January 20, 2020 - Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA

Today, Mugsy and I were headed for Reading, Pennsylvania to have lunch at Klinger's and checkout the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.

Weather on this January winter day wasn't bad.  A little cool perhaps but the winds weren't bad and visibility was great.  After takeoff, I noticed a little ice along the shores of the Back River.
   
On final for runway 33 at Easton.
   
Mugsy and I departed Easton as a flight of two and headed north up the Eastern shore at 5,500 ft.  This picture doesn't capture it but as I said, the visibility was outstanding, and we could see Baltimore very clearly from here.
   
Both Mugsy and I have ADS-B Out and were picking each other up 4.0.
   
Although I've flown this way a million times, I rarely fly up high this way and with visibility this good, so I got a good look at Aberdeen Proving Grounds on the other side of the Bay.  It's restricted airspace over there so you can never go in there.
   
We did an overhead break at Spaatz Field, Reading Airport, which is a towered airport, parked in front of the terminal building, and had a nice lunch at Klinger's.  Then we hopped into our planes, called Ground, and taxiied to the other side of the field to the museum.  We weren't sure where to park so we just parked right in front of the big museum hangar.
   
Parked in front of a big boy.
   
We went into the Museum office building/front entrance, signed in, and talked with the museum people.  They have a bunch of information and artifacts in the office building.  Then a guide showed up and took us into the big hangar where most of the airworthy planes in the collection are.
 
The guide was outstanding.  He really knew his stuff.  And they have a lot of stuff.  I think he answered every question we had and Mugsy and I are a tough crowd.  We know a little bit about airplanes too.
 
This is their airworthy B-25:  Briefing Time.  It flies around all over the place.  I probably saw it at Oshkosh 2017 when I was there Briefing Time was one of 13 or so B-25s that flew a re-enactment of the Doolittle Tokyo raid of 1942.
   
Nose art this good deserves a closer look.  That's our guide at left.
   
Hard to see but this is a Consolidated Vultee BT-13A Valient.   Student pilots flew this basic trainer after learning to fly in a Stearman or PT-17.
   
A big, airworthy T-6.  After basic training, student pilots going to fighters would fly the T-6 for advanced training.
   
The flagship airplane of the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is this P-61 Black Widow nightfighter which they are bringing back to life.  It is only one of four P-61s in the world.  The other three are in the National Air & Space Museum at Udvar-Hazy, the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, and some Chinese museum of all places.   This will be the only flying P-61 in the world, however.
   
This P-61 crashed into a mountain in New Guinea on January 10th, 1945.  The recovery took ten years or so with the aircraft arriving in Reading, PA in 1991.  The museum has a very nice web page describing the recovery and restoration:  Link.
   
Nightfighters have to be fast to catch the bombers, so the P-61 had two powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800-25S Double Wasp engines.  This is the same radial engine that powered the F6F Hellcat, F4U Corsair, P-47 Thunderbolt, and B-26 Marauder just to name a few.
   
Nightfighters also have to be heavily armed to be able to bring down the big bombers quickly.  The P-61 was beyond outstanding in the heavily armed department with four 20 mm forward-firing cannon mounted in the lower fuselage (pictured here) and four .50 in Browning machine guns mounted in a remote-controlled dorsal gun turret.
   
Speaking of dorsal gun turret, here it is.
   
Looking at the rear of one of the R2800 radial engines.
   
Looking back at the empennage.
   
This is the rear of the fuselage where the radar operator would sit.
   
I thought you might want to see what a complete P-61 looks like.  Hopefully in the not too distant future Moonbeam Baby will look like this!  I think this one at the Udvar Hazy NASM is missing the dorsal gun turret though.
   
A Rutan VariEze hanging on the wall.
   
ZZZ
   
A bare-metal Ercoupe takes shelter under the B-25.
   
A beautifully polished PT-22.
   
Another look at the PT-22.  How do they keep the polish job looking so good?  A Twin Beech "bug smasher" as my Dad would call them sits in the background.
   
A very substantial gyro-copter.   It's a 1971 McCulloch "Super J2" Gyroplane.
   
A Pratt & Whitney R-4360 "Wasp Major".  Producing 3,400 horsepower from 28 cylinders in seven rows of four, the R-4360 was the biggest baddest radial engine ever made.  Top of the line.  Six of them powered the gigantic B-36 Peacemaker bomber.   They later added two pairs of jet engines to the B-36 -- its slogan became "six turnin' and four burnin' ".
   
The museum has a very nice TBM Avenger torpedo bomber that they fly around to airshows and fly-ins and give rides in.
   
The museum had multiple cases of very well done plastic model aircraft including this He-219 Owl nightfighter.
   
A JU-88 nightfighter.
   
A He-111 medium bomber along side a red tulip nose Me-109.
   
Reading Airport used to have as many as 13 passenger aircraft come in each day, including Capital Airlines flying the Vicker Viscount with four turbo-prop engines.   But they stopped flying into Reading by 1961.
   
The guide took us outside to look at the aircraft on static display.   This very unusual STOL aircraft is a Custer "Channel Wing" CCW-5.
   
I know this aircraft.  It's a Lockheed P-2 Neptune.  The P-2 was the predecessor of the P-3 Orion and flew maritime patrol for the U.S. Navy as well as other countries.  They have been used for firefighting as well.
   
Our RVs are parked in front of the static display aircraft including a Capital Airlines Vicker Viscount.  The tower and main terminal to the left in the background, across the airfield.
   
XXX
Taxiing by a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.
   
Taxiing by the P-3 Neptune and an old Navy helicopter.
   
We did a section takeoff and were soon winging our way south with a nice tailwind.
   
There is a dusting of snow on the ground.
   
Looking west as the sun reflects off the snow-covered ground.
   
Mugsy and I split up and I headed for home.  Here I have crossed the Bay and am looking north at Pleasure and Hart Miller Island.  Great flying day!
   
 
 
   
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