Walkabout With Wheels Blog: The Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia

Eric and I enjoy military museums, especially aviation museums. The admission here is free.

Eric at the Museum of Aviation
at Robins Air Force Base.

The first of four buildings that

make up the Museum

of Aviation

With four buildings to visit, I had to choose just a few photos to share.

One of the famed
Flying Tigers

Curtiss P-40N Warhawk

Japan had long looked to China as a source of needed raw materials. In 1931, Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria, and continued to take more territory. Skirmishing along the Chinese border led to all out war in 1937. With their highly trained and equipped army and aircraft, Japan quickly took control of Chinese ports and industrial areas. In desperation, China asked retired Army Air Corps Captain Claire Chennault to form a Chinese Air Force. Chennault recruited Army Air Corps and Navy pilots to join the American Volunteer Group and take back China's skies from the Japanese.

The planes in Chennault's three squadrons were painted with tigers' teeth, and the group became known as The Flying Tigers. The fighter planes attacked Chinese positions and Japanese aircraft in the China Burma India Theater of Operations. Protecting the 600 mile Burma Road assured that supplies would make it into the beleaguered China. The Flying Tigers did their job and had an impressive record of accomplishments.

Hollywood rushed the Flying Tigers film into production. It debuted in 1942, with John Wayne in the starring role of Captain Jim Gordon.

An Army Jeep sits in front of

North American A6 "Texan."

This trainer was used by the US Army Air Corps, Navy, British Royal Air Force and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II.

The Briefing Room, where
pilots gathered to get information
on their upcoming missions.

An Army Air Corps Officer

Winter Service Uniform

& Flight Jacket with

log books & patches

The Bombardier & Navigator
at work on a bombing run.

Women Airforce Service Pilots,

(WASPS), transported trainers

from factories to military bases;

towed targets for student

antiaircraft students; laid smoke

during exercises; flew engineering

test flights; made simulated

gas attacks during Wold War II.

The secondary plot line in Ivan Doig's The Eleventh Man is about WASPS transporting planes to Alaska, for delivery to the Soviet Union.

Georgia native, Colonel Robert

L. Scott, commanded the Assam-

Burma-China Ferry Command that

brought supplies over the Himalayan

Mountains into China during

Wold War II.

Major Scott wrote about his aviation experiences in God is My Co-Pilot, published in 1943. The book made it to the big screen in 1945, starring Dennis Morgan.