Tuesday, December 15 — Awake about 4, finally up about 5 and sorted more aviation history to bring to AKM. Arrived 7:20, put things away. Worked upstairs in Process and Intake rooms making things neater and spending a lot of time in the area around the scanner. Made good progress. Stopped at 1 for lunch: more cantaloupe and cookies. Went back up, napped for two hours on the cot and worked until 7:15 in the photo area of the Process Room. Scanned some pictures from early years. Back to office to finish the cantaloupe, and back up and resumed until 9:00. Met CFI Alex who remembered meeting me at Chanute Air Museum some months ago. He and his student pilot Raymond are with Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois. Had a brief visit, nice fellows; promised to return and see the whole museum. Made my DAY. Back upstairs to scan some pictures from my halcyon younger days, back to office, posted one at Fb and went home at 9:45. Day rating: A
Pictured below is a C-46 visiting an open house held by the 170th TFS, Illinois Air National Guard, Springfield in the early 50s. The local unit flew a Curtiss support transport in its early days, but the Arctic ops colors on this one suggest it’s a visitor. This is a scan of a slide donated a few years ago by an AeroKnow Museum supporter.
This sharp fellow posing with an inert cannon shell used to train Fairchild Republic A-10 armorers, donated by a friend in the military, was photographed during a gathering at a duplex I rented on Glenwood Avenue in the mid 80s when I worked at K’s Merchandise Mart. He was the stereo sound system expert, and I was the camera expert. Today he flies Levi Ray and Shoup’s Citation X and I direct AeroKnow Museum at the same airport. He has visited AeroKnow Museum once. They were a pleasant three minutes.
I photographed this sailplane at a Scott Air Force Base open house in 1967. It’s probably the only airplane I every photographed that I can’t identify today. Can you? Please comment with your answer.
Abe Lincoln's Air Force 