blog. A larger collection of photos can be found on his Flickr page.