Air Force Museum

Wednesday we drove over to Wright Patterson Air Force Base to the Air Force Museum. Dad wanted to go there because from 1946 to 1955 he worked at Curtiss Wright inspecting airplane propellers. One of the propellers he inspected was 108 inches long. No one seemed to know what plane it belonged to (or at least they didn't say) and Dad has wondered his whole life what plane this huge propeller belonged to. When he was here in February, I did research on the web and the only plane that has a propeller that big was the B-36. The Air Force museum in Dayton has one of the few remaining B-36's, so we started making plans then to get to the museum.

We got to the museum and headed straight for the B-36. Dad was somewhat disappointed as the B-36 on display there has squared off tips and the props that Dad inspected had rounded tips. What we've since discovered was the B-36 at Dayton is a B-36J and the plane Dad inspected props for was an original B-36 (no letter after the designation). Again, I did some more research and found a picture of a B-36 prop with rounded tips.
Dad by the prop of the B-36J.

In spite of the disappointment in not seeing the prop he inspected, Dad had a wonderful time seeing all of the planes on display at the museum. After 6 hours though, Dad was tired and ready to head back to the hotel. (I spent the day in the restaurant at the museum studying for Bible study - 6 hours of quiet, uninterrupted time!)