Military Museums in CDA or WA area? (Idaho Falls, Twin Falls: price, club)

[VelvetSky]

Hi


does anyone know of any military museums around CDA or anywhere in the panhandle?

My husband use to drive tanks and I was wondering if there was a museum with tanks somewhere. I did a google search but could not find anything. He drove m1a1 abrams(I think they are called) It was during the first gulf war. He really misses them. Any info would be appreciated. I know in Minisota they have a place you can drive tanks for a price. But just looking at tanks would be nice.


Thanks

[Sage of Sagle]

Only place I know of is the Pappy Boyington Field Air Museum in Hayden.
Pappy Boyington Filed Museum

Owner Richard LeFrancis is a walking lexicon of WWII info. He's been given so much stuff by veterans, and he will walk you through it display by display. I highly recommend making the stop. It's a very small place, but worth making the appointment to visit.

[elkotronics]

There's also one at Farragut State Park, a former military training center for WWII. It is located north of Coeur d' Alene and south of Sandpoint, ID.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

Only place I know of is the Pappy Boyington Field Air Museum in Hayden.
Pappy Boyington Filed Museum

Owner Richard LeFrancis is a walking lexicon of WWII info. He's been given so much stuff by veterans, and he will walk you through it display by display. I highly recommend making the stop. It's a very small place, but worth making the appointment to visit.

Thanks for posting about that Sage. I always considered Boyington an interesting guy. I read Baa Baa Black Sheep in ~6th grade, and of course remember well the TV series. I hadn't realized there was a museum there, good to know. I really wish there was a warbirds club doing a Corsair restoration around here, that would be a ball to work on. I used to catch some warbirds air shows before moving out here, always enjoyed seeing the F4Us fly.

[VelvetSky]

Thank you Sage and Elkotronics for this info! We will deffinately check it out.

[Sage of Sagle]

Just call ahead. He's open by appointment only.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake

Thanks for posting about that Sage. I always considered Boyington an interesting guy. I read Baa Baa Black Sheep in ~6th grade, and of course remember well the TV series. I hadn't realized there was a museum there, good to know. I really wish there was a warbirds club doing a Corsair restoration around here, that would be a ball to work on. I used to catch some warbirds air shows before moving out here, always enjoyed seeing the F4Us fly.

There is a warbird restoration outfit here in Rigby, and another, I believe, in Twin Falls.

The Corsairs are growing increasingly scarcer every year. They were very powerful aircraft and very twitchy; the Marine pilots who flew them in combat appreciated their sensitivity to the controls and could handle them, but civilian enthusiasts often found they were too much to handle, and a lot of the Corsairs crashed as a result.

They are particularly hard to land; their V wings were designed so a huge propeller could be used to fully employ the radial engine's power, but the wing shape also required a pilot to land with the nose very high, and the pilots could barely see the runway when landing. The aircraft also had to land at high speed to remain controllable. This, too, caused a lot of civilian crashes.

These days, there are fewer than 20 left in the U.S. The British used them, and the French purchased a bunch of them after WWII that saw combat service in Viet Nam during France's war there in the 1950's, so there may be additional Corsairs over in Europe.

The Mustang was a much more forgiving plane to fly for civilians, and was almost as fast as the Corsair. They continued to be part of our arsenal longer than the Corsair and were much more tractable to fly. That's why there are more of them still in air shows today.

During the 70's, Ed Browning, an inheritor of Browning Arms and an Idaho Falls native, sold his interest in Browning Arms and started the Red Baron flying service. He owned a fleet of crop dusters, helicopters and small commercial aircraft, and became a big air racing enthusiast.

Ed owned a highly modified Mustang that used 2 in-line propellers called (of course) the Red Baron. This aircraft broke the world speed record for propeller aircraft, and flew so fast that the record will never be broken until entirely new metallurgy is developed. The tips of the propellers were spinning at Mach 3 on the last pass, and the airframe withstood far more speed than the Mustang was ever designed to handle. It could have flown faster, but the propellers would have disintegrated and the wings would have broken off.

A year later, at the Reno air race, the wings did break off.

Mid-race, the Red Baron's engine suddenly stalled, and with no power, the radical wings, designed for high speed and no lift, made the plane glide like a dropped rock.
The pilot banked and landed the plane on the only flat spot available. The spot was between 2 rock outcroppings, which tore off both wings. The fuselage stayed intact, and rocketed along for about 1/4 mile farther on the sand before finally stopping.
The estimated speed of the airplane when it landed was about 280 mph. The wings contained the fuel tanks, and both exploded after they were ripped off, which saved the pilot's life- by the time they exploded, the fuselage was far past the explosion. Both his legs were broken, and he also suffered a broken collar bone and several broken ribs, but fully recovered. He had picked that spot intentionally, on the opposite side of the airfield, so as to be away from the crowd, the grandstands, and the other airplanes, and no one else was hurt.

Later that year, an equally highly modified F-104 Starfighter, which Ed co-owned with the pilot, broke another speed and altitude record for civilian aircraft, and it, too, crashed soon afterward. The loss of both airplanes put Ed out of the racing business for good.

He eventually sold the flying service and became a snow machine dealer, then retired and moved to Jackson Hole, where he died a few years ago. I did a lot of work for him on all his airplanes, learned a lot, and got to know him and his crew very well. He was a great guy and a stalwart friend. I miss him, and those times, a lot.