Driving south out of Bellingham on I-5, I headed for Skagit Regional Airport in Burlington, the new home of the
Heritage Flight Museum.
The museum was founded by Bill Anders, who was in the Apollo 8 crew, which was the first manned spacecraft to go into lunar orbit, in December 1968.
The museum was not yet open to the public, but I met Belinda and Mike's daughter, Kate who manages the museum and she showed me around.
PT-19 Cornell:
F-89 Scorpion (the second one I saw on this trip):
A very nicely restored O-1/L-19 Bird Dog:
A MASH H-13 (waiting for a tail-rotor) and behind, an O-2 Skymaster:
Not part of the collection, but the first Carbon Cub I had seen:
After chatting to two people working on the Cub, I spotted this engine:
One of the guys working on the Cub shouted "What's that?" and in my best TAP voice, I said "It looks like an early Gnome Monosoupape."
He laughed and said "Look more closely!":
One of only two Indian (as in motorcycle) Rotaries, built by the Hendee Manufacturing Company:
I left the museum about lunchtime and since my next appointment was east of Everett at 6pm, I decided to drive over the bridge to Whidbey Island to go to the PBY-Naval Air Museum in Oak Harbor.
On the way into Oak Harbor, I passed a couple of impressive gate-guardians at the entrance to NAS Whidbey Island:
The museum was closed but I was able to have a look at the PBY. It looks a bit odd without its wingtips and floats:
I then drove the length of Whidbey Island and took the ferry across to Everett, drove past Paine Field and the Boeing factory:
