Before finishing up my holiday in Adelaide, we popped in to the Classic Jets Fighter Museum. I used to live near Parafield Airport, but never even noticed the sign before. Being a little enamoured with pretty much anything military jet, I thought I'd take my similarly obsessed boys (7, 5 and 3 year olds) and wife (what a trooper!).
Upon entry ($9 for adults, $4.5 for kids over 5 and free for the little tackers), we had a very friendly volunteer (Mohan) take us across to the hanger next door, away from the magnificent F-86 and P-38 that were in front of me begging to be pored over. However, it was more than worth it, as we were given brief smiles by volunteers lovingly working on various components of a F4U that was salvaged from a lagoon in Vanuatu. They were cleaning up individual bits and pieces by hand, re-assembling what they could or making a new piece with old fitting and turning equipment. There's still a long way to go on the old Corsair, but already there's enough to impress the size and grandeur of the plane.
In the restoration shed, there's also a Mirage III that was saved from being scrapped after a gear up landing in Melbourne. Not only can you get under it and look at the gear and missiles, but you can get up into the cockpit! Wow! I've never heard of anywhere you can do that!!! In the restoration shed, there was also a flying condition P-51, one of only two Boomerangs left in the world (we saw the other one fly at Temora last year) and a couple of Chipmunks. You can't get up close to these, but they're impressive all the same.
Back to the first Hanger, and you can hop into the cockpit of the F-86 and the Sea Venom (in essence a sea-going version of the Venom and very similar to the Vampire). The P-38 stole the show though. You can't hop into it, but it looks fantastic, especially when you see what it looked like before its 8 year restoration by volunteers from a long sit in PNG (where the elements are pretty temperamental).
The collection also includes a P-39 Aircobra, a Tiger Moth and a Jindivik drone.
Although a relatively small collection, I haven't heard of anywhere else where you can hop into the cockpit and play with the instruments, rudder pedals, throttle and stick. Fantastic.
Here's their link: http://www.classicjets.com/index.html
And here's a photo of my middle boy with a big grin inside the Sabre:
Upon entry ($9 for adults, $4.5 for kids over 5 and free for the little tackers), we had a very friendly volunteer (Mohan) take us across to the hanger next door, away from the magnificent F-86 and P-38 that were in front of me begging to be pored over. However, it was more than worth it, as we were given brief smiles by volunteers lovingly working on various components of a F4U that was salvaged from a lagoon in Vanuatu. They were cleaning up individual bits and pieces by hand, re-assembling what they could or making a new piece with old fitting and turning equipment. There's still a long way to go on the old Corsair, but already there's enough to impress the size and grandeur of the plane.
In the restoration shed, there's also a Mirage III that was saved from being scrapped after a gear up landing in Melbourne. Not only can you get under it and look at the gear and missiles, but you can get up into the cockpit! Wow! I've never heard of anywhere you can do that!!! In the restoration shed, there was also a flying condition P-51, one of only two Boomerangs left in the world (we saw the other one fly at Temora last year) and a couple of Chipmunks. You can't get up close to these, but they're impressive all the same.
Back to the first Hanger, and you can hop into the cockpit of the F-86 and the Sea Venom (in essence a sea-going version of the Venom and very similar to the Vampire). The P-38 stole the show though. You can't hop into it, but it looks fantastic, especially when you see what it looked like before its 8 year restoration by volunteers from a long sit in PNG (where the elements are pretty temperamental).
The collection also includes a P-39 Aircobra, a Tiger Moth and a Jindivik drone.
Although a relatively small collection, I haven't heard of anywhere else where you can hop into the cockpit and play with the instruments, rudder pedals, throttle and stick. Fantastic.
Here's their link: http://www.classicjets.com/index.html
And here's a photo of my middle boy with a big grin inside the Sabre:
