San Diego Air and Space Museum

San Diego has had something for more than 70 years that I have often wished Los Angeles had. A dedicated and comprehensive Air and Space Museum. San Diego has been the site of significant aviation milestones and events. In addition to being considered the home of naval aviation, it also was home to Ryan aircraft which was probably best known for helping to design and build the Spirit of St. Louis for Charles Lindberg's solo trans-Atlantic flight. 

Los Angeles also has a long history of participation in aviation and space flight. Lockheed's Skunk Works developed the first jet fighter, the first stealth aircraft, and the fastest manned aircraft. The North American company developed the Apollo command and service modules that took the first men to the moon as well as the space shuttle. McDonnell Douglas both designed and built passenger airliners in Los Angeles County for decades. 

Despite this impressive history, Los Angeles has never had a comprehensive air and space museum. There was once a small museum, but the exhibits were merged into a much larger science center. It seems the desire for a dedicated museum does not currently exist. The California Science Center is building a museum extension to house its collection of aircraft and spacecraft including the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It will probably be many years until this extension will open to the public.

For this reason and others, I love visiting the San Diego Museum. The entrance features two aircraft. The Convair F2Y Sea Dart and the A12 Mach 3+ spy plane. There are many additional aircraft and spacecraft exhibits inside. I have added several photos of these below. 

 

 

Above the Flight Deck

Kathy and I were recently in San Diego and once again visited the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. As always, she was patient with me and willingly waited for me while I walked around the Museum's enormous flight deck taking photos. It was a beautiful day featuring the scattered clouds and moderate temperatures common to the San Diego coastline. I have previously photographed the aircraft on Midway’s flight deck, so I was deliberately trying to identify a new way to capture them. I thought a new viewpoint might work. As usual, I was using my tripod and taking ten exposures for each (soon to be HDR) image. The use of a tripod to create HDR images was once an absolute requirement because it allowed you to capture those exposures without moving the camera at all. This ensured the post processing software could successfully merge these images into a single HDR image without generating unwanted visual artifacts. What I found was that the software has evolved over the years and has become much more powerful and capable, enabling me to try something new. I set a five second shutter timer on my tripod mounted camera and held it over my head, tenuously raising nearly $8000 of camera equipment about fourteen feet above the flight deck. Not being able to look through the viewfinder, I was trying to align my camera lens in the general direction of what I wanted to capture and to hold the tripod steady, which was exceedingly difficult. I failed several times but succeeded more times than not. I got a few stares from other museum visitors and volunteers, but I ignored that and pressed on, hoping to capture something good.

The photos below are the results.

Earn Your Wings

Just a few posts ago, I was talking about style when it comes to cars. I really do feel that today's cars are sorely lacking in style probably because every design today is the result of a focus group and not the realization of a group of visionaries. I may be wrong but check out this 1959 impala! If this is considered bad design, well sign me up! I'm ready to earn my wings. 

Splendor in the Grass

We often hear it's not a good idea to park your car on the grass while the engine is hot. Your catalytic converter could start a fire. I think this slammed 1930's car is safe as it predates catalytic converters by at least 40 years. The incredibly stylish body and mirror like finish on this car is what stopped me in my tracks at the San Diego, Chicano Park car show on this day in 2023. I just love the exuberant styling common to cars of the late 1930’s. Maybe after the trials of the great depression, exuberance was needed. Things would not be the same after World War II concluded. To poorly quote William Wordsworth:

Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower.
We will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind.

1954 Chevy Bel Air Station Wagon at Sunrise

Shoot right into the sun? Go ahead, break the rules. HDR dominates here.

San Diego Air and Space Museum's Scooter

Here is another flawlessly restored A-4 Skyhawk. This one is wearing the the livery of the USS Hancock's attack squadron 212, aircraft 302 which was once piloted by commander Frank C. Green who was lost over North Vietnam on July 10, 1972 during an armed recon mission. He was listed as missing in action until 2008 when his remains were recovered. He was interred at Miramar National Cemetery in 2010.

The USS Midway's Scooter

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was a very versatile aircraft. Originally designed as a nuclear bomber, this aircraft was able to fly from many smaller world war II aircraft carriers due to it's small size. It fulfilled many roles including air-to-air refuler, light attack, and even filled the agressor aircraft role for Top Gun. The US Navy Blue Angels flew it due to it's nimble performance and ease of maintenance. This small reliable aircraft quickly earned the nickname Scooter.

Pretty Maids

I realize how fortunate I am to be able to experience these great events. I used to live just down the street from a location where an amazing car show was held each year so going to a great show like the Chicano Park day show feels like going home again.

Impala Inbound

We spotted this cool impala nearly as soon as we entered the Chicano park area. I didn't have my camera out of my bag yet and it slowly cruised past us down the street leading to the park. Thankfully, I saw it crusing by once again and this time I did have my camera ready and captured several images of it.

La Gente Disturbing the Gentrifiers in Chicano Park - Barrio Logan - San Diego

The 53rd annual Chicano Park Day Celebration and Car Show was held on Saturday April 22, 2023, in the traditionally Mexican American Barrio Logan neighborhood. This very popular event honors the movement started when the people of this neighborhood organized to stand up against the City of San Diego after the city made several unilateral moves without input from the residents. These included giving large sections of the neighborhood to the US Navy and cutting off the resident’s access to the beach and the San Diego Bay. Then the city changed the zoning of barrio logan to allow industrial businesses to move in. Noise and air pollution from junk yards and other industries mixed in with the residential homes made life in Barrio Logan intolerable. The Interstate 5 freeway and the on-ramps for the Coronado Bay Bridge were built and bisected the neighborhood. The last straw was the city reneging on their promise of building a park for the residents in Barrio Logan but then without warning beginning construction of California Highway Patrol station in its place instead. The people revolted, banded together and physically stopped the construction project. They occupied the land for 12 days while negotiating with the city. The city, seeing that they could no longer do as they wanted without significant opposition, acquiesced and the 32,000 square foot park was built on the site later that year. It features a large collection of outdoor murals and has been designated a national historic landmark.

Ironically, upwardly mobile young professionals have been moving into the neighborhood and are displacing long-time residents. In prior years they might not have felt safe here, but they now see this area as a desirable place to live. I think all the noise and crowds that attend this show must disturb these new residents. Hopefully they take the time to understand the importance of the day.

This wide-angle view depicts one of the murals painted on the concrete support for the bridge on-ramp. It reads “Varrio Si Yonkes No!” This does not mean Yankees go home or anything similar. It means neighborhood yes, junk yards no! Just beyond the park’s borders you can see a building containing new condos.