There's an indisputable appeal to aviation relics, an allure born of the combination of history preserved and the dream of flight made manifest.
It's strong enough to make normally reasonable folks drive 20 miles out of their way to stand on cracked tarmac, squint up through the heat at some oil-streaked hulk, nod and say, "Yup, that's a Lockheed Lodestar. An old one, too."
It's also strong enough to gloss over many of the limitations found in aviation museums and collections. Many preserved airframes are retired World War II types -- hot-rod fighters such as the P-51 Mustang or sturdy workhorses such as the B-25 Mitchell or C-47.
Fifty years have left these planes lucky to be around at all. And as a result, even the best air museums lack much focus beyond a particular era.
That's what makes the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla., such a treasure-trove -- an aircraft enthusiasts' Louvre. The U.S. Navy was an original owner with nearly unlimited resources for the more than 100 aircraft on display on the museum's 27-acre grounds, and there are dozens of little-known aircraft.
Sure, there may be an F4D Skyray on a post in front of some VFW hall out in the great Midwest somewhere, but it's probably not in showroom shape like the national museum's.
(For those who are wondering, the F4D was the Navy's all-weather interceptor in the late 1950s, and in 1953 it was the first carrier-based aircraft to set a world speed record. If you took the sleek delta-wing airplane and painted it jet black with red pin-striping, it would be perfect for Batman.)
Ringed with aircraft too big for inside display -- big jets and four-engined propeller planes, mammoth flying boats that manage to convey a sense of lumbering even while sitting still -- the museum building still seems huge.
Covering some 250,000 square feet and well over three stories tall, the museum's interior features nests of airplanes backed together on the floor, with more suspended overhead. Grouped according to era, the aircraft are given context by various smaller displays. The faces each era knew -- in their goggles and leather caps, flight suits and sheepskin-lined coats -- look out from glass cases around them.
Providing this context is where the museum shines.
There is a re-creation of a World War II Pacific-theater flight deck, complete with carrier island, signal flags and gun tubs. Across from the F4U Corsairs and F6F Hellcats sits their arch rival, the Mitsubishi A6M2B Zero. Long and elegant as a dragon-fly, the Zero is quite a contrast to the thick, sturdy American planes.
There's the gondola from a K-47 patrol blimp, brought forward from an era in which anti-submarine work wasn't a chip-driven tech fest out of "The Hunt for Red October," but a couple of guys with binoculars flying around rather slowly. As a result, the many-windowed gondola, with its chairs, desks and stove, looks less like a sub killer and more like a cross between a greenhouse and a cheap hotel room.
One of the most impressive things about the museum is that this collection of machinery allows you to perceive broader patterns, connections of design, philosophy and cause.
Because the museum is devoted exclusively to Navy, Marine and Coast Guard aviation, the changing role of those services can be seen in the aircraft, as well as the change in America's world role. Domestic politics also pop up; several aircraft represent rivalries between the Army and Navy.
Perhaps the best known of these is the historic P2V-1 Neptune "Truculent Turtle," which in 1946 flew nonstop from Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio, covering the 11,236 miles in 55 hours, 17 minutes -- a record that stood for 16 years. Although a dandy opportunity to test a new machine, the effort had another goal: The Army Air Force was mounting a push in Congress to obtain control of all land-based air operations, and the Navy needed some PR to counter it.
As people have pushed back the limits imposed on them by physics, design has also changed. After World War II, reciprocating engine technology was at its apex, resulting in monsters such as the 25,500-pound Grumman AF Guardian. Forty-three feet long, with a wingspan of almost 61 feet, it seems too big to have just one engine, even if it is one developing 2,400 horsepower.
Anyone who has stayed too long at a cocktail party has had the discussion about whether art and physics are really the same thing; the atrium of the museum provides a breathtaking example of how close the two disciplines can be.
From the atrium's high ceiling hang four A-4 Skyhawks, descending in a diamond formation and painted in the colors of the Navy's Blue Angels. From any angle, they so powerfully pull the viewer into their sense of movement and direction they cease to be airplanes hanging from a ceiling and become something that Alexander Calder might envy.
The early aircraft are equally impressive. The Navy's first aircraft, the not-surprisingly designated A-1, was purchased in 1911. An exact reproduction, it's the only aircraft in the collection that isn't an original; from today's perspective, it looks like an ultralight on steroids bolted to a flat-bottomed boat.
The A-1's bigger cousin is the most striking piece. Dominating its half of the museum, the Curtiss NC-4 flying boat is the kind of Byzantine tangle of spars, wires and stretched fabric you usually find faithfully re-created inside a bottle. Despite its elementary design -- open cockpits, exposed rocker arms and radiators on the four, 400-horse Liberty 12A engines -- the biplane looms surprisingly large, 68 feet long with a wingspan of 126 feet.
Museums act to foster an appreciation of the present by expanding our understanding of the past, something the National Museum of Naval Aviation does on many levels.
In this age of satellite-locating systems and afternoon Concorde hops across the Atlantic, it fills one with a strange sense of wonder -- at who we are and how far we've come -- to think that only 48 years ago the "Truculent Turtle" was a miracle of self-sufficiency, relying more on instruments and radio than surface ships. Even then, there was a 20-hour stretch where no communication was possible. When the NC-4s crossed the Atlantic 27 years earlier, they relied on a picket line of destroyers 50 miles apart to keep them on track. With a zippy top speed of 85 mph, the trip took 19 days and had to be made in four legs.
There's also a less academic institution a few miles away. Trader Jon's (511 S. Palafox), open since 1951, has been a favorite watering hole for those going through training at NAS Pensacola. It occupies a warm place in the hearts of many, most of whom seem to have contributed to the swarm of photos, model airplanes, equipments and memorabilia that hang from every free surface; you can walk around for hours, beer in hand, studying the walls.
Some holiday weekends there are air shows at NAS Pensacola; taken with the museum, such weekends afford enough aviation exposure to satisfy the most avid fan. The famed precision-flying Blue Angels, who are headquartered here, often perform.
The span of Pensacola's history as a city dwarfs that of manned flight, however; the first permanent settlement here was founded by the Spanish in 1698. Numerous signposts from that history survive, from the 18th-century Fort Barrancas, which is on the grounds of NAS Pensacola, to the Civil-War-era Fort Pickens, nine miles west of Pensacola Beach on Fort Pickens Road.
Historic Pensacola Village (120 E. Church St.) presents a complex of 18th- and 19th-century buildings. Among them are the Charles Lavalle house, built in 1810, and the Classical Revival architecture of the Clara Barkley Dorr house, built in 1871.
Lovingly restored, they are reminders of the days when the biggest things flying around Pensacola were the pelicans gracefully skimming the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
IF YOU GO . . .
Pensacola has a fairly straightforward layout and is tourist-friendly. Most hotels offer a local map.
Museum, forts: The National Museum of Naval Aviation and Fort Barrancas are on the grounds of Naval Air Station Pensacola, at the south end of Navy Boulevard.
The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Call (904) 452-3604.
Guided tours of Fort Barrancas are available. For more information on the fort and other base attractions, call (904) 452-2311.
Fort Pickens is open daily and offers guided tours. Admission is $3 per vehicle; senior citizens admitted free. (904) 934-2635.
Historic Pensacola Village offers a number of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, including the Lavalle and Dorr houses. (904) 444-8905.