I was in Williamsburg post Thanksgiving and took some time to hit a few more museums. I have been to Norfolk area a number of time and always try to check out some of the historic site. Despite all the times I have gone, there are still a lot of places for me to get too. Definitely, an area that is rich in places to see for any armchair historian or gamer!
Well, I took the trek to the museum, which is very close to the North Carolina border. The museum is open from 9:00 to 5:00 every day. Once you wind down some back roads, you come to the museum facility. You start with the main building, which houses the office, gift shop and main WWII collection. The main hall has some artifacts to look at and is connected to a navy hanger on the left and an army hanger on the right. The navy hanger was having a wedding reception being set up while I was going through. What a wife! It contained a number of US Navy WWII aircraft and a few vintage cars! These are set around the periphery and you can walk right up (and under) them. However, no touching is allowed!
Out back, there were a few other aircraft on the tarmac. Same access is allowed, so close inspection is there for the taking. Once I looked at those aircraft, I walked back into the back of the main building and passed through the WWII army hanger. Well, it is not an army hanger, it is a WWII aircraft hanger. It is packed with aircraft from various nations. Once again, you can walk around and under each aircraft. In reality, you have to walk (sometimes crawl) under the planes, just to get to all the planes! I was even able to stand and take pictures of the various cockpits. After I dusted off my pants, I went to the two balconies to see each hanger from above and take a few pictures.
Once I had gone through the main building, I drove down to the WWI hanger, which was down the street. You could walk down to it, but it is a bit of the hawk. I walked into the hanger, which is a rebuild French WWI hanger. Once agin, it was stuffed with airplanes. This time, almost all are actually replicas. However, they still looked great (I am a fan of bringing back old history). Like the planes in the other hangers, these are all flyable (and flown on special days). Once again, I found myself walking and crawling to see everything. Somehow, my old knees forgot how old they were, probably buoyed by my childhood excitement to seeing all the planes! I went through everything and was getting ready to head out when I decided to chat with one of the staff…
A few minutes of talking and I found out they had a Luftwaffe hanger in the staff only area. One of the other proctors came over and offered to take me on a tour. I of course turned them down, not. Off I was to the other hanger. It included a number of Luftwaffe Wunderwaffe paper concept airplanes, build as mock ups! So cool to see these how they might have actually looked! In addition, there are a number of standard German WWII planes. Once again, crawling was the norm! I finished up with that and headed back to the main building to hit the gift shop before the museum closed
It ended up being an unexpected full afternoon. What a spot for the WWI and/or WWI aircraft enthusiast! I am very happy I went and plan to return on one of the flying days on either Fathers Day or October Fly in. Definitely worth the trip.
- Manteuffel