The Moffett Field Museum
The Moffett Field in Mountain View, California is a federal airfield that dates back to the 1930s. It's been turned into a museum now.
You can see what it looks like today in the photograph below:
I lived in the San Francisco bay area for twelve years, but never visited this place despite driving on highway 101 umpteen number of times past a visibly huge hanger 1 (that you can see on the left of the runway in the image above) made for dirigibles (airships or blimps a la the infamous Hindenburg). We have seen a rather comical take on a Nazi blimp in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
On a trip to the bay area this time, I decided to drive up; couldn't have asked for a better day - a beautiful, bright typical summer's day with a cool, cool breeze from the bay and not a cloud in the sky. This is THE California weather that people pay higher taxes for.
A little bit of history of the Moffett field - several good web sites discuss it in depth so I won't go into too much detail. US Navy started looking for a base for its dirigibles on the west coast and finally only San Diego and the Sunnyvale remained in competition out of 94 or so communities that vied for the base. A lady realtor, Laura Thane Whipple, a rarity in those times, convinced the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and other communities to put up $470K for a 1000 acres of land from Rancho de Ynigo in the depths of depression. This was later sold to the navy for $1. In the high-res map of the land below, one can still see familiar landmarks such as the Embarcadero Road.
In those days Sunnyvale must have been an important town in the bay area - I wonder what happened later on. Initially called the Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, it was renamed Moffett field in memory of Rear Admiral James Moffett, who died in the crash of the dirigible USS Akron in 1933.
Once you enter the museum, you are greeted by a very nice man who sells you the tickets and gives you a quick introduction to the museum and shows you the best way to get it all in. Plenty of exhibits -aviation buffs can spend hours in here. I am only writing about what I think are the highlights.
First, a photo of Orville Wright, R/Adm Moffett and Dr Ames in a meeting of national advisory committee for aeronautics, NACA, the predecessor of NASA.
Hanger 1 is the second such largest unsupported structure in the US. A Google subsidiary has leased the entire Moffett Federal Field for $1.16 Billion for the next 60 years. Google's founder Sergey Brin is building electric airships here and currently it's in the buff, meaning that the skin is off and just the steel structure is visible.
(Image credit: NASA Ames Research Center)
The museum has a collection of really old newspapers, one from 1859, one from 1873 etc. In general, a very superior way of presenting the data, I felt - plus the lack of breaking news. I should have taken photos but didn't. But, found this on the internet.
When the US Navy was operating the base, some model railroad enthusiasts started building out a HO scale layout. It's DC and is still operational some forty years later - they use Kato locomotives. Now, volunteers spend days maintaining and upgrading it. I met a gentleman who spends two to three full days there - there were several such folks about. If you are into HO scale, this is something worth seeing.
(Photo credit: Peter Reinold)
A real map of the battle of midway. Midway was the turning point in the naval battle of the Pacific in WWII - Japanese Navy was practically destroyed.
I found this clip on YouTube - scenes from the attack that destroyed three carriers from three different movies. I remember watching the one released in 1976.
Now comes the best part - a collection of aircraft of lore. Guided tour by a Vietnam vet who flew P3 Orions as a part of anti submarine warfare is cherry on top.
Here's a Bell AH-1 Cobra.
F-104 starfighter. Our tour guide told us that this has flown as high as 93,000 feet although the service ceiling was 60 to 70K feet, higher than the then soviet bomber fleet. A very long sleek aircraft. You can also see the shell of hangar 1 in the back.
The infamous U2. Such a tiny plane with a huge wingspan. Apparently, the landing gear was really thin tires, so when it landed, a crew would be driving right behind to attach jury struts to the wings
The U2 regularly spied over the USSR till they shot down Francis Gary Powers, which would turn out to be very embarrassing. The plane's jet exhaust had a cover with Skunk Works logo (below), and that motivated me to read Ben Rich's book by the same name. Skunk Works was Lockheed's special projects program and responsible for amazing planes such as the SR71 and the Stealth Bomber. It's a fast paced book that flows well. Rich tells a fascinating story - it is making my belief stronger and stronger that if you want to make something happen, you need a godfather in charge of the program. Leaving anything to the bureaucrats will just result in a net net ZERO.
(Photo credit: USAF / Judson Brohmer - Armstrong Photo Gallery)
But what is on display is the F/A-18 featured in the Maverick. This particular one was flown by the blue angels.
I would recommend that everyone go visit this place. Entry fee is just $8 and you get to see a piece of history real close. Additional benefit - you can get dog tags made with whatever you want written on them for $5.
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