SEATTLE, Oct. 2, 2008-The Museum of Flight’s visually-striking pedestrian bridge spanning East Marginal Way is near completion and is expected to be open to the public on Oct. 20, 2008. The T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge will connect the Museum’s main campus on the east side of East Marginal Way to its west campus, which includes the Library and Archives Building, Airpark and parking lots. It was designed to adapt to the Museum’s future west side development. The project began over three years ago, and from the beginning it was meant to not only enhance visitors’ safety and convenience while crossing a busy thoroughfare, but to delight them with an experience inspired by flight.

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Midland, Texas (September 18, 2008) — Friday, Sept. 19, the Lone Star Flight Museum’s B-25N and B-17G will be arriving in Midland for a long-term stay at CAF Headquarters. Hurricane Ike left behind a wake of destruction in the Gulf Coast area of Texas. An unfortunate victim of the hurricane is the Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) of Galveston. The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) is pleased to offer refuge to the B-25 and B-17 in the hangars at CAF Headquarters in Midland, TX and to assist the LSFM in any way possible. A site survey revealed that the damage from Hurricane Ike was considerable. With seven to eight feet of water in the LSFM hangars and Texas Aviation Hall of Fame and 3-4 feet of water in the gift shop and lobby, the museum has been closed until it can be repaired. Fortunately, LSFM pilots were able to evacuate the B-17, B-25, DC-3, P-47, F6F, F4U, SBD, PT-17, T-6 and F8F before Ike could reach the Gulf Coast.

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Yorkshire Air Museum is proud to announce that it has won the prestigious Yorkshire in Bloom Silver Gilt Award for the second year running. The Museum’s Memorial Gardens and the 20 acre parkland site at Elvington met the high standards in areas such as “Floral Displays; Permanent Landscaping; Environmental Factors and Public Awareness”. Of particular interest to the judges was the Museum’s recent recycling project which has been supported by DEFRA. Waste from the restaurant and gardens is recycled in a huge stainless steel Swedish machine called “Big Hannah”. The resulting high quality fertilizer is then put back onto the gardens resulting in high quality floral displays.

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Oregon’s finest in aviation are honored at the sixth-annual Oregon Aviation Hall of Honor event in McMinnville, Oregon. The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is honoring Oregon’s finest in aviation - men and women who have made important contributions to aviation and airpower in all fields including, but not limited to, military, civilian, engineering, business, education and government. The 2008 recipients are from Damascus, Ore., West Linn, Ore., McMinnville, Ore. and Tucson, Ariz. The Hall of Honor celebration is on Sun., Oct. 19 in the Aviation Museum. The public is invited to the 1 p.m. ceremony. RSVPs are required for the event. Tickets are $25/person and $20/museum members. Refreshments will be served. To purchase tickets, please call 503-434-4185.

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McMinnville, Ore. –Sept. 4, 2008: The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is pleased to announce that Aerospace Industry Veteran, Ken Till, has been appointed to the position of Director of Operations at the Evergreen Space Museum. Till is a retired Aerospace Engineer of 40 + years. Throughout his career, he worked for Aerojet General with a focus on Titan II engines and Polaris engines. He also worked for Lockheed Research on the ablative heat-shields for MOL and Mercury Programs. He additionally worked for United Aircraft/Pratt & Whitney on the solid rocket boosters for the Titan IIC, Titan IV, RL10 LOX-LH2 upper stage(s) and did NASA tech support. Till has degrees in Physical Chemistry and Metallorgy. He has served as a docent at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum for the last 2.5 years.

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SEATTLE, August 28, 2008-Japanese artist Toshiro Sawanuki is renowned for his inspiring paintings of peaceful planets in an infinitely diverse universe. His images reflect the artist’s devotion to humanity, harmony and joy. Harmony of the Universe: The Art of Toshiro Sawanuki is an exhibition of 30 paintings on view in The Museum’s Great Gallery beginning Saturday, Sept. 20. The exhibit runs until Jan. 4, 2009. This is Sawanuki’s first major exhibition in the United States. Sawanuki’s quiet, tender personality and his strong desire for peace enable him to capture the silence, purity and depth of the universe’s vastness. The depth and perspective of his space works project an overwhelming power and dynamism.

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SEATTLE, August 27, 2008-Capt. Arieh Oz was one of the pilots during the 1976 raid to save Israeli and Jewish hostages held by pro-Palestinian terrorists at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. In 1991, Oz piloted an El Al 747 that carried the largest number of passengers ever put on a single plane-1,087-during Operation Solomon, a 36 hour rescue mission that transported over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Capt. Oz visits The Museum of Flight on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. in the William M. Allen Theater to talk about his experiences of being a pilot during some of Israel’s most important and daring humanitarian missions. The program is free with Museum admission.

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Veterans Minister Derek Twigg has expressed his sadness at the death of Gladys Powers, who may have been the world’s last female First World War (WW1) veteran. Mrs Powers was born in Lewisham, and died aged 109 in British Columbia, Canada, on 14 August. She emigrated from the UK shortly after the end of WW1 and lived the majority of her life as a Canadian citizen. Her funeral in Canada is today. In her memoirs Mrs Powers refers to her having served with the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and later the Women’s Royal Air Force. This could make her the last female veteran from any country to have served during the First World War. However all but a few of the Service records of the women who served during World War One were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940, making it impossible to formally confirm her time in the military.

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John Morrison, 86, from Newton Aycliffe near Darlington was a Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner during the Second World War. He completed 11 missions on Whitley bombers before volunteering to fly the Halifax at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, near York. He flew 13 missions with number 35 Squadron at Linton. The last three were against the Tirpitz which had been secreted in a Norwegian Fjord. The target was outside the Halifax’s range, so his Squadron flew stripped down versions to reduce weight and increase distance. The first of Mr Morrison’s Tirpitz raids was abandoned due to bad weather. On the second his crew reached the target and released their bombs, but without success. On the third mission his aircraft was shot down. He spent the rest of the war a prisoner.

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The vehicle that began the era – the M2-F1 – was an unlikely forerunner to the shuttle. The world’s first manned lifting body, the M2-F1 was made of wood, had an internal framework of steel tubes, looked like a bathtub sitting on a tricycle, and had no wings. Conceived by NASA engineers at the Ames Research Center near San Jose, Calif., the lifting body was intended as an alternative to a capsule spacecraft, which returned to Earth dangling under a parachute. A lifting body was not a conventional winged aircraft but rather used air flowing over its fuselage to generate lift. This design allowed it to re-enter the atmosphere and land on a runway like a conventional airplane. The idea of an aircraft without wings met with skepticism among engineers. R. Dale Reed of the NASA Flight Research Center – now the Dryden Flight Research Center – was the exception. Reed was excited about the concept and began testing a series of small balsa wood and tissue-paper lifting bodies, which he flew down the hallways of the center’s main office building and off its roof.

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The British Broadcasting Corporation announced the mission to the Dutch citizens on April 24, and five days later hope began to fall from the sky in the form of nourishment. The Canadian Army and its Allies dropped 4,000 pounds of food, during the last six missions, in designated areas close to the shores so as not to damage the cans. Grant Hetherington, a veteran from the Second World War, recalls one of the six missions he made during the operation as a Wireless Air Gunner. Some German soldiers were patrolling the beach, rifles slung around their shoulders. The moment the food began to hit the shores they dropped their guns and ran…right towards the food. “They were starving too, you see,” Hetherington says.

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SEATTLE, August 19, 2008-Carl Molesworth has written several books about the P-40 Warhawk, including “Sharks Over China: The 23rd Fighter Group in World War II.” The 23rd was the successor to the American Volunteer Group, the famous “Flying Tigers.” Molesworth will share his exciting stories of the plane and the men who flew them on Saturday, August 23 at 2 p.m. Audience questions will be fielded after the presentation, followed by book signings by the author. The program is free with Museum admission. Attendees at the program can enhance the experience of this program by seeing a real P-40 in the Museum’s Personal Courage Wing. The Museum’s P-40-painted in Flying Tigers colors is one of many World War II aircraft on display.

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A 1940s Lancaster bomber will give a stylish send-off to HMS Lancaster as she leaves Portsmouth on Thursday (21/8) for operations in the Gulf. The historic aircraft – part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight which is affiliated to the Type 23 frigate - will fly low over the ship as she leaves her home port. HMS Lancaster will also be given a musical salute as she leaves thanks to crew member William Child, an engineering technician on board. He will play the bagpipes on the Round Tower at Old Portsmouth as his ship sails past.

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DAYTON, Ohio – U.S. Air Force and industry officials joined personnel from the National Museum of the United States Air Force for the opening of the museum’s new Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk exhibit on Aug. 12. Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that sends near-real-time reconnaissance imagery to air, ground and sea forces. The RQ-4A, first flown in 1998, has seen service in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and in several American and international joint forces exercises. Global Hawk’s development highlights the effort to use new tools and technologies to give military commanders highly detailed targeting and intelligence information. The Global Hawk on display flew more than 4,800 hours and provided hundreds of thousands of images in support of U.S. forces around the world. It returned to the United States in February 2006 and came to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in 2008.

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War veteran and long-serving volunteer at the Yorkshire Air Museum, George Martin, has become a Regional Winner and National Finalist in the Nationwide Community & Heritage Awards. Organised as a partnership between the Nationwide Building Society and the Heritage Lottery Fund, these awards recognise outstanding individual contributions to the nation’s heritage and community. One of three regional winners, George will be heading to the Tower of London on November 11th to fly the flag for the Yorkshire Air Museum at a glittering ceremony, where the national winners will be announced. Now aged 88, having been born in Bradford on 28/8/1920, George has been coming to the Yorkshire Air Museum for the past 25 years as a volunteer. Along with a group of about 12 others, mostly from the York Air Gunners Association, he started work restoring the aircraft gun turrets and then creating the unique Air Gunners Room exhibition at the Museum. Until recently, George attended the Museum at least twice a week, but, as he is no longer able to drive, he now comes over twice a month from his home in Harrogate, when friends or family can bring him.

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Air Force One is the aircraft that carries President George W. Bush. “Air Force One,” published by MBI in September 2002, pushes aside the secrecy surrounding the president’s plane, presidential travel, and its meaning to a nation now at war. Before September 11, 2001, the blue and white Boeing 747-200, or VC-25A, was celebrated for its beauty as it whisked the chief executive to fundraisers and ribbon cuttings. An Air Force officer called the plane a “cruise ship,” comparing it to a luxurious seafaring vessel.

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Wichita, KS. August 5, 2008 — The aviation web site, Wings Over Kansas, www.wingsoverkansas.com, has introduced a new feature page called, “Kansas Aviation Legacy.” The new feature was created to build a database of retrievable Kansas aviation history information to be published on the web site, Wings Over Kansas. Feature articles will be added to the new page on a programmed basis to build an extensive archive of articles. Kansas’ long and storied aviation history began soon after World War I and included names like Cessna, Beech, Swallow, Stearman, Mooney, Swift, and later Boeing-Wichita and Learjet. Over the years, the state has been host to about eighty aircraft manufacturers. Today the major players are, Boeing Integrated Services, Cessna Aircraft Company, Hawker Beechcraft, Bombardier/Learjet and Spirit AeroSystems. A wing design component of Airbus North America has a project operation in Wichita. These manufacturers and hundreds of aviation sub-contractors have made Wichita, the “Air Capital of the World.”

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On October 25th, the San Diego Air & Space Museum is honoring national and international air & space legends at its 45th Hall of Fame Induction and Gala. Each honoree was selected for their historic contributions to aviation, space, or aviation technology. This spectacular evening attracts numerous air and space legends to San Diego and will honor the “Distinguished Class of 2008:” Scott Carpenter, one of the Original Mercury Seven “Right Stuff” Astronauts; The Tuskegee Airmen represented by Roscoe Brown and Lee Archer; John & Martha King, King Schools; Dr. J. Robert Beyster, founder of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); Steve Pisanos, of the original Eagle Squadrons; and General Bob Cardenas, USAF Flying Wing Test Pilot. Planned for the evening of October 25, 2008 in the San Diego Air & Space Museum Pavilion of Flight, guests join the honorees for an evening of fun and extraordinary recognition, as each attendee is offered an experiential peek into the lives of these living legends.

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Learn to fly at the San Diego Air & Space Museum with our successful Private Pilot Ground School. This 13-week course will prepare attendees to take the written examination for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) private pilot certificate. We have Certified Flight Instructors, Ground Instructors, and an FAA-designated Aviation Safety Counselor on staff to help with our ground school. Classes will be held in the Museum’s state-of-the-art Education Center led by Museum educators using the King Schools’® course materials and our own hands-on applications of lesson objectives that will prepare you for the Private Pilot Knowledge Test under FAA rules.

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SEATTLE, July 29, 2008—1st Lt. Lynn “Buck” Compton and Tech. Sgt. Donald Malarkey, two of the original members of “Easy Company” (E Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division—immortalized in the book and mini-series “Band of Brothers”) will visit The Museum of Flight on Saturday, August 9 for a 2 p.m. presentation in the William M. Allen Theater. Compton and Malarkey will talk about their combat experiences and the lessons in courage and leadership that changed their lives. Their presentation concludes with a dialogue with the audience. Program is free with Museum admission.

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On August 14, 1944, 22-yearold 2nd Lt Alexander Jefferson of the famed Tuskegee Airmen 332nd Fighter Group was flying his “red tail” P-51 Mustang (named Margo, after his girlfriend at the time) on his 19th combat mission over Europe. His formation’s mission that day was to strafe Nazi radar units right along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in southern France in preparation for the Allied Forces invasion there two days later called “Operation Dragoon.” Using his .50 caliber machine guns, Alex and the other three in his flight blasted over the target at treetop level and max airspeed. While shooting at the radar tower, Alex saw his wingman, Lt Daniels, get shot - his P-51 erupting into a ball of flames and banking right toward the Med which was only a few hundred yards away. An instant later, ground fire came through the floor of Alex’s cockpit and exited through the canopy. In a matter of seconds, Alex pulled back on the Mustang’s stick to gain some bailout altitude while simultaneously putting full nose-down trim in the P-51. When he released the stick, the trim nosed the craft over; and Alex was easily ejected.

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The Hornet is featuring a special exhibit in 2008 that traces the history of aerial firefighting in California and documents how the cornerstone of state and federal firebombing fleets for over 50 years consisted of former Navy aircraft. The Hornet has 2 of these types of aircraft on display - a TBM Avenger (which was airtanker #E22 in the early 1960s and was on contract to CDF) and an S2 Tracker variant. Alameda, CA.- The “Aerial Firefighting in California” exhibit provides an in-depth look at the history of fighting wildfires from the air by CALFIRE. Former US Navy aircraft have provided the cornerstone of air-tankers, heli-tack and air-attack operations. Permanently displayed on the USS Hornet is TBM Avenger that was used for firebombing at the end of its career and an US2B Tracker similar to those currently used by the fire services.

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Chino, CA - Guadalcanal, the target of America’s first offensive of World War II in the Pacific, will be the subject of the monthly special event hosted by Planes of Fame Air Museum at the Chino Airport on Saturday, December 6, 2008. The program will begin at 10 a.m. with a seminar describing the epic battle that established the pattern for future Allied operations in the Pacific, and conclude with a flight demonstration by the Planes of Fame Japanese Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero fighter plane. The initial phase in a step-by-step advance against the Japanese Empire through the South Pacific, the invasion of Guadalcanal was originally named “Operation Watchtower,” but it soon became better known as “Operation Shoestring” due to the tenuous supply situation characteristic of the early days of the campaign. Intending to seize a nearly completed airfield at Laguna Point and an anchorage at Tulagi, the 1st Marine Division invaded Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942. An initially sparse defense by the unprepared Japanese soon gave way to a fierce and deadly campaign that did not end until the remains of the defeated Japanese force finally withdrew on February 8, 1943. The campaign was so fierce that the waters in the area became known as “Iron Bottom Sound” because of all the sunken ships from both sides.

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Chino, CA - Aces of the Red Star will be the subject of the monthly special event hosted by Planes of Fame Air Museum at the Chino Airport on Saturday, November 1, 2008. The event will begin at 10 a.m. with a seminar describing the exploits of Russian fighter pilots from the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, World War II and the Korean War, and conclude with a flight demonstration by a Russian fighter plane from the Planes of Fame collection. Under the banner of communism, Russian fighter pilots were heavily involved in the Spanish Civil War which actually served as a training exercise for the much greater conflict against Nazi Germany in World War II. Subsequently, Russian fighter pilots, generally flying under foreign colors, were very active against their former American and British allies during the Korean War and, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, provided covert support to client states in other conflicts as well.

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Chino, CA - On Saturday, October 4, 2008, Planes of Fame Air Museum at the Chino Airport will feature Dive Bombers as the theme of its monthly special event. The program will begin at 10 a.m. with a seminar describing the most precise bombing technique in use during World War II, and conclude with a flight demonstration by the Planes of Fame Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber. Developed during the 1930s as a more precise way of dropping bombs on enemy targets, dive bombing really came to the forefront of modern aerial combat when the German Luftwaffe employed the dreaded Junkers Ju 87 Stuka in action during the early days of World War II. Dive bombing was particularly effective against naval targets, and it was the U.S. Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific by sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers during the battle for Midway Island in 1942.

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