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Gilbert Lodge Blog
The life and times of Mark and Paula Persons


	Sunday, May 19, 2013: Mark visited the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. They have some of the original Wright flyers including this one where Orville Wright is demonstrating the flyer to an army officer.

	The Curtis P-40 Warhawk was a 1930's design and was the best the United States had as a pursuit plane at the beginning of World War II. It served well in China with the Flying Tigers against Japanese invaders.

	The B-25 Mitchell bomber was used extensively during World War II in a variety of roles including that of an attack aircraft sometimes fitted with a canon in the nose.

	Many different aircraft were employed including this Douglas A-20 Havoc. Maintenance required many ground crewmen to keep 'em flying.

	Then there was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that required a billion dollar effort on the part of the United States to develop and build. This one is Bockscar, the one that dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki Japan ion August 9th, 1945. The bomb killed 35,000 people and injured 60,000. The decision to use atomic weapons against Japan is controversial even today. The facts are that the Japanese were in the process of developing an atomic bomb of their own for use against the United States. More Japanese were killed in previous fire bombing (non-nuclear) attacks, but would not surrender until after the second atomic weapon was dropped. In the final analysis, millions of people were saved from death when the Japanese military finally surrendered after they realized they could not continue fighting the war.

	After World War II, the B-29 was replaced with the B-36 Peacemaker, which had a combination of six pusher propellers on the back of the wings and four jet engines further out on the wings. The B-36 became the predecessor to the current B-52 Stratofortress used in the Strategic Air Command.

	Plenty to see. Even leftovers from Vietnam and the Iran Iraq war.