Hi all,

Last Friday, I finally got the opportunity to go and visit the Flying Heritage Collection at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. The collection is fairly well known in the area, and has some of the most accurately restored warbirds anywhere, all of which are taken out and flown on a regular basis! They had a free day on Friday to celebrate the opening of their new addition- a hangar to house more of the collection's aircraft, and so I made the trip with my girlfriend's uncle and grandma. Overall, it was an awesome experience, but being a free day, it was fairly crowded, and with the layout the way it was, it was difficult to get good angles or overall shots of the aircraft. I think I managed to get some pretty good ones, regardless; these are a selection of the 805 photos I took in just over three hours...

Spitfire Mk. Vb







Fw 190A-5





Bf-109E-4







Flak 37



JN-4 Jenny



B-25J







Lancaster Fuselage



Fw 190D-13





I-16





P-40C



P-47D and P-51D





P-47D
-note the burned area on the landing gear door where the exhaust hits it when the gear are lowered...




The collection's P-47 is painted as "Talahassee Lassie," which served in the 9th air force during WWII. The man in the blue hat is Ralph Jenkins, the man who flew the real "Lassie" in WWII! He spent some time in front of the P-47, answering questions and sharing stories of his experiences- he had some very interesting stories, to say the least! He also talked about their bombing tactics, which were essentially "point the plane at your target, wait until you're about to run into it, release the bombs, and climb like heck!"



R-2800 Engine Cutaway


MiG-29UB





The only flyable Il-2 Sturmovik in the world.
The small hole in the middle of the photo is an actual bullet hole from WWII, left there by the restoration team!







Hurricane Mk. XII (Canadian-built Mk. I)



Ki-43-I







FlaK 88



P-51D







Hetzer



Newly Restored F6F-5, A6M3-22, P-51D, and P-47D



The outside of the new Hangar 2


I brought my GoPro along as well, and snapped a couple shots with it mounted on a pole (I wish I'd taken a few more with it!)





Panoramas:













I'm definitely planning on going back to see them fly the planes at least once this summer, where I'll hopefully be able to get some in-flight shots!

Also, I started work at the Museum of Flight yesterday- I spend most of my time at the admissions desk, but try to spend most of my breaks and free time getting better acquainted with the airplanes. Even the front desk is ok, though, because you can see all of the traffic coming and going on Boeing Field! Today I saw a train carrying 737 fuselages, as well as a P-8 Poseidon taking off! I haven't had the chance to pull out my little point-and-shoot camera, but I keep it close by, just in case!

Josh I am so jealous,wonderful shots, keep them coming.

Does the museum where you work also have a book shop or a library? One of the benefits when working in a museum in my country is, that you can often get literature for a reduced price or even for free. Moreover many museums have very good non-public libraries for their employes. If the situation in the USA is the same, this could be a golden opportunity to expand your own collection of aviation books.

What Juri _JS says is usually very true..
I know both Duggy and Keith knew that the PC I had before this was built on the USS Midway, This Carrier is docked in San Diego and has a wonderful book shop as well as Baseball caps,Jackets,framed pics etc. My friend got me a name tag.. I bought 5 0r 6 really good Aviation books onboard at a reduced price .

Wow Beautiful Pics thanks for sharing