Pee-Wee and Nag's Sky Tours (and Other Thoughts)

[LeafyNight67562]

Good evening, Flight Simmers and History Buffs! Today we’re returning to Cuba in the historic Autumn of 1962 and touring sites related to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Get comfortable because this tour is another long one, traversing just over 600 nautical miles from San Julian to Guantanamo Bay, and requiring one fuel stop and two “tactical bladder breaks.”

Pee-Wee says: This tour blossomed after I found Nag’s copy of Robert Kennedy’s book “13 Days” on the shelf and gave it a quick read. That lead me to ask “where were the missile sites located?” That lead to the Internet, and declassified CIA files, and Google Earth, and more reading, and digging through hundreds of photos, and latitudes and longitudes, and Nag telling me to come to bed, and me losing complete track of time, and…well, here we are!

We jumped into the MonsterNX Cub again, although we didn’t anticipate any off-field landings. That autopilot sure is helpful!

Skyvector.com

Here’s our planned route. We started at San Julián Air Base (MUSJ) in the province of Pinar del Río near the western tip of Cuba, some 130 nautical miles southwest of Havana, and headed generally east toward Guantanamo Bay. Along the way we spotted current and former air bases, surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, abandoned military posts, and of course, the abandoned medium and intermediate-range ballistic missile (MRBM and IRBM) sites that triggered the Crisis.

Let’s review the basics of the Cuban Missile Crisis (the Caribbean Crisis in Russia or the October Crisis in Cuba). By 1962 the World was fully engulfed in a Cold War characterized by continuous research, development, and deployment of ever more powerful nuclear weapons by the United States (US) and Soviet Union (USSR). The US was undeniably leading with approximately 1,600 strategic bombers and 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) versus the Soviet Union’s paltry 160 bombers and 38 ICBMs. Both sides fielded MRBMs, IRBMs, and submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), with numerical and technical superiority again going to the Americans. Were it not for its nearly 2:1 advantage in conventional forces in Europe, the Soviet Union would have been completely outclassed.

Pee-Wee says: In 1962 the Soviets decided to level the field by placing MRBMs and IRBMs in Cuba, where they could threaten targets throughout the entire United States. The operation–codenamed Anadyr–relied on total secrecy: it was deemed essential to only reveal the missiles’ presence after they were operational to prevent early intervention by the United States. It almost worked, but the Amercans’ more advanced strategic and tactical reconnaisance capabilities revealed the subterfuge in October 1962.

The United States responded by “quarantining” Cuba from international sea traffic, and the standoff began.

Pee-Wee says: An actual blockade would have been considered an act of war, and a potentially fatal escalation for both sides.

Only through the diplomatic efforts of President Kennedy and Premier Kruschev–and a healthy dose of luck–did the world avoid an atomic cataclysm. Barely two weeks after the Crisis erupted, the two sides struck a deal that removed the Soviets’ missiles from Cuba and the Americans’ similar missiles from Turkey.

Pee-Wee says: The Cuban Missile Crisis confirmed the importance of manned strategic and tactical reconnaissance aircraft. For months before the Crisis erupted, the CIA had photographed the whole of Cuba using U-2s. When the SAM threat appeared, the mission was handed to the Strategic Air Command’s 4080th Strategic Wing and the men of the 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron at Laughlin AFB in Texas. Low altitude photography was tasked to the US Navy’s VFP-62 and Marine Corps’ VMCJ-2 (Vought RF-8A Crusader) and the Air Force’s 363th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo). Navy P-2 Neptunes and new P-3A Orions monitored Russian shipping, and ERB-47s Stratojets of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing provided ELINT and SIGINT from offshore. (Note: the Crusader’s Wikipedia page references VFP-63 also serving over Cuba, but I’ve found no other source to confirm that squadron’s involvement.)

Well, that’s the basics out of the way, so let’s jump into the Monster and get going. We selected a solid gray version registered N343XX in homage to the recon crews flying over Cuba.

Pee-Wee says: The significance of the registration will become clear later.

Let Slip the Dogs of War: San Julián Air Base
MSFS: 22.098 -84.156
Skyvector: 220553N0840922W

San Julián was established during World War 2 as a maritime patrol base for US blimps (Pee-Wee: Yay! ) and anti-submarine aircraft. During the Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union deployed Ilyushin Il-28 (NATO: “Beagle”) of the 759th Mine and Torpedo Aviation Regiment here. The first of thirty-three aircraft arrived in crates from Bahia Honda on Cuba’s north coast around October 14th. Assembly of the jet-powered medium bombers began immediately and the first aircraft, an Il-28U (NATO: “Mascot”) trainer, flew on October 30th.

Here we are circling south of San Julián just after takeoff. In this screenshot you can see: (A) the main ramp area where Il-28s were reassembled and prepared for flight, (B) the expanded support area where maintenance and flight crews were housed, and (C) a single S-75 Dvina (NATO: SA-2 “Guideline”) SAM site. The airbase is open in MSFS, although current satellite photos indicate that the field is abandoned.

Cuba is a land of geological extremes, with broad plains pierced by rugged mountains in the island’s northwest, central, and southeast. In the distance you can see the Guaniguanico Mountain Range, and in the distant right near the edge of this photo is the city of Pinar Del Río.

Pee-Wee and I didn’t realize that the Il-28s arrived so late to the party. The 759th MTAR’s Beagles were trucked to San Julián on 14 October 1962, the same day the US first photographed MRBMs at San Cristobal Site #2 near Los Palacios, and the first aircraft didn’t fly until three days after Kennedy and Kruschev reached their historic agreement that essentially ended the Crisis.

A disagreement over the Il-28s soon developed between the Americans and Soviets. The Americans believed that the Beagles constituted “offensive weapons” and were subject to the Kennedy-Kruschev agreement. The Russians disagreed, saying the bombers were not only defensive but antiquated and posed no threat to the United States. A settlement was finally reached, and the 759th MATR packed up their toys and went home, arriving back in the Soviet Union on 30 December 1962. No aircraft or crews were lost during the deployment. A fascinating account by one of the squadron’s maintainers can be read here.

Pee-Wee says: After our flight, I went back and took these screenshots based on actual photos snapped by Navy Crusaders on 26 and 27 October 1962. They’re not perfect but show just how little the air base has changed in sixty-two years.

The Rising Tide: La Coloma Air Base and S-75 Site

La Coloma Air Base
MSFS: 22.337 -83.642
Skyvector: 222013N0833831W

La Coloma S-75 Site
MSFS: 22.325833 -83.581667
Skyvector: 221933N0833454W

Here we are flying northeastward at 3,500 feet in the vicinity of Pinar Del Río, looking south. There are two locations of interest here: (A) a former S-75 SAM site and (B) the La Coloma Air Base. We weren’t able to discover what activity occurred here during the crisis, or if any Cuban or Soviet combat units were stationed here. The fact that a SAM site was placed in such close proximity leads us to believe that something important was here. La Coloma later served as a training field with L-39 Albatross jets.

This real photo of the La Coloma SAM site is famous for being captured on color film. The National Photographic Interpretation Center built a scale model of this site for the Cuban Missile Crisis exhibit at the CIA’s headquarters in 1965. The Agency donated the model to the Smithsonian when the exhibit was closed in the 1970s.

Pee-Wee says: This one gave us some trouble! We knew where the La Coloma SAM site was supposed to be, but the latitude and longitude placed it in the middle of the Embalse El Punto, a reservoir south of Pinar Del Río. Without further information and having only extremely limited satellite imagery, we concluded that the reservoir was constructed between 1962 and 1985, and that the former SAM site now lies underwater.

The Tip of the Spear: The San Cristobal MRBM Sites

Site #1 “San Diego de Los Banos”
MSFS: 22.668 -83.298
Skyvector: 224005N0831753W

Site #2 “Los Palacios”
MSFS: 22.679 -83.254
Skyvector: 224044N0831514W

Site #3 “San Cristobal”
MSFS: 22.713 -83.138
Skyvector: 224247N0830817W

Site #4 “Candelaria”
MSFS: 22.782 -82.979
Skyvector: 224655N0825844W

Starting approximately 70 nautical miles northeast of San Julián Airbase, we found the first of four MRBM sites located along the southern fringe of the Sierra del Rosario (“Rosario Mountains”), part of the Guaniguanico Range. These sites hosted the 51st Missile Division’s 539th and 546th Missile Regiments, each with four launch pads for R-12 Dvina (NATO: SS-4 “Sandal”) MRBMs. From here, the Soviets could attack targets in the United States as distant as Denver, Minneapolis, and Bangor, and other places such as Mexico City, Bogota, Quito, and the Panama Canal. Most worrisome, the Atlas and Titan missile fields and a large number of strategic bombers and their refueling tankers in the central US were within range of the Soviet’s missiles.

All the MRBM sites in Cuba were similar in design, and included up to four missile launch pads with erectors, control bunkers, large “ready tents” for maintaining and preparing up to twelve missiles, barracks and facilities for the missile crews, secure bunkers for storing nuclear warheads, and anti-aircraft artillery. When the Soviets removed the missiles, they all but erased evidence of their presence. Today, only a few fractured structures remain buried beneath overgrown forests.

Here we are flying northeast over Site #1 near San Diego de Los Banos, looking northwest. Visible in this screenshot are: (A) the nuclear warhead storage and preparation shed, which remains intact today, (B) the former tent camp where 539th Missile Regiment and construction crews barracked during construction, and the locations of the three completed launch pads (C, D, and E). This area was returned to local farmers after the Crisis abated, but taken over again by the Cuban military in 1965 as a training ground. The former warhead shed served briefly as a school house before supporting the training of Cuban troops destined for Angola in 1975.

Pee-Wee says: In this screenshot we’re looking southeast. That’s Site #2 down there, a few miles north of Los Palacios. I’ve marked the following locations: (A) former missile ready tents, (B) the roadway on which a missile convoy was spotted on 14 October 1962, confirming the presence of MRBMs, (C) an open storage area, and (D) the former tent camp for 539th Missile Regiment crews. The yellow line marks the location of the former road that bisected the site, and which still exists up to (C).

Site #3 is more intact that the previous two. We’re looking roughly due east in this screenshot. The entry roads are still plainly visible running parallel in the center of this screenshot, the northern road underneath (H) and the southern road against the well-defined treeline across the field to the right. You can see the (A, B, C, and D) former launch pads, (E) former missile ready tents, (F) six-gun anti-aircraft artillery position, (G) the former support area where numerous permanent buildings were constructed, and (H) the nuclear warhead storage bunker. This site and #4 near Candelaria were operated by the 546th Missile Regiment.

Pee-Wee says: Site #4 was apparently never completed, so there wasn’t much to see. It’s visible at (A). Looking southwest, you can barely make out (B) Site #3 and (C) Sites #1 and #2. To the south is (D) San Cristobal. On the right, the Sierra Del Rosario rolls northward before dropping down to Cuba’s northern coast west of Mariel and Havana. Sites #1 and #4 are separated by approximately 22 nautical miles.

Pee-Wee says: Here’s a reference picture I put together to help you visualize these four sites. Each photograph is oriented with north “up.”

From here we continued northeastward toward Havana. Unfortunately, we’ve blown through our ten-photo limit, so we’ll continue the tour in Part 2.

[LeafyNight67562]

Welcome back to our Cuban Missile Crisis Sky Tour! At the end of Part 1, we were east of the four R-12 MRBM sites near San Cristobal, flying northeast toward Havana. Let’s continue from there.

Like Gorky Park But With More Humidity: Artemisa Military Camp
MSFS: 22.849 -82.809
Skyvector: 225056N0824832W

The abandoned military camp near Artemisa lies approximately ten miles south of Mariel on the A4 highway that linked the harbor with the San Cristobal MRBM sites, and roughly midway between those sites and the IRBMs at Guanajay. It served as the garrison for some of the 40,000 Soviet troops deployed in support of Operation Anadyr, and boasted both 57-mm and 14.5-mm anti-aircraft batteries and a contingent of thirty T-54 main battle tanks.

We’re flying roughly northeast in this screenshot, looking south toward the camp. Marked locations include: (A) Luna missile storage, (B) 57-mm anti-aircraft battery, (C) the camp’s permanent structures, (D) tent encampment, (E) motor pool, and (F) 14.5-mm anti-aircraft battery.

Pee-Wee says: I found this site particularly interesting, as many of the former features are still visible, including (if you look very carefully inside Circle B in our photo) the ring of 57-mm AA gun emplacements. We landed here for a minute to explore the gun emplacements. I wonder how many people have stood atop those berms and not understood their purpose?

During the Crisis, thirty-six 2K6 Luna (NATO: FROG) rockets (24 with conventional warheads and 12 with two-kiloton nuclear warheads) were deployed to Cuba. A photographic report from late 1962 indicates that two launchers were located at Artemisa, indicating the presence of at least one Motorized Armored Division.

Pee-Wee says: It’s interesting to note that the same report estimates the number of Soviet troops in Cuba at about 11,000, barely one quarter of the actual strength. Yes, there were some massive intelligence failures by the US before and during the Crisis!

These Are Not the Missiles You Are Looking For: Mariel Naval Base and Port

Mariel Naval Base
MSFS: 23.007 -82.766
Skyvector: 230025N0824558W

Mariel Port
MSFS: 22.9958 -82.7546
Skyvector: 225945N0824517W

In an ultimately unsuccessful effort to conceal the arrival of 40,000 troops and 42 nuclear missiles, the Soviet Union utilized multiple ports around Cuba. The R-12 MRBMs bound for San Cristobal and Sagua La Grande arrived through the Port of Mariel on Cuba’s northern coast, approximately 25 miles west of Havana. The port was protected by anti-aircraft artillery and a single S-125 Neva (NATO: SA-3 “Goa”) SAM site to the east. Near the entrance to the port lay the Mariel Naval Base with its single pier and runway that once hosted the Hawker Sea Furies that were instrumental in repelling the invasion force at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. During the Missile Crisis, the Soviet Air Force’s 437th Helicopter Regiment operated Mi-4 “Hounds” from here.

Here we are turning east over the former Mariel Naval Base. The yellow box (1) in this screenshot shows the location of the former runway. You can still clearly see: (A) the pier where Russian Komar missile boats were docked during the Crisis, (B) the only remaining portion of the original runway, (C) the nuclear weapon processing building, still standing, and (D) an unknown shipwreck.

Pee-Wee says: The Komars were little more than World War 2 PT boats with anti-ship missiles. Carrying two P-15 Termit (NATO: SS-N-2 “Styx”) missiles with conventional warheads, these wooden-hulled boats certainly punched above their weight! The Cuban Navy eventually operated eighteen. By the way, if anyone knows the identity of that wrecked ship, please drop us a DM. My curiosity is killing me!

We’re flown across the harbor to the Port of Mariel and (A) the pier where Russian freighters unloaded their nuclear cargoes. In the distance you can see (B) the approximate locations of the San Cristobal MRBM sites. The town of Mariel (C) lies just beyond the port. The abandoned S-125 site that once protected the port lies atop the hill out of view to the left.

Sleepless in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Everywhere: The Guanajay IRBM Sites

Site #1
MSFS: 22.949 -82.655
Skyvector: 225656N0823918W

Site #2
MSFS: 22.955 -82.619
Skyvector: 225718N0823708W

Pee-Wee says: Here’s where things get hairy. These two missile sites were intended for the R-14 Chusovaya (NATO: SS-5 “Skean”), an IRBM with a range of approximately 2,550 nautical miles. From here, the Soviets could strike the entirety of the continental United States in a matter of minutes. When the quarantine began, more than twenty 1-megaton warheads intended for a planned thirty-two R-14s were already in Cuba. The missiles never arrived, and deployment of the 43rd Missile Division’s 665th and 668 Missile Regiments to Guanajay and Remedios was cancelled.

Here’s Guanajay Site #1, viewed from the south as we fly eastward. These sites were unique in Cuba, being built atop rather than beside a mountain range. There’s not much left here: (A) marks the three missile launch pads that were completed, (B) is the approximate location of the launch control bunker, (C) is a building of unknown purpose that still stands at the site, and (D) is the location of a “probable” warhead bunker.

And here’s (A) Site #2, looking west toward (B) the San Cristobal MRBM sites and the (C) Sierra Del Rosario mountains. Site #1 (D) lies barely two miles away. Mariel (E), where the R-14s would likely have landed, is visible in the distance.

Pee-Wee says: Likely due to their less advanced construction, the Guanajay sites today have reverted largely to light industrial or heavy agricultural use. It appears that none of the launch pads remain.

Russian Rotorheads: Playa Baracoa Air Base and Military Camp
MSFS: 23.037 -82.577
Skyvector: 230213N0823437W

From Guanajay we turned north toward the coast and the Playa Baracoa Air Base, about fifteen miles west of Havana. During the Crisis the Soviets and Cubans operated Mi-1 “Hares,” Mi-4 “Hounds,” and a few armed Mi-8 “Hip-F” helicopters, plus thirteen Il-14 piston-engined transports from here. The Playa Baracoa Military Camp was right next door to the airfield and housed the Soviet crews and Cuban trainees supporting the large helicopter fleet.

That’s Playa Baracoa Air Base down there, looking north. It’s changed quite a bit since the Crisis: the runway has been lengthened, and we’ve outlined the original strip in yellow. You can see: (A) the main ramp where helicopters were assembled and maintained, (B and C) 37-mm anti-aircraft batteries, and (D) the military camp’s barracks and tents.

Prelude to Vietnam: The El Cano S-75 Site
MSFS: 23.058889 -82.488889
Skyvecetor: 230332N0822920W

Pee-Wee says: Here’s where we get ourselves in trouble with the Cuban Government!

The deployment of S-75 and S-125 SAMs to Cuba caught the CIA’s attention. (“What was in Cuba that required such a layered anti-aircraft missile defense system?”) The Soviet Army’s 10th and 11th Air Defense Divisions arrived in Cuba during the Summer of 1962 with a combined 72 individual launchers and 288 S-75s located in batteries at strategic locations around the island, and divided into Western, Central, and Eastern Brigades. The heaviest concentration of SAMs was in the Central Brigade near Havana and the San Cristobal, Guanajay, and Sagua La Grande missile sites.

Experience gained operating these missiles in an austere tropical environment proved invaluable for the Soviets only three years later over Southeast Asia. More than 1,000 US aircraft were shot down by S-75s over Vietnam.

Here we are buzzing the still active El Cano S-75 site in the far western suburbs of Havana. We’ve highlighted a few key features: (A) launchers with active missiles at the ready, and (B) entryways to the underground control bunker. The Spoon Rest and Fan Song radars are obscured behind our Monster. Unfortunately they’re represented in MSFS by a clump of trees.

Pee-Wee says: I know it looks scary, but we were completely safe here. The S-75 is a two-stage missile and is essentially unguided for the first few seconds of its flight until the first stage booster is jettisoned. Even though the Cubans’ current S-75s have been heavily upgraded, the use of fixed SAM emplacements renders these antiquated missiles virtually useless against any modern and competent military.

Especially since every MSFS user now knows where to find them now!

Dvina’s Little Companion: The La Habana Fontanar S-125 Site
MSFS: 23.028056 -82.408611
Skyvector: 230141N0822431W

The S-125 Goa joined the Cuban SAM defenses during the Crisis, generally occupying sites closer to Mariel and Havana. Several are still in use today, including this site located south of Havana near the José Martí International Airport. The S-125 was intended for use against low flying aircraft and formed the bottom layer of the Soviet SAM umbrella covering Cuba.

Pee-Wee says: This was a little scarier! You can see (A) bunker entrances where reload missiles are likely stored, (B) the site’s Flat Face/Squat Eye and Low Blow radars, and (C) a launcher with four active missiles at the ready. Like many American Nike SAM sites, the La Habana Fortanar site is located adjacent to a populated neighborhood. That’s central Havana in the distance.

So Much to See: The Managua Area Facilities

Santiago de Las Vegas Military Camp
MSFS: 22.966 -82.340
Skyvector: 225758N0822024W

Santiago de Las Vegas SAM Assembly Site
MSFS: 22.961 -82.357
Skyvector: 225740N0822125W

Managua Ammunition Storage Bunker
MSFS: 22.966 -82.312
Skyvector: 225758N0821843W

Managua Military Camp and Air Base
MSFS: 22.968 -82.286
Skyvector: 225805N0821710W

We found several sites in the Managua area. In this screenshot you can see: (Yellow 1) the outline of the former Santiago de Las Vegas Military Camp and the camp’s (A) 57-mm anti-aircraft battery, (B) motor park, (C) 14.5-mm anti-aircraft battery, and (D) barracks and support buildings. Like Artemisa, the Managua Military Camp hosted a large contingent of Soviet troops, and possibly another Luna rocket-equipped mechanized armored division.

In the distance you can see: (E) the Managua Ammunition Storage Bunker, (F) the Managua Air Base, and (G) the adjacent Managua Military Camp. The Santiago de Las Vegas SAM Assembly Site (H) is off the bottom of the screenshot, one mile west-southwest of the Las Vegas camp.

Pee-Wee says: This area gave us trouble, too. CIA documents indicate that the Managua Ammo Storage bunker is located beneath the hill at (E) in our screenshot, while other sources place the bunker beneath the hills on the southern edge of the Managua Military Camp. It’s possible that there were two bunkers here, or that we’re misinterpreting the data. Regardless, the Managua bunker was used for storing the nuclear warheads for the Soviet Army’s Luna/FROG rockets.

The Managua Air Base appears to have only supported the camps in the Managua area, and likely only saw Soviet and Cuban helicopters and the occasional Il-14.

Pee-Wee says: Unfortunately, we missed a big target very nearby. After further research, we discovered that the Soviet Headquarters and nuclear weapons storage facilities were located near Bejucal, about four miles southwest of the Santiago de Las Vegas Military Camp. Whoops! Apparently the HQ is still standing, complete with ground markings and original structures. Maybe we’ll loop back around from Guantanamo and cover that area, and explore the Bay of Pigs at the same time.

Halfway There: Matanzas Harbor, Airport, and S-75 Site

Matanzas Airport (MUVR)
MSFS: 23.034 -81.435
Skyvector: 230202N0812606W

Matanzas East 2 S-75 Site
MSFS: 23.034 -81.472
Skyvector: 230202N0812819W

Here we are approaching our planned refueling stop at Matanzas on Cuba’s north coast, approximately sixty miles east of Havana. While this city wasn’t particularly significant during the Crisis, ships carrying troops and conventional munitions disembarked at the Port of Matanzas (A and B). The Central SAM Brigade 2 occupied a S-75 site (C) just west of the airport, which remains active today, reconfigured with two S-125 launchers standing ready.

Pee-Wee says: Whew! Too much water. I’ll be right back…

That’s all for now, everyone! There’s still plenty to go, including more MRBM and IRBM sites and camps. We’ll also visit the site of the only direct American casualty of the conflict. Stay tuned for Part Three coming very soon!

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee says: Part Three…Activate!

Big River, Medium Size Missiles: The Sagua La Grande MRBM Sites

Site #1
MSFS: 22.730 -80.030
Skyvector: 224348N0800148W

Site #2
MSFS: 22.656 -79.868
Skyvector: 223922N0795205W

We’re now approximately 275 miles from where we started in San Julián and 160 miles east-southeast of Havana, in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara. The Soviets constructed two R-12 sites in the hills southeast of Sagua La Grande, a town named for the river it straddles. These two sites were occupied by the 29th Missile Division’s 79th Missile Regiment and were operational before the end of October 1962.

Pee-Wee says: That’s Site #1 down there, looking southwest. Honest! The near complete lack of remaining infrastructure speaks to both the Soviets’ and Mother Nature’s abilities to reclaim the landscape. I did my best to align aerial photos with the terrain using Google Earth, and was able to locate the following sites: (A) nuclear warhead bunker, (B) missile ready tents, (C) two of the launch pads (the other two would have been to their right, but I couldn’t quite fix their position), and (D) the tent camp for construction and missile crews. Sagua La Grande (E) is out of view to the right. That’s Embalse Alacranes (F) in the distance.

Here we are passing over Site #2, looking northwest toward Site #1, ten miles distant. Much of the southern portion of this site has been claimed by a strip mine, but we were able to identify (A) the equipment and vehicle parking area, (B) the two completed launch pads, and (C) the warhead storage bunker. Several missile ready tents were positioned along the road just underneath our Monster’s left main landing gear. To the east there’s (D) an irrigation canal and railroad which should help you locate this site. El Purio lies in the distance (E).

Pee-Wee says: Despite their location further east than the San Cristobal sites, R-12s from the Sagua La Grande sites could still have delivered a multi-megaton warhead anywhere in the east-central United States within minutes.

Close But No Cuban Cigar: The Remedios IRBM and Military Camp Sites

IRBM Site
MSFS: 22.418 -79.592
Skyvector: 222505N0793531W

Remedios Military Camp
MSFS: 22.425 -79.580
Skyvector: 222530N0793448W

Construction of this IRBM site was never completed, and consequently very little remains to be seen from the air. The 43rd Missile Division’s 665th or 668th Missile Regiment would have encamped here with twelve R-14s, each carrying a one-megaton nuclear explosive, and while the warheads reached Cuba in October 1962, the missiles never arrived.

We’re flying east and looking northeast in this photo. (Pee-Wee: It took a few passes to find the site. ) We’ve marked (1) the roadway that bisected the missile site from southeast to northwest, and (2) the operations area of the camp and (3) the camp’s barracks area.

Pee-Wee says: You can also see: (A) the vehicle and tent encampment area, (B) a 57-mm anti-aircraft artillery battery, (C) a secure storage area (not the warhead bunker, which was located across the road from the launch pads), (D) the four launch pads, and (E) the concrete mixing site.

Based on the other sites, the CIA assumed that another launch site would be nearby, but it seems that construction never began, making Remedios the only “single site” missile location in Cuba.

You Got Your Ears On, Fidel?: The Camaguey Military Camp and Air Base

Camaguey Military Camp
MSFS: 21.351 -77.853
Skyvector: 212104N0775111W

Camaguey Air Base (MUCM)
MSFS: 21.420 -77.847
Skyvector: 212512N0775049W

The Soviets maintained six long-range early warning radar sites around Cuba. One was located south of Camaguey, and large portions of the site remain visible today. The leg here from the Remedios was one of our longest, spanning approximately 110 nautical miles.

We’re flying roughly southeast in this screenshot. The original (B) barracks and (C) motor park are visible, as are (A and D) the approximate locations of various radars. A (E) microwave communications antenna that linked this site to the other early warning radar sites stood here. In the distance is (F) Camaguey Air Base, from where the Soviet PVO’s 213th Aviation Regiment, 3rd Squadron operated Mig-21F-13 (NATO: Fishbed-C) day fighters, and the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force operated Mig-15bis (NATO: Fagot-B).

Established during World War 2, Camaguey Air Base once hosted Douglas B-18 Bolos of the USAAC’s 25th Bombardment Group, and later Mi-17s (NATO: Hip) of the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force’s 3685th Regiment. Today the base is the Ignacio Agramonte International Airport (MUCM) and is served by American Airlines, Nordwind, and several smaller Caribbean carriers.

During the Crisis the Cuban Air Force dispersed its 36 Mig-15s to airfields around the island to prevent their destruction by the Americans. They attempted intercepting the Crusaders and Voodoos that roared over the island daily but were wholly unsuccessful thanks to the slow transfer of information from the Soviet radar operators to the Cuban air bases. The intruding Americans were long gone before the Migs could even takeoff.

Pee-Wee says: Of the sites we explored, the Camaguey Military Camp is one of the few that has been clearly repurposed by the Cubans. The Villa Maraguán resort hotel occupies much of the camp’s barracks area and offers a swimming pool and a recreation area with running track and football field, all probably constructed by the Soviets in 1962. According to one online review, the hotel once boasted a small zoo, which probably wasn’t built by the Soviets.

From Dvinas to Reclusos: Victora de Las Tunas SAM Assembly Site
MSFS: 21.080 -77.006
Skyvector: 210448N0770022W

This site, one of several at which the Soviets assembled S-75 and S-125 missiles, appears mostly unchanged from 1962, with one notable exception: the new security fences are designed to keep people in!

Here we are passing low over the former SAM assembly site, heading east. Most of the structures remain unchanged from 1962, although there are some additions. You can clearly see the (A) guard’s and (B) prisoner’s baseball diamonds. It appears the Cubans have added a double fence around the secure portion of the prison, with (C) guard towers at each corner.

Pee-Wee says: We found no mention of this prison online. Openstreetmaps.org labels the site “Prision de Potosi,” but all other online sites we found place the Potosi Prison southwest of Las Tunas. We figure there’s several possibilities: this prison is closed and its name was reused elsewhere, the online information is missing or incorrect, or someone doesn’t want people to know this prison exists. We know the Cuban Government has a tendency to toss dissidents in prison, so…who knows?

More Beagles and A Unique Deployment: Holguín Air Base (MUHG) and S-75 Site
MSFS: 20.786 -76.315
Skyvector: 204710N0761854W

On 4 November 1962 crates carrying nine Il-28 Beagles were photographed at Holguín Air Base near Holguín in the former Oriente Province. The CIA believed the aircraft arrived aboard the Russian merchant ship Leninsky Komsomol on 20 October (Pee-Wee: Likely at either Nicaro or Santiago de Cuba.) Their presence brought the total number of Soviet medium bombers (airworthy or otherwise) in Cuba to 42. Photographic interpreters also noted the lengthened runway and covered aircraft revetments.

Today the air base is the Frank País Airport (MUHM) and is served by American Airlines, Condor, SunWings, VivaAerobús, and several other South American carriers. Airlines operate from a terminal on the southeast corner of the airfield, while the Cuban Air Force’s 34th Tactical Support Regiment operates Mig-23BNs (NATO: Flogger-H) from the opposite side of the runway.

There’s not much to see in this screenshot, but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting! Holguín Air Base/Frank País Airport (B) is visible in the distance, on the outskirts of (C) Holguín.

Pee-Wee says: (A) is the approximate location of a S-75 SAM site. We don’t know the precise location as this was one of very few field deployed (i.e. no permanent facilities) S-75/Fan Song sites in Cuba during the Crisis. The CIA’s information places the site somewhere among the old dirt roads visible surrounding (A). If anyone has solid information, we’d love to hear from you!

From here we turned east toward Banes on Cuba’s eastern shore. We’re going to talk about an airplane crash next, so feel free to skip ahead if you’d like. Otherwise, click on the blurred text to read on.

Unintentional Escalation: The Shoot Down of U-2F 56-6676
MSFS: 20.967015 -75.749486
Skyvector: 205801N0754458W

27 October 1962 could have been a very bad day for the world. Acting in contradiction of First Secretary Khruschev’s orders, the Soviet SAM forces downed a 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing U-2F flying near Banes. The aircraft, piloted by thirty-five-year-old Major Rudy Anderson of the 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Weather Squadron at Laughlin AFB, Texas, was deployed to McCoy AFB near Orlando, Florida. Originally delivered to the CIA as Article 343, the aircraft was transferred to the USAF and designated 56-6676 (and that’s why we chose the registration N343XX for our Monster).

Pee-Wee says: It seems that local commanders were concerned that Anderson’s overflight would reveal the extent of the Soviet and Cuban offenses directed at the American’s naval base at Guantanamo Bay, including the presence of tactical nuclear weapons. Time was of the essence, and the overall Soviet commander was unavailable. Two Soviet generals made the decision to fire upon the intruder and passed the order to a S-75 site north of Banes.

The Soviets fired two missiles, one of which detonated close enough to the U-2 to pepper the aircraft with shrapnel. Major Anderson’s pressure suit was ruptured, and the sudden high-altitude decompression killed him almost instantly. The aircraft crashed just north of the village of Veguitas, one mile west of Banes. Thankfully President Kennedy defied his military advisors and elected to not retaliate, which could have led to the spiraling escalation of a situation that was rapidly slipping out of control.

Anderson’s body was found in the wreckage and returned to the United States on 4 November. He was laid to rest at the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Greenville, South Carolina two days later, and posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross.

Here we are flying roughly northwest near (C) Banes, the direction in which Major Anderson was flying when he was shot down by an S-75 fired from (B) a SAM site north of Banes. The wreckage landed (A) near a small village west of Banes.

Pee-Wee says: Major Anderson was survived by his wife, Jane, and two sons, Tripp and Jim. Jane was pregnant with their third child, a daughter named Robyn, at the time of Rudy’s death. She later remarried and birthed another daughter, Lydia Chaney. Jane passed away in 1981, aged 46, after battling a respiratory illness and is buried in Pearson, Georgia.

Pee-Wee also says: While Major Anderson was the only “combat” loss the Americans suffered during the Crisis, other airmen were killed in the line of duty. Eleven crewmen assigned to the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing died in three separate RB-47 crashes while supporting American forces in the region, and seven airmen from McGuire AFB died when their C-135B crashed while landing at Guantanamo Bay on 23 October.

A Nice Place to Vacation: The Mayari Arriba Military Camp
MSFS: 20.452 -75.520
Skyvector: 202707N0753112W

Pee-Wee says: We originally intended to skip this site, as it doesn’t appear anything interesting happened here. But it was along the route, so we descended into the valley for a quick peek anyway, and we weren’t disappointed!

We’re flying roughly southeast in this screenshot, looking north. You can see (A) ammunition storage bunkers, hidden within the tree line, (B) the main camp, and (C) the open storage areas. Beyond the camp is Embalse Micarda, a reservoir constructed sometime between 1962 and 1985. Some CIA documents indicate that SAMs were also constructed here. Today the site is a Cuban Army special operations training camp.

You Can’t Handle the Truth!: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Leeward Field (MUGM)
MSFS: 19.906 -75.206
Skyvector: 195422N0751222W

We’re in the home stretch now, with only one site remaining. We could write an entire post just about Guantanamo Bay, but instead, we’ll hit the high points.

Pee-Wee says: The United States and Cuba entered into a lease agreement for the land that is Naval Base Guantanamo Bay in 1903. The US agreed to pay the Cubans a meager annual sum for the 45 square miles of land. Even at the adjusted rate of $4,085 set in 1974, the US has paid Cuba less than $500,000 for the land, and the Cubans have only bothered to deposit one payment. That’s quite the bargain!

The US presence at Guantanamo Bay has been a thorn in the Cuban Government’s side since before the Revolution, and it routinely demands the return of the land. The lease has no expiration date, which means either both parties must agree to terminate the lease or the Navy must abandon the land.

Pee-Wee says: Which isn’t going happen.

During the Crisis, the Soviets and Cubans moved troops and tactical nuclear weapons near Guantanamo and would have struck the base had the US invaded. The families of servicemen stationed here were evacuated in October 1962 and returned in late December.

Guantanamo Bay–or GITMO as it’s more commonly known–gained notoriety in the 1992 film A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise as the brash JAG lawyer Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee and Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan Jessep. None of the movie was filmed at GITMO.

In this screenshot, we’re on a high right base to Runway 10 at Leeward Field on the west side of Guantanamo Bay. You can see (A) the perimeter fence separating Cuba from the Naval Base, and (C) the former McCalla Field airstrip, now the site of the DOD’s controversial detainment camp. Most of the base’s facilities lie on the east side of the bay, including Marine Rifle Company Windward’s barracks, where the fictional Private Santiago was murdered.

More crashes. Once again, click on the blurred text if you want to read about them.

Pee-Wee says: (B) marks the approximate crash site of both Air Force C-135B 62-4136 on 23 October 1962 and Kalitta DC-8-61 N814CK on 18 August 1993. Aircraft landing on Runway 10 must fly inside the (A) border fence, which requires a tight right turn at low altitude and airspeed. The NTSB determined that the Kalitta DC-8 overshot the final turn and entered an accelerated stall. The same thing may have happened to the C-135. The Kalitta crash was attributed to fatigue while the Air Force crash was likely caused by the crew’s inexperience (their C-135 had been delivered only a few months prior to the accident).

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We’ve reached the end of our longest tour ever! Our total flight time, including a few search patterns and orbits over those hard-to-find missile sites, was just over six hours. We burned through two tanks of 100 Low Lead, countless potato chips, and a whole block of Pee-Wee’s homemade peanut butter fudge.

Pee-Wee says: And probably about ten gallons of water. Do you think the Marines have a latrine?

There’s lots of information about the Crisis online, especially in the CIA’s Freedom of Information Act Reading Room. We can also highly recommend One Minute to Midnight by Michael Dobbs. Be careful with online sources, especially Marshall University’s online photo collection: many of the photos are mislabeled and otherwise incorrectly captioned. You’ll need to don your sleuthing caps!

Thanks for tuning in, everyone! We’ll be back in a few days for a very special “historical” flight. Fly safe!

Pee-Wee says: Bye for now!

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The Cuban Missile/Caribbean/October Crisis effectively ended in December 1962 when the Soviet troops and their missiles left the island under observation by the Americans. Several months later, the US removed its nuclear-tipped Jupiter MRBMs from Turkey. With the fate of millions hinging on subtle inferences and poor assumptions by both sides, a telephone hotline–the “Red Phone”–that would allow for rapid and direct communications between the American and Russian leaders was installed.

To the World, it appeared that the Soviets “lost” the battle, and First Secretary Khruschev was ousted in 1964. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963, barely one year after the Crisis abated. Fidel Castro remained in power in Cuba until his death in November 2016.

The United States and Soviet Union entered into a nuclear test ban treaty in 1963, the first such treaty that limited nuclear proliferation and moved the World away from nuclear disaster.

The United States’ and Soviet Union’s proxy war in Vietnam claimed the lives of nearly 1.4 million Americans, Soviets, and North and South Vietnamese. South Vietnam collapsed in 1975, a nominal victory for the Soviets.

The first of the Americans’ new Minuteman I missiles went on alert at the height of the Crisis on 27 October 1962. The Soviet Union detonated the largest nuclear bomb on record–the 50-megaton Tsar Bomb–three days later over Novaya Zemlya.

The United States currently maintains 400 Minuteman III ICBMs and fourteen nuclear ballistic missile submarines with [Trident] nuclear(Trident (missile) - Wikipedia) missiles. The American nuclear bomber fleet has been all but retired, and currently consists of twenty B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and a dwindling number of B-52H Stratofortresses. The supersonic B-1 Lancer surrendered its nuclear role in 1995. Most Air Force and Navy tactical fighters are capable of delivering tactical nuclear weapons with published yields up to approximately 400 kilotons, more than twenty times the explosive forces of Little Boy and Fat Man.

The Soviet Union imploded spectacularly in late 1991. The current Russian nuclear force consists of missiles of varying capabilities and ranges, the Tu-95 (NATO: Bear) and Tu-160 (NATO: Blackjack) bombers and, nuclear ballistic missile submarines. The reported number of Russian warheads and delivery platforms varies wildly depending on the source. Regardless, the Russian nuclear force remains formidable.

Cuba remains a pariah in the Caribbean. Thousands of people sought refuge in the United States during the Mariel Boat Lift in the early 1980s, and hundreds more are found aboard makeshift rafts in the Florida Straits by the United States Coast Guard every year. Only those who actually land in the US are allowed to stay. The others are provided with food, water, and medical care before being returned to Cuba. The number of those killed every year trying to reach freedom in the US is unknown. Today the Cuban diaspora in Miami numbers in the millions.

The Cuban Air Force is the largest in the Caribbean, although the serviceability of its fleet of antiquated Soviet aircraft is questionable. Most of the island’s air defense is provided by ageing S-75s and S-125s, although a smaller number of other SAM systems including the potent 2K12 Kub (NATO: SA-6 Gainful) are now in service. Cuban men are still required to spend two years in “active military service,” and it appears some are currently fighting in Ukraine.

The 55th Strategic Wing remains active with a fleet of signal gathering EC and RC-135s at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. The similarly equipped B-47s were retired in 1967.

The Navy’s and Marine Corps’ Photo Crusaders bowed out in 1984, the “Last of the Last of the Gunfighters.” VFP-62 served in Vietnam but was disestablished in 1968, handing its mission and aircraft to sister squadron VFP-63 and the RA-5C Vigilante’s of the Navy’s RVAH squadrons.

The 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing surrendered its Voodoos for RF-4 Phantoms before transitioning to a combat role in the early 1980s. The Wing’s F-16 Fighting Falcons flew combat missions over Iraq in 1991 and 2001. In 2015 the unit returned to the reconnaissance role as the 363rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing, stationed at Joint Base Langley-Eustice in Virginia.

The U-2 continues in service with the US Air Force’s 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, California. There are no plans to retire the 31 remaining aircraft.

The CIA’s aerial and satellite intelligence gathering operations remain classified.

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Pee-Wee says: To all veterans regardless of the flag on their uniform, to their families, and especially to those lost in the pursuit of freedom during war and peace, thank you.

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee says: Before we start, I’m going to publicly thank a member of the FlightSim community. If you frequent flightsim.to, you know him as jamespejam. All of the aircraft skins he’s created for MSFS are digital masterpieces and marvelous to behold in their accuracy and execution.

Several weeks ago, I enlisted his talents to create a custom scheme to some very exacting specifications specifically for this Skytour, and he delivered in spades, massaging the tiniest details while I sat on the sideline and tossed rocks at him. The final result is…well, you’ll see for yourselves!

Thank you, T.O. Hopefully we’ll do your work justice today.

–V.F.

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Welcome to a special Sky Tour, history buffs! Today we’re heading to the northwest coast of France and the Cherbourg Peninsula, an area occupied by the descendants of Viking invaders who lent their name to this region: Normandy.

June 6th, 2024, marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of German-occupied Europe and the beginning of the final destruction of the Nazi Empire. Today we’ll be recreating the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing’s Mission Boston: the overnight transport of the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to Nromandy.

Pee-Wee says: So many airplanes, and crews, and stories! There was no easy way to cover everything in one flight, so I created a fictional unit, with fictional aircraft and crews, and merged various elements of real stories into one. Hopefully this will provide a better idea of what it was like for the men of the Troop Carrier Squadrons that night over Normandy.

We’ll be flying the exact route that one Troop Carrier Group flew on D-Day, starting and ending at RAF Barkston Heath in Lincolnshire. Along the way, we’ll point out of a few sites, but mostly relate details of the journey. Get comfortable: our flight time will be more than four hours!

(By the way, she didn’t just create the unit, but all eighteen individual aircraft, some of the crews, parking and formation diagrams, and even some names of paratroops, all based on real units and real people. Basically, she’s a mega-super-nerd! You’ll get to see her work in the final part of this tour.)

Pee-Wee says: Here’s our ride for today, the magnificently restored C-47 41-38930, named 7-10 Split. She flew with the 73rd Troop Carrier Group’s 52nd Troop Carrier Squadron from her delivery on 7 December 1942 to the war’s end, dropping paratroops in every major airborne operation of the Mediterranean and European Theaters (the only surviving original C-47 that can make that claim). She gained a reputation for being a lucky ship, returning from every mission with barely a scratch, including the fratricide disaster over the Mediterranean in July 1943.

Unfortunately, we don’t have an actual C-47 in MSFS, for reasons I haven’t tried to understand. We’re substituting the Aeroplane Heaven DC-3. Throw me a bone.

Sergeant Marty Blair, a mechanic assigned to the 52nd in 1943, had been an apprentice artist for an animation studio in California before the war, and painted most of the squadron’s nose art. Our C-47’s normally assigned pilot, Captain George Mayfield, was an accomplished amateur 10-pin bowler and requested “something with a girl and some pins.”

Major Peterson, the 52nd’s commanding officer, immediately denounced Blair’s first iteration as being “risqué beyond even wartime standards of decency” and gruffly ordered it repainted. So, the Sergeant painted a more tame variation which was deemed acceptable. Blair explained that the new girl’s striking resemblance to the good Major’s wife was merely coincidental.

Thanks again to jamespejam for the custom paint, and to Pee-Wee for creating the nose art!

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The Airborne plan for D-Day was simple. The 101st Airborne Division would land on the Cherbourg Peninsula, secure the causeways leading off Utah Beach, and help consolidate the Utah and Omaha beachheads. The 82nd Airborne Division would land further west, secure or destroy bridges across the Douve River to prevent their use by German forces, and protect the entire invasion force’s western flank.

The two Wings of IX Troop Carrier Command would provide more than 800 Douglas C-47s and C-53s to transport 13,000 troops across the English Channel.

The airlift was divided into two missions. The 50th Troop Carrier Wing was assigned Mission Albany and would transport the 101st Airborne to drop zones near Carentan. The 52nd Troop Carrier Wing was assigned Mission Boston and would transport the 82nd Airborne to drop zones northwest of Sainte-Mère-Église. Two missions of towed gliders would follow later in the morning.

Our 73rd Troop Carrier Group was one of six assigned to the 52nd TCW. Stationed at RAF Barkston Heath northwest of Grantham in Lincolnshire, the group was a veteran of North Africa and the Mediterranean and arrived at its new home in February 1944. The Group had four Troop Carrier Squadrons assigned: the 25th (squadron code VC), the 26th (WN), the 52nd (C8), and the 60th (4D).

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Pee-Wee says: It’s precisely 11:21 p.m. and the 52nd and 60th Troop Carrier Squadrons’ aircraft are coughing to life on Barkston Heath’s west dispersal pads. The 101st Airborne’s Pathfinders are already heading over the English Channel near Portland Head, and those of the 82nd Airborne are approaching waypoint ATLANTA near Coventry. In just over 90 minutes, the invasion of Europe will begin when the 101st’s 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands east of Sainte-Mère-Église.

7-10 Split’s crew is pilot Captain Mayfield, copilot 1st Lieutenant Lloyd Crocker, crew chief Technical Sergeant Joe Wahl, and radio operator Clyde Pennypacker.

Also aboard the C-47 are fifteen men of 2nd Lieutenant Gerald McGuire’s 2nd Platoon, I Company, 3rd Battalion, 510th Parachute Infantry Regiment: T/Sgt. Blanchett, S/Sgt. Bronkowski, Sgts. Bok and Frasier, T/5 McCaulley, PFCs Chaquette and McMull, and PVTs Block, Bussard, McGrath, Russett, Shelly, Schaeffer, and Simeon.

Six “parapacks” with a combined 2,034 pounds (923 kilograms) of equipment hang from racks beneath 7-10 Split’s belly, and her fuel tanks are filled with 600 gallons of 130-octane. Sitting in the chocks, our girl weighs almost 28,000 pounds.

There are eighty-eight C-47s ready to fly from Barkston Heath: seventy-two mission aircraft and sixteen spares (four from each squadron). Tonight the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing will put 378 aircraft into the air from six airbases using 1,302 pilots, navigators, and enlisted crewmen.

The aircraft will form first into three-ship “V” formations. These “flights” will then be grouped into nine-ship “elements,” which will then be linked like train cars into long formations called “serials.” The 73rd’s four squadrons will makeup Serial 24 (25th and 26th TCSs) and Serial 25 (52nd and 60th TCSs). Only the leaders of each three-ship flight will have navigators aboard.

Having learned hard lessons over the Mediterranean, IX Troop Carrier Command pilots have been practicing night navigation and formation flying for the previous weeks and have nearly perfected the art. The use of specially trained Pathfinder pilots and paratroops to deploy radio and visual markers at each DZ will be critical to the operation’s success. The veteran pilots are confident they’ll be able to land the paratroops on their intended drop zones. All they need is a little luck…and good weather.

Pee-Wee says: Thirty minutes before the squadron’s scheduled takeoff time, Major Peterson begins taxiing Lorraine II from her dispersal, and the other pilots follow in sequence. Captain Mayfield follows his close friend Captain Finucan in The Nomad towards Runway 24. 2nd Lieutenant Taylor in Bethany Jo follows close behind.

At eight minutes to midnight, the first aircraft of Serial 24 roars down the runway and into the darkness. Each serial is allotted six minutes for takeoff. Six minutes for thirty-six aircraft. Ten seconds between takeoffs.

And the crews make it happen.

Pee-Wee says: Serial 25 begins its takeoff at precisely 11:58 p.m. Captain Mayfield follows The Nomad around the corner onto the runway, counts to ten, and calls for takeoff power. Lieutenant Crocker advances the throttles until the two R1830s reach 47 inches of manifold pressure and 2,700 RPM. Weighed down by a payload she was never intended to carry 7-10 Split accelerates far slower than normal. Every rivet and bolt in her fuselage rattles and bangs as she trundles after her sisters.

Crocker calls out airspeeds every ten knots, and most of the runway is gone before he says “eighty.” The overloaded C-47’s tail slowly rises as her speed builds toward ninety miles per hour. At almost one hundred and ten Captain Mayfield pulls gently on the yoke and the terrible racket stops as 7-10 Split rises slowly into the sky. Crocker raises her landing gear and Mayfield follows the rest of the formation–clearly visible under the full moon–into a turn to the east.

It’s 12:03 a.m., 6 June 1944.

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ATLANTA: 12:37 a.m. (2 Hours and 1 Minute to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: Sergeant Wahl sits near the jump door fiddling absentmindendly with his wedding band. The paratroops sit quietly in their metal seats on either side of the fuselage. No one speaks. Private Shelly is airsick.

Sergeant Pennypacker listens to static on frequency 5005. The formation’s radio silence is to be broken only by the Wing Commander, and only in the direst of circumstances. In the cockpit, Lieutenant Crocker scans the engine instruments and listens on VHF for “Sandbag” or “Crowbar,” callsigns that may precede a recall message.

Captian Mayfield is hand-flying, and The Nomad hangs motionless in his windscreen. To his left Bethany Jo is silhouetted against the horizon, her propellers flashing in the moonlight. All is well, and he dares to think “this is going better than Sicily.”

That’s the market town of Rugby sleeping back there. Some of the residents noticed airplanes passing north of town intermittently starting at around 10:20 p.m. and thought nothing of it. But beginning a few minutes before midnight, there were more. Lots more. For the next hour an almost continuous stream of airplanes droned past the town heading southwest. Where they were going was anyone’s guess, but something big was afoot.

Every formation maintains the same altitude and airspeed: 1,500 feet MSL (460 meters) and 140 miles per hour (120 knots, 225 kilometers per hour). There is no radar control. No TCAS. No station keeping gizmos. No NVGs. As long as every formation–every car in an aerial train stretching twenty miles from front to caboose–flies the planned speeds and the planned altitudes, everything will be fine.

CLEVELAND: 1:13 a.m. (1 Hour and 25 Minutes to Green Light)

The formation passes several RAF airfields: Melton Mowbray where No. 304 Ferry Training Squadron teaches ATA pilots to fly high performance aircraft, and RAF Honeybourne and its satellite RAF Long Marston where Canadian pilots are being taught to fly the Vickers Wellington by No. 24 Operational Training Unit. Coventry and Birmingham pass on the right, as does Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace and final resting place of William Shakespeare. A few minutes before reaching CLEVELAND, the formation passes Gloucestershire, home of Gloster Aircraft whose Meteor jet fighter will enter service with the RAF in a month’s time.

Pee-Wee says: The train of C-47s turns south approaching the River Severn estuary. Up ahead are Bristol, Salisbury, Dorchester, and Portland Head where the formation will leave friendly territory. On either side of the formation’s route are the airbases from where Mission Albany launched. The full moon hangs in the sky directly ahead.

Two hundred miles away in Normandy, the 502nd Parachute Infantry has already jumped but is hopelessly scattered in the wetlands and hedgerows. Many paratroops are near their objectives, others are miles away. One hapless stick landed near Couville, twenty miles northwest of the assigned drop zone.

Approximately half of Serial 12 with the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment aboard is approaching Drop Zone C. The other half is wandering further north, or south, or who knows where. In seven minutes Chalk 67, C-47A 42-100646, will drop her paratroops somewhere northeast of their intended drop zone. She carries fifteen paratroops of 1st Platoon, E Company and their platoon leader, 1st Lieutenant Dick Winters.

FLATBUSH: 1:42 a.m. (56 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: The formation descends slowly to 1,000 feet MSL (305 meters) over Portland Head. Mayfield and Crocker scan their instruments again, looking for telltale signs of impending failure: high oil temperature, low oil pressure, or fluctuating fuel pressure. 7-10 Split is running fine, as she always has.

Passing FLATBUSH just south of the Portland Bill Light, they descend further to 500 feet (150 meters) above the English Channel. Pilots switch off their navigation lights and dim their formation and cockpit lights. Sergeant Wahl makes certain all cabin lights are extinguished. The formation becomes invisible to radar and prying eyes.

The 101st Airborne’s three Pathfinder serials have returned to friendly territory and are making their way toward RAF North Witham south of Grantham. One aircraft is missing.

Serial 16 is only moments from dropping the last of the 101st Airborne onto Drop Zone D just north of Carentan.

Serial 7 should be approaching FLATBUSH in the opposite direction now, 2,500 feet above Serial 25, heading for home.

Pee-Wee says: Crocker looks up occasionally. The large formations he expected to see passing overhead aren’t there. Instead, he catches glimpses of single ships and the occasional multi-ship flight heading north. He comments about it to Mayfield, and for the first time, the Captain worries.

Serial 17–the first of the 82nd Airborne’s formations–has reached PEORIA, the Initial Point on the west coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula. It will reach the Drop Zone O in ten minutes.

HOBOKEN: 2:06 a.m. (32 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: Serial 25 reaches HOBOKEN and passes low over the British patrol boat whose Eureka beacon “C” has guided the invasion force across the water. Another turn to the left and the Channel Islands are off the nose. There are occasional dim flashes from over the eastern horizon, and Mayfield thinks again of the straggling formations over FLATBUSH.

As the formation joins the final leg inbound to its Initial Point, the mission is still proceeding is planned. Pennypacker reports the occasional blocking of the command radio channel by a British Broadcasting Corporation station in England. Wahl and the thirty-five other crew chiefs and jumpmasters are making final preparations. Equipment checks. Jump doors open and clear. Lights out.

The 101st Airborne is fully deployed, albeit scattered around the fields and marshes between Sainte-Mère-Église and Carentan. Small groups of paratroops from various units are coalescing and heading toward their objectives. Mission Albany’s aircraft are preparing to land at their bases in the southwest of England, approaching Portland Head northbound, or diverting to the emergency field at RAF Warmwell.

Much of the 82nd Airborne’s 505th PIR is already on the ground near Drop Zone O, and aircraft carrying the 508th PIR are approaching DZ N.

Uknown to the pilots of the 52nd, one C-47 from Serial 19 is already down, and four more from Mission Boston will be shot from the skies in the next ten minutes. Thirteen aircraft from Mission Albany are missing and many more are limping back toward England, shot to pieces and with injured and dead crewmen and paratroops aboard.

Pee-Wee says: Also unknown to the crews, a veil of fog and cloud rising more than 3,000 feet (915 meters) has enveloped the western shore of the Cherbourg Peninsula twenty-three minutes ahead.

The Channel Islands: 2:13 a.m. (25 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: The formation passes between Alderney to the north and Guernsey to the south. Occasional strings of tracers snake up into the night from both sides and fall fruitlessly into the sea. Airplanes have been passing the Channel Islands since just before midnight. After two hours firing blindly into the night without success, the German gunners must be frustrated.

A few minutes from PEORIA, the lead element begins climbing and slowing and the 52nd follows. At 1,500 feet (460 meters) and 125 miles per hour (108 knots, 201 kilometer per hour), Mayfield becomes aware how sluggish 7-10 Split has become.

She’d been overweight taking off two hours ago and was only now reaching her official maximum takeoff weight. With so much extra weight and the drag of six parapacks hanging from her belly, Mayfield isn’t certain 7-10 Split can slow to the prescribed 110 mph (95 knots, 177 kph) over the drop zone without stalling.

PEORIA: 2:29 a.m. (11 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: The formation has reached its Initial Point that marks the beginning of the leg to the drop zone. Mayfield turns on the red signal light and Lieutenant McGuire begins the pre-jump drills his paratroops have practiced hundreds of times. Sergeant Wahl leans out the door and looks forward toward the blacked-out the coast. “Not as distinct as I expected,” he thinks.

The formation crosses PEORIA at 1,500 feet (460 meters). Mission planners believed the threat of balloons over the shoreline was real and thought the higher altitude prudent. Once over land, the formation will descend to 700 feet MSL (215 meters) for the run to drop zone.

Drop Zone T lies astride the Merderet River west-northwest of Sainte-Mère-Église, near Amfreville. The pilots are intimately familiar with the conspicuous bend in the river bordering an open plain, and with the full moon shining, they shouldn’t have difficulty locating the DZ. The Pathfinders’ red-lighted “T” will seal the deal.

Pee-Wee says: The formation is established on the inbound heading now, and Mayfield looks ahead toward the coastline, which seems brighter but less distinct than he expected, and even though the Peninsula is mostly blacked-out by the German occupiers, there is a notable lack of any light on the ground. He is about to comment on the effect to Crocker when The Nomad disappears.

“Uh oh,” he says as the world vanishes into the clouds.

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We’ve gone over our ten-screenshot limit again. Sorry about that! We’ll call this the “intermission.”

Pee-Wee says: Stay tuned for Part 2, coming very soon!

[LeafyNight67562]

2:28 a.m. (10 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: The 52nd Troop Carrier Squadron has been over France for less than sixty seconds, and already the plan is coming unglued. Flying at 1,500 feet (460 meters) over the Norman coast, Serial 25, including all eighteen of the squadron’s aircraft, has plunged into a cloudbank just north of Barneville-Carteret. The pilots are suddenly thrown into solid Instrument Meteorological Conditions and must transition instantly–and unexpectedly–to flying on instruments.

Captain Mayfield in 7-10 Split focuses on his attitude indicator and asks his copilot what he sees out the windscreen. Crocker leans forward until his nose nearly touches the glass and looks intently toward where Captain Finucan’s The Nomad had been only seconds before. He barely makes out the white stripes painted on the C-47’s fuselage and wings and says, “I’ve still got 'em…barely.”

For several seconds the two pilots work together to maintain control of the aircraft and their position in formation. Finucan is slowly climbing, apparently hoping to get above the clouds.

Regardless of their training, experience, or courage, in 1944 there is simply no means for Troop Carrier pilots to maintain closely spaced formations at night in the clouds. Collisions are now the greatest threat to the mission, and Serial 25’s rear element scatters.

Mayfield in 7-10 Split and Taylor in Bethany Jo manage to stay with Finucan. Weber in Sack Time Sally drifts to the right, with Suddery in Fair Victoria hanging on by his fingernails. Christman in Chalk 68 loses his leader completely and climbs away to the right. Daniels in Witch Craft doesn’t see Finucan climb and leads Wilson in Hi-De-Ho up and away to the left. Zimmerling’s Snake Pit is alone near the cloud tops and drifting north.

Pee-Wee says: A bead of sweat rolls down Mayfield’s face, and he thinks to himself "now this is like Sicily."

2:33 a.m. (5 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: After only three minutes (the Troop Carrier pilots would swear it was an hour), the broken formation finds clear skies again west of Saint-Jacques-de-Néhou, but the damage is done: only five airplanes in Serial 25’s rear element are still together. Daniels and Wilson are slightly north of the formation and trying to rejoin. Zimmerling is close behind but can’t find his flight leader in the dark and struggles to see a useful landmark below. Still above the clouds and heading south, Christman will be lucky to find France.

The 82nd’s Pathfinders were only partially successful. Those destined for Drop Zone O landed on target and deployed their Eureka radio beacon and lights. The second team landed off target and never reached Drop Zone N. The third team landed precisely on Drop Zone T and, while they were able to deploy the Eureka and BUPS beacons there, the close proximity of German soldiers prevented them from showing the red-lighted “T.” Mission Boston’s success now depends heavily on the ability of the Troop Carrier pilots to navigate accurately to an almost featureless point in unfamiliar territory at night while being shot at.

The route to the drop zones avoids known anti-aircraft artillery concentrations, but in occupied France every German with a gun is a flak battery. The skies ahead are alight with gunfire, mostly small caliber and dangerous only in the case of “lucky shots.” Regardless, many pilots, crewmen, and paratroops are wounded by bullets piercing the bottoms of their planes.

Pee-Wee says: A machine gun burst rakes across The Nomad. Within seconds her right engine is aflame, and Mayfield and Taylor back away. The sixteen paratroops jump clear before the mortally wounded C-47 descends out of view to the right. There is no time for shock or mourning: Captain Mayfield is leading now and Drop Zone T lies somewhere in the confused darkness only a few miles ahead.

2:35 a.m. (3 Minutes to Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: Mayfield slows to drop speed, 110 miles per hour (95 knots, 177 kilometers per hour). Up ahead the Merderet glistens in the full moon’s light. Mayfield flashes the red signal light.

Lieutenant McGuire: “Two minutes!”

By now German soldiers in the immediate vicinity know where the drop zones are located and from which direction the C-47s will approach. Anti-aircraft fire increases in intensity and accuracy, yet the formation flies straight and level through the maelstrom. Landing the paratroops on target is the only thing that matters now. As stated in the 73rd’s Field Order:

“Pilots of aircraft will be held responsible for the delivery of paratroop loads to the DZ’s. Evasive action prior to delivery of troops will not be tolerated.”

Pee-Wee says: The river bend slips out of sight beneath 7-10 Split’s nose, and Mayfield scans one last time: 700 hundred feet, 110 miles per hour, jump attitude, wings level, and no other aircraft approaching. He turns on the green signal.

2:38 a.m. (Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: Sergeant Wahl mashes the salvo switch near the jump door and releases the six parapacks from 7-10 Split’s belly.

Lieutenant McGuire: “Let’s go!”

Second Platoon shuffles out the door and Mayfield pushes forward on the yoke to maintain jump attitude. Within fifteen seconds the paratroops are swinging safely under their canopies, and the 52nd’s C-47s, relieved of 5,400 pounds (2,450 kilograms) of men and equipment, lunge upward and forward.

Mayfield looks left and waits for the last of Bethany Jo’s paratroops to jump, then pushes 7-10 Split’s nose down and accelerates toward Utah Beach and the relative safety of the English Channel. Their mission accomplished, the crews of the 52nd are on their own now.

But they’re not out of danger yet. Some crews in the preceding serials miss their drop zones completely and, upon encountering the Cherbourg Peninsula’s eastern shore, turn around for another pass. Crews of the 73rd TCG are instructed to execute a right turn at the shoreline and deposit their paratroops on Drop Zone D near Carentan, a maneuver that will separate them from the oncoming stream of airplanes. But not every crew knows its exact location or can find Drop Zone D. The threat of midair collisions arises again.

Pee-Wee says: Sergeant Wahl draws the fifteen static lines back into the airplane and begins securing the cabin. Sergeant Pennypacker, who had been standing behind the pilots ready to assist in the event one was wounded, comes back to help. They both check the cabin for damage.

The formation heads over the water to a point near Îles Saint-Marcouf then turns north toward SPOKANE approximately nine miles east-northeast of the Pharre de Gatteville. Again, the lessons of the Mediterranean are applied: aircraft returning from Missions Albany and Boston fly only 100 feet (30 meters) above the water through a 10-mile (16 kilometer) wide “safe” corridor off the Cherbourg Peninsula’s east coast, and the Allied ships anchoring offshore are warned to not shoot.

7-10 Split passes just west of one of those ships, the American destroyer Corry (DD-463). In only four hours, Corry will fall victim to the heavy guns of Battery Crisbecq near Saint-Marcouf, becoming the largest US Navy casualty of D-Day.

Pee-Wee says: Sergeant Wahl has found everything in order, but there’s a trail of blood running across the floor and out the door. It seems one of the paratroops was wounded but jumped anyway.

In the cockpit, the two pilots are still fully occupied. Mayfield is concentrating on maintaining altitude, heading, and airspeed. Crocker divides his time between the altimeter and checking the time to SPOKANE, where the formation will turn west around Cherbourg. Both men occasionally scan the skies ahead for other aircraft, but see only wave flickering in the moonlight.

SPOKANE: 2:50 a.m. (12 Minutes After Green Light)

That’s Barfleur and Gatteville-le-Phare in the distance. The Pharre de Gatteville lighthouse, the second tallest in France, stands to the right. The Germans there are mostly unaware of what is happening on the Peninsula but will flee toward Cherbourg as the 4th Infantry Division approaches in a few days. The Locals will convince the German occupiers to spare the light. It’s open to public tours today.

Every formation turns west at SPOKANE and heads toward the Eureka-equipped ship at GALLUP. Those without navigators rely on pilotage to remain inside the safe corridor. Many damaged aircraft and those with wounded abord short circuit the route here and head straight toward the emergency landing field at RAF Warmwell.

Scattered and battered, Serial 26 drops the final 82nd Airborne paratroops over Drop Zone T, and both Divisions are fully committed to the battle. The fifty glider-towing C-47s of Mission Chicago are passing FLATBUSH with infantryman of the 101st Airborne destined for landing zones south of Sainte-Mère-Église, and the 82nd’s fifty-two gliders are ten minutes behind.

Only a few minutes from now infantrymen aboard the Allied ships anchored off the Norman coast will begin boarding landing craft in preparation for their assaults on Omaha and Utah Beaches.

Approaching FLATBUSH: 3:28 a.m. (50 Minutes After Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: The formation has climbed to 3,000 feet (915 meters) and Crocker is flying while Mayfield rests. Portland Head is visible now, and Mayfield turns on 7-10 Split’s navigation lights. They’re still almost two hours from home.

They assess their situation for the umpteenth time: both engines appear undamaged, as does the hydraulic system, and there’s plenty of fuel remaining. Mayfield decides to bypass Warmwell and continue to Barkston Heath.

Taylor’s Bethany Jo still hangs on their left wing and Crocker sees Sack Time Sally and another plane–probably Fair Victora–further back on the right. There are more ahead, some in groups, others in pairs, and a few alone.

The 82nd Airborne’s Pathfinder C-47s are crossing ATLANTA and will land within twenty minutes. The first of the Division’s paratroop transports are near BOSTON and heading toward their home at RAF Cottesmore.

All of the 50th TCW’s aircraft have landed, and Mission Albany has ended. The Chicago and Detroit gliders will reach their landing zones on the Peninsula in fifteen minutes.

Passing FLATBUSH, Sack Time Sally turns away toward Warmwell. Fair Victoria moves into position on 7-10 Split’s right wing.

RAF Barkston Heath: 5:22 a.m. (2 Hours and 44 Minutes After Green Light)

Pee-Wee says: The formation approaches RAF Barkston Heath from the southwest, and in the twilight Mayfield sees that one of Bethany Jo’s parapacks is still attached. Taylor is directed to a drop area northeast of the field and Mayfield follows for mutual support. After some coaxing, the troublesome pack falls away and the two aircraft rejoin the landing pattern just as the sun pierces the horizon.

The 52nd has been airborne for over five hours, and their Paratroops have been fighting for three. The 82nd has already liberated Sainte-Mère-Église. Allied warships are pounding the beaches at Omaha and Utah and the landings there are imminent. Thousands of Allied bombers are hammering the Wehrmacht around Normandy. German Field Marshall Rommell is still sixteen hours from his command post, and Adolph Hitler is asleep at Berchtesgaden.

Pee-Wee says: 7-10 Split is one of the last 73rd TCG aircraft to land. Five airplanes and a few ambulances are clustered on the infield grass near the control tower. Others are taxiing or already parked in their dispersals around the field. Ten spots stand empty.

Four airplanes are missing.

Mayfield steps to the ground and stretches. Mechanics swarm the aircraft, and save for a few bullet holes, it seems 7-10 Split’s luck held again.

He and Crocker walk across the taxiway to talk with Taylor, but find the Lieutenant occupied with two M.P.s and some “Admin” types in clean uniforms. His copilot and radio operator stand to the side, hands in pockets, while his Crew Chief stands in the open jump door, cursing and fuming. Behind him sits a single forlorn paratrooper, a “refusal.” Mayfield and Crocker sneak quietly away.

The crews are herded inside to debrief–breakfast and sleep will have to wait–and most of them will be back in the air this afternoon. The Airborne Divisions need supplies, and further glider tows are already scheduled.

Mechanics inspect the 73rd’s fleet. Lightly damaged aircraft are repaired while the undamaged are readied to fly. Some, like the 26th TCS airplane with a smashed wingtip and her sister ship with a matching gash in her fuselage, are pushed aside to await depot maintenance. Stragglers from Warmwell land sporadically throughout the morning, and by 9:00 a.m., all but two have returned.

The Nomad and Windy City Kitty are missing.

Pee-Wee says: Lucky lady 7-10 Split survives to fight another day, but there’s more to come. She’ll eventually fight on the Continent, drop paratroops and tow gliders over Holland and Germany, repatriate Allied prisoners to France and England, fly weary soldiers and sailors back home to America, transport cargo around the Caribbean, spray pests and drop smoke jumpers over Montana, work for a clandestine government agency in Southeast Asia, evacuate refugees from South Vietnam, haul mail and skydivers in Australia and even host children’s birthday parties.

All that is in the future. For now she rests quietly in her dispersal, and waits.

The sun rises over Lincolnshire and the war goes on.

It’s 5:39 a.m., 6 June 1944.

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Captain Finucan and his crew miraculously survived their crash landing west of Sainte-Mère-Église, and returned to Barkston Heath four days later via jeep, LST, ship, LST, airplane, another ship, and one more airplane. The Nomad was a total loss.

2nd Lieutenant Bach and his crew ditched the severely damaged Windy City Kitty in the English Channel a few miles north of the Îles Saint-Marcouf. The four men drifted in their raft until sunrise, when they were rescued by a passing British patrol boat. They returned to Barkston Heath on 9 June.

1st Lieutenant Gill, copilot aboard Captain Weber’s Sack Time Sally, was wounded by 57-mm shrapnel over Drop Zone T. Still telling Weber that he was “fine,” Gill lost consciousness approaching FLATBUSH, and Weber diverted to RAF Warmwell. Gill survived.

1st Lieutenant Ovid Christman eventually found France. He retired thirty-one years later as Vice Commander of the Military Airlift Command.

After the war, 52nd TCS commanding officer Major Paul Peterson, returned to Eastern Air Lines and flew the line until retiring in 1976. Marty Blair, senior animator for Walt Disney Productions, presented Peterson with a framed recreation of 7-10 Split. Mrs. Peterson approved.

2nd Lieutenant Gerald McGuire, 2nd Platoon, I Company, died on 7 June 1944 near Chef-du-Pont, Normandy.

Private First Class Ian McMull, 2nd Platoon, I Company, was wounded before jumping from 7-10 Split, but said that “jumping was better than getting shot at in that tin can for one more second.” He survived the war and returned home to Texas.

Private Vincent Shelly, 2nd Platoon, I Company said he felt much better after landing in France and swore to never again ride in an airplane. He jumped two more times over Holland and Germany.

Sergeant Clyde Pennypacker went back to college and earned several degrees in electrical engineering and physics. He holds several patents, and his advancements in airborne electronic countermeasure systems have saved the lives of hundreds of aircrews around the world.

Technical Sergeant Joseph Wahl returned home to his wife and made a few little Wahls. He lost a brief battle with cancer in 1956.

1st Lieutenant Lloyd Crocker stayed in the Air Corps and commanded a Troop Carrier Squadron over Korea. When he retired as commanding officer of the 14th Air Commando Wing in Vietnam, he had logged more time in C-47s than any other Air Force pilot.

Captain George Mayfield went home to Knoxville in 1945 and helped run the family dairy farm for a few years, but returned to flying in 1949. He retired in 1974 as a DC-8 captain and check airman with Specialized Air Transport. Captain Mayfield passed away peacefully in 2015.

C-47 41-38390 flew in every major airborne operation of World War 2, and spent the next forty-two years earning her living in the sky. She was abandoned near Daylesford, Victoria, in the late 1990s, but luck smiled upon her one more time, and after a two-year restoration, 7-10 Split returned to the skies over Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2024.

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For the pilots, aircrews, mechanics, men, and women of IX Troop Carrier Command, the All Americans of the 82nd Airborne, and the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne.

[LeafyNight67562]

Thanks to Aeroplane Heaven and Microsoft, we finally have a C-47 for MSFS! For those who are interested, here’s the planning information you’ll need to recreate our flight from RAF Barkston Heath over Normandy. Thanks to Pee-Wee for putting all these graphics together!

We based our fictional 52nd Troop Carrier Squaron and 73rd Troop Carrier Group on the real 59th TCS, 61st TCG, 52nd Troop Carrier Wing at Barkston Heath (Station 484). You can read the original documents and view formation diagrams at www.6juin1944.com, one of the finest repositories of information related to D-Day.

Pee-Wee says: Here’s the parking diagram for our fictional 52nd TCS on the west side of RAF Barkston Heath on 5 June 1944. We used nickb007’s outstanding scenery, available on flightsim.to.

I’m not certain the direction each airplane was parked. I discovered one aerial photo of glider tow training at Barkston Heath from February 1944, which unfortunately doesn’t show many airplanes on the west side dispersal area used by the real 59th TCS.

Our fictional C-47 was Chalk 65 and parked near the north end of the squadron’s dispersals.

Pee-Wee says: Here’s the squadron’s aircraft assignments. Chalk 55 was flown by Major Peterson, commanding officer of our fictional 52nd TCS. Our aircraft was Chalk 65, flown by Captain Mayfield.

Here’s the squadron formation diagram. The inset shows the 52nd TCS’s relation to the others in the 73rd TCG. Our C-47 flew near the rear of Serial 25.

And here’s the “meat and potatoes” of the operation: the flight plan, route map, and loading plan. A few key points:

1. We’ve provided three sets of measurements in the flight plan–standard, nautical, and metric–and each is color coded. Be careful not to mix and match!

2. The flight plan shows magnetic courses, not headings. That was the surest way to remove compass errors, since we don’t know what aircraft you may be flying.

3. Real flight plan information, including magnetic headings, is available online, but be very careful: magnetic north has changed significantly since June 1944, by about 11 degrees in England! Do not try to fly the published headings from June 1944 in MSFS. You may not find France!

4. The weight plan is for the original AH DC-3, not the new C-47.

5. For timing information, check the IX Troop Carrier Command’s Appendix D1 to F.O.#1 - 31 May 1944, Time Schedule - Missions Albany, Boston, Chicago, Detroit available at www.6juin1944.com.

Pee-Wee says: That’s all! It’s been a busy few days trying to finish the D-Day writeup, so we’re going to take a break. Thanks again for tuning in, everyone!

[LeafyNight67562]

P&N Over the Cotentin (Cherbourg) Peninsula: Part 1

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(Hey, look! I figured out how to make headings! )

Pee-Wee says: Hello, guys and gals! We’re back…well, I’m back. Nag is still studying for his annual recurrent training and then heading out the door, so I’m flying solo today. Normally, my parts are italicized, but since I’m by myself, I’ll dispense with that formatting.

By the way, thanks to everyone who offered kind feedback about the Mission Boston writeup. I’m not going to lie: I thrive on positive reinforcement! Extra special thanks to forum user @MaverickKing57 for going above and beyond! Check out his new YouTube channel Fly to the Past for some excellent videos and, while you’re there, please like and subscribe to encourage an up-and-coming creator.

Today’s multi-part tour covers sites related to the Allied invasion of the Cotentin Peninsula in June 1944, from Cherbourg in the north to Carentan and the Douve River in the south. I originally thought about flying my favorite Tiger Moth for this tour but elected instead to stick with our new custom 7-10 Split as seen in our Mission Boston writeup. (Thanks again to jamespejam at flightsim.to for the skins and for converting his masterpiece to fit the new AH C-47. You’re a doll, T.O.! )

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Cherbourg–Maupertus Airport (LFRC)
MSFS: 49.650 -1.470
Skyvector: 493900N0012811W

Scenery by: YvesP6 @ flightsim.to

I started and ended at Cherbourg–Maupertus Airport (LFRC), making this tour one of few in which the departure airport is also one of the historic sites!

Originally named Maupertus-sur-Mer, the airfield apparently hosted Armée de l’air fighters (possibly Bloch MB.151s or 152s) until occupied by the Luftwaffe. The “Stukas” of Sturzkampfgeschwader (“Dive Bombing Squadron”) 2 arrived in July 1940 and wrought havoc on Allied shipping in the English Channel before turning its attention to the English mainland during the Battle of Britain. The unit left Maupertus by August.

The Americans captured the airfield on 27 June 1944 after a week of fighting, and by 4 July the 850th and 877th Engineer Aviation Battalions had returned the airfield to service as Advanced Landing Ground 15 (ALG-15). Over the next few months three units were stationed here: the 363rd Fighter Group, the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron, and the 387th Bombardment Group (Medium). Once these combat units moved east to follow the advancing Allies, Maupertus served primarily as a casualty evacuation station.

After the war, the French expanded the airport’s civil facilities and replaced the original runway with a sturdier 8,000-foot (2,438-meter) concrete strip. Paved revetments intended for use by NATO aircraft were added to the northeast portion of the field but were never used.

Today the airport serves as a civil field. There is no commercial airline service at Cherbourg, but the Aéronavale’s 32F maintains a search-and-rescue (SAR) detachment of Airbus H-160 helicopters here.

We’re looking northeast in this photo. You can see: (1) former revetments and taxiways dating to World War II, (2) the original Runway 11/29, (3) the midfield “Maupertus” marking, (4) the Aéronavale SAR detachment’s facilities, (5) the “NATO revetments,” and (6) several German bunkers and other structures dating from World War 2.

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V-1 Launch Site #17 “Mesnil-au-Val”
MSFS: 49.581490 -1.543261
Skyvector: 493453N0013236W

Several launch sites for Germany’s Vengeance Weapons were under construction when the Allies invaded in June 1944. One of the best preserved is permanent V-1 Launch Site 17 approximately five miles (8 kilometers) south of Cherbourg. “Buzz Bombs” launched from here would have targeted Bristol.

There’s V-1 Site #17 down there in a farmer’s field. I’ve marked (1) the launch ramp and protective concrete walls, which appear as triangular-shaped buildings in MSFS, (2) the original road over which V-1s would have been moved to the launch ramp, (3) the “anti-magnetic” building where the weapons’ gyros would have been calibrated before flight, (4) the compressor building, (5) the steam generator building, and (6) the assembly workshop. This site’s concrete walls protecting the launch ramp were unique.

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V-2 Launch and Storage Site “Reservelager West”
MSFS: 49.537708 -1.582485
Skyvector: 493216N0013457W

One of the largest facilities of its kind, the Reservelager West V-2 launch and storage site near Sottevast was a massive L-shaped construct, 300 feet long, 250 feet wide, and 90 feet tall (91 x 76 x 28 meters) with walls up to 12 feet (4 meters) thick, and capable of storing between 95 and 300 V-2 rockets (this number varies wildly between sources). Having become aware of the site’s significance, the Allies began routinely bombing Reservelager West from August 1943. By the time the 79th Infantry Division captured the site shortly after D-Day, all construction was halted, and the site abandoned. After being viewed by Generals Eisenhower and Bradley, American engineers buried the site.

Some portions of this massive V-2 facility are still visible today on a dairy farm about seven miles (11 kilometers) south of Cherbourg, including (1) the L-shaped bunker, now used for storing farm equipment, and (2) an associated bunker. Modern farm buildings southeast of the site are built upon a (3) concrete pad that may have been part of the V-2 site.

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[Museum Hangar à Dirigeables d’Écausseville
MSFS: 49.451482 -1.381754
Skyvector: 492705N0012254W

Scenery by Greenhopper @ flightsim.to (original doors), or flightsim.to (current configuration)

Yay! A blimp hangar! This is the Hangar à Dirigeables near Bazirerie in Écausseville. The original wooden hangar built during World War 1 no longer exists, but the 500-foot (150-meter) long concrete shed completed in 1919 remains. The wooden hangar was dismantled in 1932, and the French Navy shut down its airship program in 1936.

The French and the German occupiers subsequently used the concrete hangar for outsized equipment storage, including several 155-milimeter canons destined for installation at fixed gun batteries elsewhere on the Cotentin Peninsula. Having captured the facility intact, the Americans used it first as a prisoner of war camp and then for storing equipment, including trucks, fuel, and tires.

After the war the Direction des Applications Militaires / Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (DAMCEA, or “Directorate of Military Applications / Central Commission of Atomic Energy”) used the huge shed to develop aerostats for use in the French nuclear weapon testing program.

A protected national monument since 2003, the hangar survives today as a museum, and saw roughly 22,000 visitors in 2023.

I really don’t know why I have such a thing for blimp hangars. I’ll ask my therapist. Anyway, you can see the following in this northwest-facing screenshot: (1) the concrete hangar, made from 3,552 individual tiles laid over a steel frame, (2) the original man-powered sliding doors, (3) what may be an original workshop, (4) storage sheds on the site of the original wooden hangar, and (5) a water tower. During the War, several German anti-aircraft guns were placed in the field east of the hangars.

Greenhopper’s excellent scenery comes in two versions: the one seen here with the original hangar doors intact and a contemporary version with the building permanently sealed at both ends.

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Advanced Landing Ground 6 (ALG-6) / Beuzeville Airfield
MSFS: 49.420 -1.297
Skyvector: 492512N0011751W

The Allies constructed twenty-nine temporary Advanced Landing Ground airfields on the Cotentin Peninsula after D-Day. ALG-6 was located immediately east-northeast of Sainte-Mère-Église and served the 371st and 367th Fighter Groups. Several dramatic pictures are available online showing Waco gliders landing here on 11 June 1944 and C-47s dropping supplies the following day.

Today nothing remains of this important airfield, the first on the Allied beachhead on the Cotentin Peninsula. A memorial stands alongside the roadway that bounded the airfield to the west.

Here I am flying south over the former ALG-6. You can see: (1) the approximate outline of the former 5,000 foot (1,520 meter) runway, (2) Manoir d’Artilly, once home to famed horse breeder Jean-Yves Lécuyer, (3) Gaec de la Londe à Sainte Mère l’Eglise, a modern farm that stands atop former aircraft revetments, (4) the town of Sainte-Mère-Église (literally “Holy Mother’s Church”), and 82nd Airborne drop zones (O) and (T).

Incidentally, the road intersection where 1st Lieutenant Winters assisted in the ambush of some German supply wagons (as depicted in the miniseries Band of Brothers, Episode 2 “Day of Days”) is just outside the lower left corner of this screenshot.

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Dead Man’s Corner / D-Day Experience Museum
MSFS: 49.328477 -1.268424
Skyvector: 491943N0011606W

Next, I flew south to Saint-Côme-du-Mont about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) north of Carentan. Just south of the small town lies the intersection of D974, part of the throughfare connecting Paris and Cherbourg, and D913, the southernmost road connecting Utah Beach with D974. A German regimental headquarters and aide station occupied the house overlooking this intersection.

On 7 June 1944, a Stuart light tank of 3rd Platoon, Dog Company, 70th Tank Battalion was knocked out by a German anti-tank weapon at this intersection, killing three of its four enlisted crewmen. Because of the Americans’ rapid advance, the tank and its deceased crew remained at the intersection for several days, and “the intersection with the tank with the dead man inside” became an unfortunate landmark for Allied forces moving around the southern Cherbourg Peninsula. The name “Dead Man’s Corner” eventually stuck.

Today the D-Day Experience Museum occupies the house overlooking the intersection and a newly constructed building on the same property. Two Stuart tanks stand on the museum grounds.

There’s a wonderful and fascinating writeup at the Warfare History Network that delves into greater detail about the identity of the tank’s hapless crew and provides a masterclass in researching fallen soldiers’ identities.

Here I am flying roughly southwest over Dead Man’s Corner. I’ve marked: (1) the exact location where the Stuart light tank stood after being hit, (2) the D-Day Experience Museum, with 7-10 Split’s left wingtip touching the original house/headquarters, (3) what appears to be a French chateau but in reality is Carentan’s wastewater treatment plant, (4) road D974, (5) road D913, and (6) Saint-Côme-du-Mont.

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Carentan and the Douve River
MSFS: 49.322 -1.255
Skyvector: 491919N0011521W

Allied planners determined that the rapid seizure of Carentan, the largest city in the southern Cherbourg Peninsula, was critical to Operation Overlord’s success, and assigned the task to the 101st Airborne Division. The Germans realized the importance of Carentan, too, and accordingly flooded the northern approaches to the town through which the Douve River flowed, hoping to stall the Allied advance. Their plan failed spectacularly: the Americans were able to move almost unimpeded across the open roadways toward Carentan while German reinforcements were severely hampered by the flooding. (I believe “fehlschlagen” is the German approximation of the English verb “backfire.”)

I’ve turned east in this screenshot, and you can see (1) the Douve River, (2) two of the bridges crossing the river (the D947 bridge over which the American 502nd PIR advanced is on the right), and (3) Carentan.

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Advanced Landing Ground 16 “Brucheville”
MSFS: 49.368 -1.216
Skyvector: 492205N0011258W

The 843rd Air Engineer Battalion began construction of this Advanced Landing Ground south of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont in the morning of 6 July 1944, and the 36th Fighter Group’s first razorback P-47 Thunderbolts arrived the following day.

ALG-16’s runway was approximately 3,500 feet (1,067 meters) long and was surrounded by taxiways and aircraft revetments, with an ammunition dump to the southwest. The 36th FG departed in August and the field was mostly abandoned. Today, a memorial stone dedicated to the 36th Fighter Group stands near the runway’s southwestern end alongside road D424E1.

Nothing remains of the ALG-16 today. In this screenshot, I’ve marked (1) the approximate position of the runway and (2) Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.

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The Guns of Brécourt Manor
MSFS: 49.389 -1.226
Skyvector: 492323N0011337W

Brécourt Manor lies just north of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont between roads D14 and D424. A livestock farm, the Manor became famous after the 6 June 1944 assault on German artillery positioned there by elements of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment under the command of then 1st Lieutenant Dick Winters, executive officer of Easy Company, 3/506th PIR. The textbook assault is recreated in amazing accuracy in Episode 2 of HBO’s mini-series Band of Brothers.

The Manor and the field in which the assault occurred are clearly visible in MSFS, and in this screenshot, I’ve marked (X) the approximate locations of the four 105-mm cannons, three of which were firing onto Causeway 2 leading off Utah Beach approximately three miles (five kilometers) to the southeast. The red (M’s) show the positions of the Germans’ defensive MG42 machine gun emplacements; the white (M’s) are the Americans’ two M1919 machine gun positions. Under covering fire from (L) Sgt. Lipton and the two machine guns, (C) 2nd Lieutenant Compton led a flank attack against the closest MG42 position. Once the German machine gun was silenced, (W) Lt. Winters and the main assault team ran from cover into the German trenches and disabled the cannons. You can also see (1) Easy Company’s temporary headquarters on road D14, (2) Brécourt Manor, and (3) Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.

Young Michel de Vallavieille, son of Brécourt Manor’s owner, was wounded during the assault and was evacuated to a hospital in England. He survived his wounds, returned to France, and eventually became the mayor of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont.

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Utah Beach
MSFS: 49.415 -1.174
Skyvector: 492457N0011028W

Here I am flying north over Utah Beach, where the 4th Infantry Division and 70th Tank Battalion landed early on 6 June 1944. The Germans used dams and floodgates along the Douve and Vire Rivers to flood much of the farmland beyond the beach, leaving only several causeways as the only means for the Americans to advance inland. The task of clearing these causeways was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.

Immediately before the landings, naval artillery and bombing by Ninth Air Force B-26s all but neutralized the German 709th Static Infantry Division defending Utah, and the statistics bear that out: of the 4th ID’s 21,000 men who landed at Utah, only 197 were killed (compared to approximately 2,400 casualties at Omaha Beach).

In this screenshot you can see (1) Causeway 2, road D913 to Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, (2) Causeway 3, road D67 to Sainte-Mère-Église, and (3) the Utah Beach Museum. The Americans planned to land at (C) Uncle Red and (D) Tare Green beaches but were pushed further south by strong currents and instead landed at (A) and (B). It was on this unplanned beachhead that General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. said “we’ll start the war from right here!”

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There’s a few more locations to spot, so stay tuned for the next installment coming very soon!

[LeafyNight67562]

P&N Over the Cotentin (Cherbourg) Peninsula: Part 2

Welcome back! Let’s finish the tour of the Cotentin (Cherbourg) Peninsula.

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Azeville and Crisbecq Gun Batteries

Azeville
MSFS: 49.461667 -1.306667
Skyvector: 492742N0011824W

Crisbecq
MSFS: 49.480278 -1.296667
Skyvector: 492849N0011748W

Scenery by droide @ flightsim.to

The Germans constructed two large, east-facing fixed gun batteries as part of the Atlantic Wall on the Cotentin Peninsula beginning in 1941. These two batteries–Azeville and Crisbecq–would have eventually brought at least eight 155 and 210-mm (6 to 8-inch) cannons to bear on nearly the entirety of the Peninsula’s eastern shore. Their destruction or capture was one of the Allies’ primary goals after D-Day.

Both batteries suffered frequent bombings leading to the invasion but remained operational and pounded American forces landing at Utah Beach. On D-Day Battery Crisbecq exchanged fire with U.S. Navy ships including Nevada, Texas, and Arkansas, and sank the destroyer Corry before being permanently silenced by the American battleships. Battery Azeville remained operational until 9 June, when it was captured by the 22nd Infantry Regiment.

The commanding officer of Battery Crisbecq was the first German to spot the approaching invasion fleet and sounded the alarm. Today, both batteries are open to the public.

That’s Battery Azeville down there. You can see (1), (2), (3), (4) the casements protecting the battery’s four 105-mm (4-inch) cannons, (5) the entrance to the underground bunker containing battery control, ammunition storage, and gun crew facilities, (6) a prepared position for anti-aircraft artillery, and (7) road D269 connecting Azeville and Saint Marcouf.

And here’s Battery Crisbecq, including (1) the fire control station for Battery Azeville, (2) the field where several 75-mm (3-inch) anti-aircraft guns stood, (3), (4), (5) completed casemates for 210-mm cannons, (6) prepared positions for 155-mm cannons, (7 and dashed outline) the bunker area for ammunition storage and gun crew facilities, (8) a partially completed 210-mm gun casement, and (9) a prepared position for anti-aircraft artillery.

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Forts of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue
MSFS: 49.584 -1.262
Skyvector: 493502N0011543W

Scenery by driode @ flightsim.to

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue lies on the Cotentin Peninsula’s northeastern coast, and securing its port was another major Allied goal after D-Day. Two Seventeenth Century fortresses–Tatihou and Vauban–overlook the approaches to the port.

The British monitor Erebus and American cruiser Tuscaloosa bombarded Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue beginning on D-Day, and by 19 June the German occupiers there were in full retreat. The 4th Infantry Division’s 24th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron liberated the town two days later. Rapid rehabilitation of the port allowed much needed supplies to reach the Allied advancing on Cherbourg.

After dropping their paratroops and gliders over the southern Cotentin Peninsula, C-47s flew home along a “safe corridor” only a few miles off Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue at an altitude of 100 feet…in the dark.

I’m flying roughly northeast in this photo, and you can see (1) tiny Fort de L’îlet, known for its several rare species of birds, (2) Tatihou, with its stone tower, walls, and (3) moat, and (4) the fort at Vauban. Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and its port lie off the right edge of this photo. Today, a limited number of visitors are allowed on Tatihou, and the island can be reached by boat or by walking across the oyster beds at low tide (although if you walk, please check the tide charts. )

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Phare de Gatteville
MSFS: 49.696446 -1.265833
Skyvector: 494147N0011557W

Here’s the spectacular lighthouse at Gatteville, the second tallest in France and the third tallest “traditional lighthouse” in the world. The (1) current 247-foot (75-meter) tower was completed in 1835, replacing the (2) earlier tower built in 1774. The occupying Germans rigged the light with explosives as they prepared to escape to Cherbourg in late June 1944, but the French residents convinced them to spare the light, and it remains open to the public today. In the distance is (3) Battery Gatteville, a former coastal defense battery similar to Azeville and Crisbecq which today has been destroyed by developers…er, I mean “rebuilt into boutique homes” and is no longer open to the public.

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I think that just about does it for Normandy! Thanks for tuning in again, everyone. We’ll be back again soon with another exciting (and hopefully informative) Skytour. Bye for now!

(By the way, if anyone has leads on interesting places to tour, drop us a DM. We’re always open to suggestions!)

[MaverickKing57]

Great write up as always! Thanks for the shoutout as well. I too appreciate blimp hangars, perhaps I should also talk to someone about that Looking forward to the next trip.

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee’s Little Adventures

Episode One: The Phantom Menace

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Pee-Wee says: Welcome back, history and sight-seeing friends! I’ve been flying solo lately and decided to write a few “little adventures” that focus on smaller areas than a full Skytour. Again, I’m dispensing with the italicized text since I’m the only one talking (yes, I miss Nag, too, but he’ll be back soon ).

Those of you who frequent this thread already know my passions veer toward the eclectic, like wooden blimp hangars and their buoyant tenants, Fairbanks-Morse cab units, Russian airliners and prototypes, and other oddities. But I bet you don’t know my favorite Cold War fighters.

Boom. British Phantoms.

This is Phantom FG.1 XT860, one ship of the inaugural trio delivered to NAS Yeovilton on 29 April 1968. She flew with 700P Squadron and later with 892 Squadron aboard HMS Ark Royal before joining the Royal Air Force’s “Fighting Cocks” of 43 Squadron in 1978. Sadly, she and her crew–Flight Lieutenants Philip Clarke and Kevin Poysden–were lost in the North Sea off RAF Leuchars on 20 April 1988.

The Phantom model is by DC Designs, and the brilliant skin, which presents XT860 as she appeared in 1977, is the work of Merida72 at www.flightsim.to.

It was believed the Phantom would be the last fixed-wing aircraft operated from Royal Navy aircraft carriers, and 892 Squadron accordingly chose the ultimate Greek letter Omega as its symbol. (It seems nobody–not even the Fleet Air Arm–anticipated the Sea Harrier. ) The “R” indicates assignment to Ark Royal’s carrier air group, and she carries a commemorative marking behind her fuselage roundel with the numbers “1976” and “976” flanking the white Royal Navy Ensign. As the RN was formed in 1546, I’m stumped as to its meaning. If anyone knows, please send a DM!

Today I’ll be flying one of my favorite low-level round robin routes through southern California: from NAWS China Lake, I’ll turn north and run up the Owens Valley to Lone Pine, hop over the Inyo Mountains into Saline Valley, turn south over the Malpais Mesa, drop through Rainbow (“Star Wars”) Canyon into Panamint Valley, and whiz past Trona on the way home. The whole route takes about twelve parsecs (sorry…couldn’t resist).

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Borax and Bombs: Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake
MSFS: 35.686 -117.691
Skyvector: 354110N1174128W

Nothing satisfies my sense of irony like the United States Navy owning a Rhode Island-sized chunk of desert more than 120 miles (193 kilometers) from the nearest ocean. Named the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, this massive facility contains 35% of the U.S. Navy’s total land holdings worldwide. The name derives from the predominantly Chinese immigrants who worked the nearby borax mines.

During World War 2, the U.S. Navy needed a remote range to test new rockets, and the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) needed someplace away from prying eyes to develop nuclear weapon “shapes” for the Manhattan Project. Straddling three counties–Inyo, Kern, and San Bernardino–the 1.1 million acre (4,500 square kilometer) Naval Ordnance Test Station opened in 1943.

Over the following decades the Navy and other armed services tested everything from air-to-air missiles (including the über successful AIM-9 Sidewinder) to submarine-launched ballistic missiles, electronic countermeasures, ejection seats, and even anti-satellite weapons here.

At least three add-on scenery packages for China Lake’s Armitage Field are available at www.flightims.to, although I used the basic MSFS scenery for this flight.

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Dropping In: Turning North Along the Sierras
MSFS: 35.794 -117.861
Skyvector: 354741N1175142W

In this screenshot I’m pointed toward Pearsonville on U.S. Highway 395 north of Inyokern. The Sierra Nevada Mountains and Alabama Hills form the western edge of the Owens Valley, which lies beyond the volcanic hills in the distant right. The pivot-irrigated (i.e. circular) fields in the distance make a great landmark to help find the highway.

And here I am following the highway north toward Owens Valley. US-395 runs from Hesperia in San Bernardino County, California, to the Canadian border at Laurier, Washington and is part of the original transcontinental “Grand Army of the Republic Highway.” (Seriously, how many Star Wars references can I fit into this writeup? )

Be very careful: there are numerous unmarked high-tension transmission lines crossing here! I strongly recommend flying no lower than 200 feet (60 meters) above the terrain until exiting the pass ahead.

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Thanks for the Water, Los Angeles: Owens Valley
MSFS: 35.987 -117.919
Skyvector: 355916N1175509W

Exiting the narrow pass you’ll see the 560-foot (170-meter) tall and aptly named Red Hill cinder cone and Fossil Falls geologic site, with its basaltic lava flows shaped by glacial melt, on the right. You’ll also see more power lines. Watch out!

In this south-facing screenshot, I’m passing over the Coso Junction and Rest Area where US-395 meets two roads that wind away into the desert to the east and mountains to the west. That’s Red Hill in the distance, and Volcano Peak to the left directly above my Phantom.

The Timbisha Shoshone, a tribe of the Northern Paiutes previously called the Coso People, occupied these lands for centuries. Their artwork adorns thousands of rock faces throughout this region and constitutes one of the largest collections of native petroglyphs in the Western Hemisphere.

A few miles north of Coso Junction I passed west of the manmade North and South Haiwee Reservoirs and the Coso Range Wilderness Area. These two reservoirs were flooded in 1913 to feed the Los Angeles Aqueduct that runs from here to Van Norman Lake in Granada Hills.

In a classic case of comeuppance, the White settlers that forced the native Timbisha from their fertile farmlands during the Owens Valley War of 1862-63 were themselves forced to abandon their homes as Los Angeles sucked the valley dry in the 20th Century. Today, Owens Lake is virtually empty and sees far more sulfate and borax mining than farming. In the distance above our Phantom’s tail, you can see some of the surviving marshlands along the lake’s southern margin. The Owens Lake West Delta Birding Area is barely visible at the lake’s northern shore up ahead.

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Sportsman’s Paradise: The Former J. G. Motel and Airstrip
MSFS: 36.256 -117.998
Skyvector: 361523N1175955W

This one took some sleuthing! Just north of the Haiwee Reservoirs I found the former J. G. Motel (the generic buildings to the left of our Phantom) and its airstrip on the west side of Highway 395. Carved from the desert shortly after World War 2, the airfield served aircraft ferrying motel guests and sportsmen over the Alabama Hills to Monache Meadows in the High Sierras. A period brochure shows a proud pilot or guest standing next to a nicely demobbed BT-13 trainer, apparently one of three aircraft in the motel’s fleet. There are rumors that Howard Hughes frequented this establishment, but honestly, I’m hard-pressed to find anywhere in California that doesn’t make that claim!

Today the motel is the two-star Ranch Hotel, and it appears…a little rough around the edges, and perhaps in need of…updating, or perhaps some…napalm. The airstrip was active as a glider field until at least 2015, although it hasn’t been marked on aeronautical charts since the Sixties. Maybe Nag and I will return here in more suitable aircraft another day?

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There Sure Are Many Pines In: Lone Pine
MSFS: 36.605 -118.063
Skyvector: 363620N1180348W

Here I am approaching Lone Pine and the eastward turn toward the Inyo Mountains. Continuing up the valley ahead would take me to Bishop, Mono and Mammoth Lakes, and eventually to Reno and Naval Air Station Fallon, current home of the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School (“Top Gun”).

Directly above my Phantom’s tail is 11,105-foot (3,385 meter) Keynot Peak and Forgotten Pass where I’ll cross the ridge and drop into Saline Valley. At the photo’s upper right corner is New York Butte.

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Huh, would you look at that? My “little adventure” is running out of control and I’m nudging the ten-screenshot limit! Let’s break here and pick up again in Part 2!

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee’s Little Adventures

Episode One, Part Two: The Phantom Menace

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Welcome back, everyone!

I’m going to write this second part more like a tutorial than a guidebook, since…well, unless you’re a geologist, sandpiper, or hermit, there’s really nothing interesting to see on the next leg of our journey! Hopefully this will help those who’ve never flown this route and those who have a little difficulty navigating find their way to an interesting site!

Rainbow Canyon lies on the eastern edge of the Malpais Mesa and drains the Santa Rosa Plateau into the Panamint Valley below. It’s five nautical miles (9.2 kilometers) long following the water course (about forty seconds flying at 420 knots [780 kilometers per hours]) and about 1,000 feet (305 meters) deep. Tactical military aircraft from airbases throughout the region, including NAS Fallon and Lemoore and Edwards AFB, routinely transit through the canyon at low altitude, providing the general public with a front row seat to low-flying training operations. Rainbow has been nicknamed “Star Wars Canyon” by observers because of its perceived similarity to the “canyon” through which Luke Skywalker must fly while pressing the final attack upon the Death Star in Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope.

Some people have even referred to Rainbow Canyon as “America’s Mach Loop.” Perhaps in concept only! While the view is spectacular, Rainbow is much shorter than the Mach Loop and not nearly as scenic. And it lies near Death Valley, a locale that is actively trying to kill you. I’ll take Wales any day!

California Highway 190 hugs the canyon’s south rim as it meanders through the Death Valley National Park between Beaty, Nevada and Lone Pine, California, and provides paved access to the Father Crowley Scenic Overlook and associated trails on the canyon’s south rim.

A word for the novices before we start: try and maintain a constant airspeed along your route. In most tactical jets, 420 knots provides both adequate maneuverability and stall margin, and has the added benefit of allowing for easy math calculations (420 knots / 60 minutes = 7 miles per minute). Flying at excessive airspeeds dramatically increases your turn radius, a bad thing when the available radius is limited by a canyon wall!

Alright! Let’s pick up where we left off…

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High Jump: Forgotten Pass and Saline Valley
MSFS: 36.692107 -117.957888
Skyvector: 364132N1175728W

In this screenshot we’re climbing away from Lone Pine (off the photo’s right edge) toward the Inyo Mountains. In the distance you can see the entirety of Owens Valley, including the lake and marshes. Directly above our Phantom is the Owens River course. The little mound ahead is 4,632-foot (1,412-meter) Haystack Hill. Our route thus far brought us along the western edge of Owens Valley over US-395, visible in the distant right.

That’s (1) Keynot Peak ahead, and to its left hidden behind the greener peak is Forgotten Pass, elevation 9,600 feet (2,950 meters). Beneath our Phantom I’ve circled a geologic feature that should help you find the correct pass through the mountains. It’s visible from Lone Pine.

If you miss Forgotten Pass, following the draw immediately above our Phantom will also work.

Here we’ve crested Forgotten Pass and started our right turn toward Malpais Mesa. On the left is (1) Saline Valley, through which the VR-1205 military training route runs (the faded red route). Above and left of our Phantom is (2) 7,329-foot (2,234 meter) Hunter Mountain. We’ll fly up the rugged valley west of Hunter to reach Malpais Mesa and Rainbow Canyon.

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I Sure Hope the Shield Is Down: Southbound Toward Rainbow Canyon
MSFS: 36.596 -117.764
Skyvector: 363547N1174551W

(1) Hunter Peak should be on your left, with the (2) Santa Rosa Hills peaking over the mesa rim. You’re about twelve miles (or 100 seconds at 420 knots) from Rainbow Canyon here. Things are going to happen fast! Should you get lost, you have two options: climb and turn right back toward Owens Lake and start again or climb and turn left toward Panamint Valley. Either way…climb!

Continute south, hugging the (1) Santa Rosa Hills’ eastern edge. Ahead in the distance you should see (2) Maturango, Parkinson, and Parrot Point Peaks. Don’t bite on this (3) ridgeline, which looks like Rainbow from a distance.

Turn slightly right reaching this (1) junction and follow the southbound trail. The (2) conical green hill ahead is 5,600-foot (1,708-meter) Maltese Peak, a great landmark for lining up with Rainbow Canyon, which is still hidden from view. The hills (3) here lie just west of the canyon entrance.

Passing over the river wash west of Maltese Peak, (1) Rainbow Canyon should come into view, with the previously mentioned (2) hills to the west. Widen out to the right: it’s a pretty sharp turn into the canyon if you fly straight toward it!

(Strangely, every time I round Maltese Peak and the canyon comes into view, I hear “where the h**l is Major Kong?!” )

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Use The Force: Rainbow “Star Wars” Canyon
MSFS: 36.362587 -117.570614
Skyvector: 362145N1173414W

Lining up with the canyon entrance going “downhill” requires a nearly ninety degree descending left turn. Take care here: bleeding excessive speed will reduce your maneuverability and stall margin, while building excessive speed will make the first left turn down the canyon difficult or impossible. In 2019 a F-18 from NAS Fallon crashed beneath Father Crowley Scenic Overlook (visible here atop the canyon’s south rim) due to excessive speed and insufficient altitude. Know your airplane and don’t fly too fast!

Rockin’ through the canyon on my first pass.

Normally I turn right and continue south down the Panamint Valley toward Trona after exiting the canyon. This time I pulled up and left for another run (screenshots, you know ). From here you can see the canyon’s general layout. The scenic overlook is visible atop the far rim directly above our Phantom, with Padre Point to the left where the shadows below the south rim begin again.

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Aaaand…ten screenshots. Perhaps I should revisit the concept of a “little adventure?”

Hopefully the information I provided above helps you locate this interesting and exciting real world flying venue. I’ll try and finish the third part of this adventure tonight. See ya’ soon!

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee’s Little Adventures

Episode One, Part Three: The Phantom Menace

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Sageburner: South Through Panamint Valley
MSFS: 36.377 -117.468
Skyvector: 362239N1172807W

Here’s our chance to let the Sweet Lass from Yeovilton run! In this shot we’re pushing Mach 0.98 barely fifty feet above the sands of the Panamint Valley. We’ve just crossed over California Highway 190 and likely torn the roof from a passing semi-truck! That’s Panamint Dry Lake and Butte behind us, and in the distant right you can see (from left to right) Rogers Peak, Bennett Peak, and 11,049-foot (3,368-meter) Telescope Peak, the highest in Death Valley National Park.

Normally I fly south to Water Canyon where Trona Wildrose Road crosses the Slate Range then on past Trona to China Lake. But, honestly, Trona is a filthy place with nothing to see but crummy borax mines and mining tailings (if you live in Trona, I’m sorry ). So, let’s break off to the west and see what we can find in the China Lake ranges instead!

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Nothing To See Here…Probably: The China Lake Ranges
MSFS: 36.138 -117.536
Skyvector: 360817N1173210W

We’ve crossed the Argus Range and entered the China Lake ranges and Restricted Area R-2505. That’s the western slopes of 8,759-foot (2,670-meter) Maturango Peak below our Phantom. Rainbow Canyon is just out of the frame in the upper right.

There’s three interesting sites to see in this northwest-facing photo:

Just ahead of our Phantom is what appears to be a target or abandoned airfield, with one runway pointing toward the camera and the other running diagonally toward the lower left. There’s a collection of structures at the far end of the first runway that resembles other “training towns” designed for urban combat exercises. At the south end of the other runway is what appears to be a driving track. Looks like a training site to me.

The facility to the left of our Phantom appears similar to Radar Cross Section (RCS) ranges I’ve seen elsewhere, except that the paved pads are perfectly straight. The construction contractor calls this site a “test track.” The longer strip is almost two miles (3.1 kilometers) long. Huh. Don’t know.

The facility near the lower left of the photo? No idea what that is. According to Google Earth, it’s been there since at least 1985. There are two large buildings with what may be antennae atop their roofs and a long row of scaffolds or towers that appear similar to Soviet over-the-horizon radars. Beats me!

Looking southwest we see this apparent RCS range, curiously without a paved surface between the transmitter and the target. The “hangar” next to the range seems to be three or four stories tall and could be (gasp!) an aerostat hangar!

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The Floor is Lava: The Coso Volcanic Field
MSFS: 35.887 -117.811
Skyvector: 355317N1174842W

Northwest of China Lake we found the lava flows of the Coso Volcanic Field. We’re looking west-southwest here, and the irrigated fields where we first turned north toward Owens Valley in Part One are visible in the distant left. The last eruption in this area occurred 39,000 years ago. The native Timbisha used obsidian mined from this area for making weapons and tools, and traded the volcanic glass with other tribes as distant as present day San Diego and Las Vegas.

This area lies withing R-2505 and the China Lake ranges. While researching this area, I found a mock S-75 (SA-2) SAM site just outside this photo’s left edge.

Here’s one last screenshot showing the China Lake general vicinity. You can see (1) what appears to be a large bombing range, (2) Armitage Field, (3) Ridgecrest, the town neighboring NAWS China Lake, (4) and the Navy’s 4.1 mile (6.6 kilometer) test track, the second longest high-speed rocket sled track in the world. Way back here (5) is Edwards AFB.

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That’s all, gang! I’m sorry that my little adventure turned into a full-fledged tour, but I hope you all enjoyed exploring a desolate area you may have overlooked before. I’ll be back again next week with another adventure, so stay tuned.

Okay…one more Phantom shot…

Good night, all!

[oellph9855]

Oh my. I’ve only just discovered your posts and have a whole load of lovely reading and inspiration ahead of me! Thank you so much for sharing these.

[dectenor1]

Yes many thanks here also. Been reading these posts for a while. A lovely relaxing informative read.

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee and Nag Over Middle America

St. Louis to Kansas City, Part One

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Good evening, everyone! So, here’s the deal: every year, commercial airline pilots must undergo “recurrent training,” a mixture of classroom studying and discussion and simulator training and checking. I’m due in July. But thanks to the difficulties of scheduling pilots during the busy Summer travel months, my training has been delayed into my “grace month.” That means I won’t go to training until August, which means I can throttle back my studying for now, which means…

Pee-Wee says: Which means you can hang with me! Yay!

Yup! Today we’ll be jetting around St. Louis before heading cross country to Kansas City.

Pee-Wee says: And we’ll be doing it in another Phantom. If you don’t get why we chose this aircraft…well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Here’s F-4J BuNo. 155587 in the markings of VF-143, one of the stock skins in DC Designs’s Phantom package. One of 522 J-model Phantoms built between 1966 and 1972, 5887 served with VF-143 at NAS Miramar until 1974 when the “Pukin’ Dogs” transitioned to the F-14 Tomcat. She subsequently passed to the “Aardvarks” of VF-114 and the “Pacemakers” of VF-121, then joined the Marine Corps and the “Lancers” of VMFA-212. Converted to an F-4S, 5887 joined VMFA-232’s “Red Devils” and was retired at MCAS Cherry Point in June 1986. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

Pee-Wee says: “Taproom 102” was the personal mount of VF-143 Executive Officer Commander Harley Hall and carried his name on the forward canopy rail. Sadly, Commander Hall became the last US Navy pilot lost over Vietnam only minutes before the negotiated ceasefire on 27 January 1973 when he and Radar Intercept Officer Lieutenant Commander Philip Kientzler were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery near Quang Tri in F-4J BuNo. 155768 “Taproom 113.” Commander Kientzler remained in Vietnam until being repatriated two months later, but Commander Hall was never recovered. Some of his remains were returned by the Vietnamese Government in 1993 but proved inconclusive as to his fate. Commander Hall was posthumously promoted to Captain and declared deceased in February 1980. His name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Panel 1W, Line 112.

VF-143’s 1972-73 cruise was the squadron’s second and last aboard CVN-65 Enterprise, and the last time the Pukin’ Dogs would see sustained combat until Operations Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom almost thirty years later. The deployment was also the last time F-4s would regularly fly aboard Enterprise, their pride of place assumed by the F-14s of VF-1 and VF-2.

Well, shall we head out?

Pee-Wee says: We shall!

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A Tale of Two Airports: Scott AFB / MidAmerica St. Louis Airport (KBLV)
MSFS: 38.546 -89.837
Skyvector: 383248N0895014W

Scenery by projectzero3923 @ www.flightsim.to

We departed from Scott Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, n Belleville, Illinois, approximately seventeen miles east-southeast of St. Louis. Like a commercial airline’s dispatch center, operational control of all Air Force transport flights globally–from planning and scheduling to acquiring foreign overflight approval–is exercised by the officers and enlisted airmen stationed here.

The airport also serves as the civilian MidAmerica St. Louis International Airport (KBLV). Opened in 1997 this much maligned $313 million (€293 million) “Gateway to Nowhere” serves as a reliever for nearby St. Louis Lambert International Airport (KSTL), although after the collapse of the TWA/American fortress hub at STL, and even notwithstanding Southwest’s major operation there, it’s hard to see why Lambert requires a reliever. Ranked by passenger enplanements, STL is the 34th busiest airport in the United States, and on most days there’s more birds on the ramp than airplanes.

Pee-Wee says: Perhaps the identifier should be BND for “BooNDoggle?”

Scott was opened during World War 1 as a pilot training field and named for Corporal Frank Scott, the first enlisted man killed in a U.S. aviation crash. Some 300 aviators trained here before the war’s end, when all flying activity ceased. Thanks to its centralized location, Scott was selected to become…

Pee-Wee says: Ooh! Let me! Scott was selected to become the center of the Army’s lighter-than-air (LTA) program. Airship and balloon training was transferred here from California and Virginia, as was most depot material from Nebraska, and a new 850-foot long (260-meter) airship hangar and 120-foot long (36-meter) balloon hangar were completed in 1923. Unfortunately, after a series of fatal crashes, the Army terminated its LTA program in 1937. Boo.

Scott served primarily as a technical training facility into the 1950s when the Military Air Transport Service and the Air Force’s aeromedical evacuation community arrived.

Today, flying units based here include the 375th Air Mobility Wing (C-21, C-40, KC-135), the Air Force Reserve’s 932nd Airlift Wing (KC-135), and the Illinois Air National Guard’s 126th Air Refuelling Wing (KC-135). On the commercial side of the field, Allegiant Air operates commercial passenger flights to Las Vegas and vacation destinations in the Southeast. Boeing’s new factory, where the company will produce MQ-25 air-refueling drones for the U.S. Navy, will open later in 2024.

Pee-Wee says: We tookoff from Runway 32L on the military side of the field and circled back around for this overview screenshot, in which you can see: (1) the Scott AFB Heritage Air Park display, which includes a C-9 Nightingale, C-21 executive transport, C-130 Hercules, KC-135 Stratotanker, C-140 Jetstar, and C-141 Starlifter, (2) the 126th ARW’s facilities, (3) Taxiway G connecting the two sides of the airfield, (4) the 932nd AW’s facilities, (5) the commercial passenger terminal, (6) the site of Boeing’s new drone factory, (7) home of the USAF’s Band of Mid-America [shout out to some fellow musicians ], and (8) former location of the 1923 airship hangar, in the grass between the current ramp the the closed portion of Taxiway F. Hidden in the trees at the corner of Heritage and Symington Drives is (9) Building 7, formerly an electrical power station and storage building, now home of the Area Defense Counsel. Built in 1923, Building 7 is the oldest structure on the base, and was listed as a historical landmark by the St. Clair County Historical Society in 2010.

From here we headed west toward our first stop, a site that makes that old power station look brand new!

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UNESCO Wonder: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
MSFS: 38.660 -90.062
Skyvector: 383938N0900344W

Scenery included with World Update 10

Pee-Wee says: Oftentimes I look at Asobo’s choices for Points of Interest and scratch my head. Such was the case when Sim Update 10 dropped. With so many historic or interesting sites worldwide, Asobo’s modelers chose…the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, because…what the heck is that? Well, in actual fact, it’s an extremely interesting place to visit, so I’ll just be over here in the corner learning my lesson…

This 2,200 acre (890 hectare) Native American historical site was once part of the most influential city of the Mississippians, a mound-building native civilization that occupied large swaths of what is now the central United States between 800 and 1600 CE. Nearly 40,000 people lived here, making it the largest city to have stood in North American until 1780 when it was eclipsed by up-and-coming Philadelphia. The city was named Cahokia after the native tribe found living here by French explorers in the 1600s.

In total, Cahokia contains 80 mounds. Researchers estimate that the Mississippians moved approximately 55 million cubic feet (1.6 million cubic meters) of soil to create their city.

Pee-Wee says: Stand back: I’m going to try math (not my strong suit). That amount of dirt would fill 622 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Said another way, if we placed that dirt atop a regulation Olympic football pitch like Wembley, we’d have a rectangular column of dirt 735 feet (224 meters) tall which is, no matter how you do the math, a lot of dirt.

Here we are passing just south of 100-foot (30-meter) tall “Monks Mound,” Cahokia’s largest and most prominent mound, named for Catholic monks that lived here between 1809 and 1813. Monks Mound has slumped (think “squashed like an overly wet sandcastle”) considerably over time and today its base is approximately the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. A large wooden building–likely a temple or prominent chief’s home–once stood atop the mound.

To the west, and unfortunately not included in the Asobo 3D model, were five “woodhenges,” circular collections of partially buried wooden poles arranged similarly to Stonehenge. Only the restored “Woodhenge III” stands today. These wooden calendars were calibrated to their surroundings and required periodic rebuilding as construction and settling changed the sizes and shapes of Cahokia’s mounds.

Pee-Wee says: “Sorry I missed your birthday. That new bathroom extension on Mound 62 threw off my calendar.”

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From Mounds to Humps: Alton & Southern’s Gateway Yard
MSFS: 38.592 -90.142
Skyvector: 383531N0900834W

Next we flew approximately six miles (10 kilometers) southwest to the Alton & Southern Railway’s massive Gateway Yard and the St. Louis Downtown Airport (KCPS). Founded by the Aluminum Company of East St. Louis (later ALCOA, the Aluminum Company of America), the Alton & Southern was once jointly owned by the Missouri Pacific and Chicago & Northwestern Railroads. Today, the A&S is wholly owned by the Union Pacific.

Gateway Yard was greatly expanded by the MP and C&NW in the 1960s with the addition of trackage and a hump. Today the A&S generates nearly 50 trains and sorts 3,500 cars (of which 2,100 are humped) at Gateway daily.

Pee-Wee says: As of 2023, the A&S operated an all-EMD fleet including fifteen SW1500s (#1501–1512, 1514–1516, and 1517), a single MP15DC (#1522), two former UP/MP GP38-2s (#2000 and 2001), and two former UP SD60s (#2204 and 2205). The railroad’s smart colors and emblem are a combination of the MP’s and C&NWs.

Pee-Wee says: Wake up, East St. Louis! In this screenshot you can see: (1) the iconic elevated tracks approaching Gateway’s western boundary, (2) the yard control tower, (3) the arrival tracks where inbound trains are disassembled in preparation for humping, (4) the hump and its control tower, (5) the “bowl” where humped cars are sorted and assembled into trains, (6) the engine shed, (7) the departure yard where assembled trains are lashed to road locomotives, (8) the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Roalroad’s “B” interchange yard, and (9) the diamond where the Norfolk Southern and A&S cross. In the distant right you can see St. Louis Downtown Airport, a USAAF basic training field operated by Parks Air College during World War 2 from where Air Mid-America Airlines once provided service to Chicago-Midway and Springfield with Convair 600 turboprops leased from Texas International.

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Sooooooo Tempting: The Gateway Arch and Downtown St. Louis
MSFS: 38.624590 -90.184982
Skyvector: 383729N0901106W

Gateway Arch scenery included with World Update World Update 10

We flew southwest from Gateway Yard before turning sharply north over the Mississippi River for a gratuitous photo opportunity with St. Louis’s most iconic site, the 630-foot (192-meter) tall Gateway Arch. Designed by renowned Finnish architect Eero Saarinen in 1947, the Arch opened in October 1965 on the site of St. Louis’s founding.

Pee-Wee says: Does that name sound familiar, avgeeks? Yes, Saarinen is the same architect who divinated the masterful TWA Flight Center at Kennedy Airport in New York and the beautiful main passenger terminal at Washington-Dulles Airport. Incidentally, he’s also the man who rescued Jørn Utzon’s rejected design for the Sydney Opera House from the wastebin.

Visitors can travel to the top of this stainless-steel monument aboard cleverly-designed elevators within the Arch’s steel structure, although the experience isn’t for the faint-hearted or claustrophobic.

Pee-Wee says: Or the tall. If you’ve over six feet like both of us, try to get an elevator to yourselves. Everyone else will thank you.

Here we are flying northbound past the Arch. You can see (1) Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team since 2006, (2) the 12th Street Yard where the Union Pacific’s Jefferson City Subdivision meets the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis’s Merchants Subdivision, (3) the 29-story Thomas F. Eagleton United States Courthouse, the largest courthouse in the United States, (4) the Gateway Arch, (5) the Old St. Louis County Courthouse, site of the landmark Dred Scott hearing that nudged America closer to the brink of Civil War in 1846, (6) the Gateway Arch Museum, and (7) St. Louis Riverfront Cruises, from where visitors can sail aboard replica paddlewheel steamers.

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A Big Number 2 and the Briefs of the Gods: The City Museum
MSFS: 38.633584 -90.200664
Skyvector: 383801N0901202W

Pee-Wee says: Here we are passing low over Bob Cassilly’s eclectic and inspired City Museum at the corner of Lucas Avenue and 6th Street in St. Louis’s Washington Avenue Loft District. Cassilly, a native Missourian sculptor and entrepreneur with more than thirty-six local building renovations, construction projects, and even a restaurant to his name, purchased the abandoned 250,000 square foot (23,000 square meter) International Shoe warehouse in 1993 and began construction of this “all ages playground” immediately. The City Museum opened in October 1997, and with more than 420,000 visitors annually, it’s the fourth most popular attraction in St. Louis after the Zoo, Gateway Arch, and Botanical Garden.

You have to see this place to understand the scope of Cassilly’s vision. There’s a life-size Bowhead Whale sculpture in the entrance lobby, tunnels and a giant slinky that visitors can climb through, slides running between the museum’s floors including a ten-story behemoth that starts on the roof, a skateboard park, a circus, a functioning small-scale locomotive, the world’s largest pencil, an art gallery, a rooftop Ferris wheel, a gigantic pair of underwear, and a 19th Century log cabin in which Daniel Boone’s son once lived (more about that later).

Pee-Wee says: Speaking of underwear, only a few months ago the City Museum set a world record by hosting the largest group of people wearing underwear on their heads, an odd record previously held by Naperville, Illinois. Because, why not?

Outside and atop the main building is a giant playground complete with climbing tunnels, a school bus perched precariously over the roof’s edge, and two Sabreliner 40 corporate jets, both of which are visible in the photo above (one pointing toward the camera with the second’s fuselage visible below and to the right).

Pee-Wee says: The more complete Sabreliner, the former N40BP, was built in 1965 and worked for several corporations before landing with Presant Industrial Supply Company in 1982. Sistership N225LS, also built in 1965, ended her flying days with the Medianews Group of Dover, Delaware.

Alas, MSFS’s photogrammetric representation of this fascinating place is somewhat lacking in detail. You can clearly makeout MonstroCity, the suspended outdoor play area, and the Sabreliners, but the rooftop details appear “melted,” including the metal preying mantis that sits stop the polished dome, the Ferris wheel, and the iconic dangling school bus.

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Junkyard of Dreams: Bissell Auto and Body Company
MSFS: 38.623628 -90.227355
Skyvector: 383725N0901339W

Pee-Wee says: Just over one mile (2.5 kilometers) southwest of the City Museum, nestled between a middle school, an equipment rental company, a driver testing center, and a food wholesaler is the Bissel Auto and Body Company, and behind the shop sits the finest collection of retired military aircraft on the south side of St. Louis (not much of a claim, I agree). Dan Bissell, the body shop’s founder and proprietor, purchased his first junkyard warbird, an F-105D, from a government auction at Davis-Monthan AFB in the early 1990s, and currently owns a unique collection spanning multiple generations, armed services, and even nationalities.

Pee-Wee labeled the aircraft in this northeast-facing screenshot. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Pee-Wee says: Airframe history time! That’s F-105D 60-0452 down there. She entered U.S. Air Force service in 1961 and served in Europe with the 36th and 49th Tactical Fighter Wings before transferring to Nellis AFB and the 4520th Combat Crew Training Wing. Unlike so many of her sisters, 0452 never saw combat over Vietnam. She bounced around ANG units in Kansas, Georgia, and Virginia and picked up the name “Rebel Rider” before retiring to Davis-Monthan AFB in 1981.

The B-52G is reportedly 59-2564, one of seven 596th Bomb Squadron / 2nd Bomb Wing aircraft that participated in Operation Senior Surprise on 16 / 17 January 1991. “Doom 32” and her sisters flew to western Saudi Arabia directly from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana and launched thirty-one brand new AGM-62C cruise missiles at key targets in Iraq. The mission, covering 14,000 miles and lasting more than 35 hours, was the longest combat mission in history at that time, eclipsing even the RAF’s “Black Buck” missions during the 1982 Falklands / Malvinas War. Unfortunately 2564 survived only a few months longer, heading for Davis-Monthan and scrapping on 8 August 1991. Two other Senior Surprise aircraft survived and are currently on display: 58-0183 “Valkyrie” at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson and 58-0185 “El Lobo II” at the U.S. Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB, Florida.

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Things Are Looking Up: The James S. McDonnell Planetarium and Blue Angel #7
MSFS: 38.631245 -90.270885
Skyvector: 383753N0901615W

Here we are turning north around the James S. McDonnell Planetarium–part of the St. Louis Science Center–located on the southeastern edge of Forest Park next to the St. Louis Archery Club and the St. Louis Police Department’s horse stables. That’s Interstate 64 on the right, winding its way westward toward its terminus only a few miles west of St. Louis.

Nisei architect Gyo Obata designed this uniquely beautiful structure. Obata studied under Eliel Saarinen, father of Eeno Saarinen, and was the lead architect for the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in 1973. His most famous creation, though, is the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The photogrammetry here doesn’t look half bad, although it can’t resolve the iconic 33-foot (10-meter) tall alien statue Looking Up which stands in the circular grass median outside the planetarium.

Pee-Wee says: But you can see F/A-18B BuNo. 161746 hiding in the trees beyond the circular drive. Delivered in the early 1980s to VFA-122, the Navy’s West Coast F-18 Replacement Air Group (Fleet Replacement Wing for you NUBs), she spent her final active years as Blue Angel #7 before retiring to the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola in 2008. Two years later she was loaned to the St. Louis Science Center and proudly mounted outside the McDonnell Planetarium.

Incidentally, the James McDonnell for whom the planetarium is named is none other than “Mr. Mac,” the founder of the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which designed not only the Navy’s first carrier-based jet fighter, but also built the F-4 Phantom and F/A-18 Hornet right here in St. Louis.

Pee-Wee says: Oooooh. Full circle!

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Sounds Like a Fun Time: Cementland
MSFS: 38.734 -90.215
Skyvector: 384405N0901257W

Pee-Wee says: No, this isn’t some marketing ploy by the concrete industry. Cementland was another barinchild of Bob Cassilly, founder of the City Museum. Cassilly purchased the abandoned Lafarge Cement Plant outside Riverview north of St. Louis with the intention of converting it into a massive outdoor art exhibit and playground complete with concrete sculptures, reimagined machinery, and even waterslides and a navigable river. He actively encouraged construction companies to dump their disused equipment and leftover bits and bobs here, quirky castoffs that became the paint on his canvas.

Unfortunately, Cassilly was killed in a freak bulldozer accident at the site in 2011. His family hoped to continue Cementland’s development, but instead sold the site at auction in 2022.

Pee-Wee says: Such a sad ending to a promising project. Based on photos I’ve seen, Cementland would have been a really neat place to visit, like the City Museum on steroids.

Here we are flying roughly north over Cementland. The photogrammetric representation in MSFS isn’t bad, although there’s far too many trees. Interestingly the smokestack that should stand directly ahead of our Phantom’s radome is missing. Many of Cassilly’s creations remain untouched here today, a silent tribute to a man who brought so much to the Gateway City.

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Birthplace of a Legend: The McDonnell Aircraft Company/Boeing St. Louis
MSFS: 38.757660 -90.365626
Skyvector: 384528N0902156W

Pee-Wee says: So, Dear Readers, have you figured out why we chose the Phantom for this flight? If not, here’s a hint: almost every single Phantom was built at McDonnell’s factory in St. Louis.

Uh…that wasn’t really a hint.

Pee-Wee says: If they haven’t figured it out by now, they clearly need to be told.

McDonnell produced 5,057 F-4 Phantoms in twelve major variants at its St. Louis factory between 1960 and 1979. At the peak of production, 74 Phantoms rolled from McDonnell’s Building 42 on the northwest side of St. Louis Lambert Airport every month. Before the F-4, McDonnell built the FH Phantom, F2H Banshee, the F3H Demon, the F-101 Voodoo here, and the F-15 Eagle, AV-8 Harrier, and F/A-18 Hornet followed. Today the factory is partially abandoned, although the former flight test hangar is occupied by GoJets Airlines.

Pee-Wee says: Here we are flying northwest over the former McDonnell (now Boeing) facility at St. Louis Lambert Airport. I’ve marked: (1) the former flight test hangar where newly built aircraft were prepared for flight, (2) the factory building where aircraft sub-assemblies and equipment were built before heading across the railroad tracks to (3) the Building 42 “low bay,” where construction of individual airframes began. (4) Here’s the exit from Building 42’s final assembly “high bay” where the iconic McDonnell Aircraft sign was painted, and where many aircraft had their glamour shots taken. MSFS has this building wrong: the high bay should be twice as tall as the low bay. (5) Here’s the general and engineering offices and the (6) engineering annex. This (7) is the former Wabash Railroad mainline paralleling Banshee Avenue and (8) the threshold of Runway 24. These (9) hangars and (A) buildings are now part of Boeing’s flight test facility, and include (B) Building 101. We’ll talk about (C) in a moment.

The following paragraphs talk about a rather unpleasant airplane crash, so we’ve blurred them out. Click anywhere on the text to read on, or scroll ahead to the end.

In 1966 McDonnell was producing Gemini spacecraft for NASA in Building 101. On 28 February, the Gemini 9 prime and backup crews–Elliott See and Charlie Basett, and Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan–flew T-38 Talons NASA 901 and 907 from Houston to St. Louis to undergo two weeks of simulator training here. See was leading in 901 with Stafford on his wing in 907. The weather at Lambert Field was marginal, with broken clouds under a 1,500-foot (457-meter) ceiling and visibility of 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) in light rain, snow, and fog.

Pee-Wee says: The official meteorological term for those conditions is “crummy.”

When the formation broke out on the ILS to Runway 12, See assessed that they were too high and circled to the southeast. Stafford followed, but lost sight of See in the gloom and executed a missed approach. He and Cernan were radar vectored for another ILS approach. See continued to circle.

Pee-Wee says: A “circling” approach is little more than an instrument approach to the VFR traffic pattern. Once the pilot enters visual conditions and is close enough to the airfield, he or she may maneuver visually for landing. While not commonplace these days, it was quite common in the 60s.

Somewhere east of the field See caught sight of Runway 24 and turned to land, and that’s when things went wrong. Both engines were accelerating toward maximum thrust when NASA 901 struck the roof of Building 101 and crashed into a parking lot beyond. See and Bassett were killed instantly, and seventeen factory workers received minor injuries. There was no damage to the Gemini spacecraft under construction. The T-38’s approximate flightpath is marked at (C) in the screenshot above.

The NASA accident review board placed blame for the crash on See.

Pee-Wee says: See and Bassett were the second and third NASA astronauts killed in the line of duty.
Ted Freeman had died ejecting from his stricken T-38 while landing at Ellington AFB in Houston two years earlier. See’s and Bassett’s names are inscribed on the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Stafford and Cernan became the Gemini 9 Prime Crew and launched successfully on 3 June 1966.

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Pee-Wee says: Holy smokes! That was the longest short trip I’ve ever taken.

Perhaps the Phantom wasn’t the optimal choice of aircraft for this trip. When our sites are less than two miles apart, flying at 450 knots isn’t really required!

Pee-Wee says: Wham! 4 G’s! Screenshot! Wham! 4 G’s! Screenshot! Ahhhhh!

We landed at Lambert and took a break, then hit the skies again for the cross-country portion of this tour, which you’ll read about in Parts 2 and 3. We’ll need some more time to write those installments, so check back next week.

We hope you enjoyed this first part of our STL-MCI tour. I know we sure did!

Pee-Wee says: Thanks again for the kind and heartfelt responses, everyone. Knowing that people actually read and appreciate these tours is really encouraging. We’ll see you next week!

[SmotheryVase665]

I really enjoy reading these - thanks so much for taking the time to compose and post them.

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee and Nag Over Middle America

St. Louis to Kansas City, Part Two

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Welcome back, gang! In our last installment we toured sites around St. Louis before landing at Lambert International Airport in the northwest suburbs.

Pee-Wee says: After a quick lunch and restroom break, we hopped back into our Phantom, lit the burners, and headed west toward Kansas City. Today’s tour covers the land in between, generally along the Interstate 70 corridor through Columbia.

We planned to remain low and fast over the entire route and, as there’s few suitable alternate airports between STL and MCI, we strapped on the Phantom’s 600-gallon (2,270-liter) center tank in addition to the two wing-mounted Sargent Fletchers, giving us over 22,000 pounds (9,980 kilograms) of fuel, about two hours endurance at 8,000 pounds (3,630 kilograms) per hour.

Pee-Wee says: And since the Phantom is limited to about 5 G’s with the center and wing tanks fitted, we’ll still have a turning radius of between 3,000 and 6,000 feet (915 to 1,830 meters), suitable for maneuvering around obstacles and setting up for screenshots. See? There’s actually quite a bit of planning that goes into these tours.

Time to head west to Kansas! But first, we’re going to execute some geographic wizardry and fly northwest from Lambert to the east side of the Mississippi River.

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St. Louis’s Supersonic Shield: Nike Site SL-90

Launcher
MSFS: 38.9953 -90.5100
Skyvector: 385943N0903036W

Fire Control Center
MSFS: 38.9817 -90.5083
Skyvector: 385854N0903030W

Administration and Barracks
MSFS: 38.9797 -90.5120
Skyvector: 385847N0903044W

Between 1960 and 1968, St. Louis’s heavy materials and manufacturing industries were protected from Soviet attack by four Nike Hercules surface-to-air missile batteries situated approximately 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest of the city. The Hercules’s 90-mile (145 kilometer) range meant that a battery in one quadrant could engage targets in the opposite. A command center at Belleville Air Force Station near Scott AFB provided coordination and overall control of the four batteries.

Battery SL-90 was located northwest of St. Louis near Grafton, Illinois, and inside the Pere Marquette State Park. It consisted of three separate, closely spaced installations: the Fire Control Center, the Launcher, and an administrative and personnel area. The radars and command center were located at the Fire Control Center, which was located less than one mile up Scenic Drive from the barracks and personnel facilities. The launcher was located one mile north on Upper Park Drive.

The St. Louis Nikes were removed in 1968, and within a few years nearly every trace of their presence was removed or erased by redevelopment.

Pee-Wee says: When we plan our tours, we start by researching potential sites along our route, then perform some “photo recon” using Google Maps or Earth and flight planning using Skyvector. To keep things interesting, we never look at Bing Maps beforehand, which means we never know exactly what we’re going to find in MSFS. It’s always exciting to find the site just as we expected, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out, as in the case of SL-90. Normally, we bin the more lackluster sites in “post-production,” but we thought you’d appreciate some insight into how we “make the sausage.”

We needed three passes to positively identify SL-90’s launcher in MSFS (circled in this screenshot). Few traces of this Nike battery remain today: the Control Center, represented by a generic autogen building, was barely visible hidden in the trees at the fire control center. The Launcher was almost nearly completely obscured beneath the excessive MSFS forest canopy.

Pee-Wee says: So, basically, there’s nothing to see here. Want to try your hand at finding the other sites? This excellent website gives you everything you need to get started. Feel free to post screenshots of what you find!

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Draught Horses and Draft Beer: Warm Springs Ranch
MSFS: 38.949 -92.588
Skyvector: 385657N0923518W

Approximately 95 nautical miles (176 kilometers) west-southwest of SL-90, nestled between Interstate 70 and the Missouri River, we found the Warm Springs Ranch, home of the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales. Built in 2007, the 300-acre (120-hectare) ranch currently houses half of the brewer’s 250 horses. Budweiser maintains three touring teams–“hitches”–of ten Clydesdales each near the company’s breweries in St. Louis, Fort Collins, Colorado and Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Pee-Wee says: You can see Warm Springs Ranch to the left of our Phantom in this east-facing screenshot. The main stable lies north of the pond, and if you look carefully in the parking lot behind, you’ll see one of the iconic red semi-trucks used to transport the horses between venues. The trademark red 1900 Studebaker wagons are carried in a separate truck.

Budweiser’s Clydesdales made their first appearance shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and have been a staple of Budweiser’s advertisements and marketing campaigns ever since. The Company’s simple “9/11 Tribute” featured the Clydesdales and is still one of the most memorable commercials in television history.

Pee-Wee says: Let’s not forget about the other iconic members of the Clydesdale team, the dalmatians! These black-spotted canines joined the hitches in 1950 initially as guard dogs but took on a more public role almost immediately. Today they ride atop the wagons and interact with the public while on tour. Two dogs are assigned to each hitch, although only one tours at a time. It seems their careers last about ten years, and you’ll be happy to know that in retirement they find happy homes with lucky Budweiser employees.

Curving to the northeast toward St. Louis above our Phantom is Interstate 70, or as this portion is known, the “U.S. Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway.” Dedicated in 2004, the 54-mile (87-kilometer) stretch of highway memorializes the 52 U.S. Navy submarines and 3,506 sailors lost in World War 2, the 129 sailors and contractors lost aboard Thresher in 1963, and the 99 sailors lost aboard *Scorpion" in 1968.

Pee-Wee says: To all submariners on eternal patrol, fair winds and following seas.

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Missouri Boon Town: Boonville, Missouri and the Santa Fe Trailhead
MSFS: 38.988 -92.742
Skyvector: 385918N09244332W

A few miles further west is the riverside town of Boonville, population 7,964. Founded in 1817, the town is named indirectly for legendary American frontiersman Daniel Boone, whose sons Daniel and Nathan operated a thriving salt business at a saltwater spring–“Boone’s Lick”–nearby.

Pee-Wee says: The first settler here was 48-year-old widow Hannah Cole who settled with her nine children on the river’s south shore in 1810. Her homestead soon became a “fort” in which local settlers sheltered from attacks by British-allied natives during the War of 1812. She later operated a commercial ferry across the Missouri River to Franklin, and her home hosted the first court, church, and school in the area. Hannah passed away in 1843 and is interred at the Briscoe Cemetery south of Boonville. Today, one of the Boonville R-1 school district’s elementary schools is named in her honor.

Boonville’s location astride the vital Missouri River made it strategically important during the American Civil War, and the Union victory over the local militia here in 1861 guaranteed Federal control of the river for the war’s duration. Today Boonville is the seat of Cooper County and boasts a casino, a state correctional center, and a budding tourist industry.

Pee-Wee says: We’re flying west over the Missouri River’s north shore in this screenshot. Boonville is visible across the river. That’s the Boonslick Bridge carrying U.S. Highway 40 just ahead of our Phantom. The former MKT Railroad’s vertical lift Bridge #191.1 further upstream is missing completely from MSFS. Directly beneath our Phantom is where the town of Franklin stood before the catastrophic flood of 1827 forced the residents to rebuild further inland.

In the field beneath our Phantom is the trailhead of the famous Santa Fe Trail that provided a commercial connection between Missouri, New Mexico, and points west. Established by William Becknell in 1821, the trail followed long-established trails blazed by local natives and European explorers and remained viable until at least 1880 when it was supplanted by railroads. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad’s mainline paralleled the old wagon trail for much of its traverse across the American West.

The Boons Lick Road continued east from here to St. Charles, Missouri, and provided access to the area’s saltwater springs for westbound settlers from St. Louis.

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Spirits of the Plains: Whiteman Air Force Base (KSZL)
MSFS: 38.724254 -93.549346
Skyvector: 384327N0933258W

Scenery by nickb007 @ www.flightsim.to

Pee-Wee says: Next we hustled across the central Missouri plains to scenic Knob Noster in Johnson County, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) east-southeast of Kansas City. According to the town’s website,
“Knob Noster” is derived from an English word meaning “rounded hill” (knob) and the Latin adjective for “our” (noster).

I wonder what you call someone from Knob Noster? A Knobnosterite? Knobnostrian?

Pee-Wee says: Maybe you just call them Knobs.

Ouch.

Immediately south of Knob Noster is Whiteman Air Force Base, the only place to view stealth bombers in the wild. Whiteman’s story stretches back to 1943 when the airbase was Sedalia Army Air Field, the home of 12th Troop Carrier Command’s glider pilot school. Sedalia was transferred to the fledgling U.S. Air Force in 1951 and welcomed the 340th Bombardment Wing’s B-47s and KC-97s in 1955, the same year it was renamed for 2nd Lieutenant George Whiteman, an Army Air Corps pilot killed while attempting to takeoff in his P-40 during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.

The 351st Strategic Missile Wing arrived in 1963, and Whiteman became one of five Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) stations. The improved Minuteman II arrived here in 1966 and remained on alert until 28 September 1991. Under the START I treaty, Whiteman’s silos and missile facilities were wiped away, the final silo being destroyed in 1997.

Today, Whiteman hosts the B-2s of the Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing and the Missouri Air National Guard’s 131st Bomb Wing (the ANG’s only nuclear capable unit), the A-10s of the Air Force Reserve’s 442nd Fighter Wing, and the UH-60s of the Missouri Army National Guard’s 135th Aviation Regiment. The Oscar-01 Minuteman missile alert facility remains intact and is available for tours, although generally not to the public.

Pee-Wee says: I would make a snide comment about the Air Force here, but instead I’ll point out that my beloved Phantom, designed as a fleet defense fighter for the Navy, served in far greater numbers with the Air Force, so…yeah. In this screenshot you can see the (1) Oscar-01 missile alert facility, (2) hangars and operating ramp of the Air Force Reserve’s 442nd Fighter Wing, (3) a remote, double-fenced, high security area that most certainly doesn’t store nuclear weapons , (4) hangars for the 509th and 131st Bomb Wings’ B-2 bombers, and (5) the base’s north gate, guarded by retired B-52D 56-0683. (You’ll also find B-47B 51-2120, SB-29 44-61671, KC-97F 53-0327, F-111G 69-6509, and a few other aircraft on display here.) The Missouri Army National Guard’s Aviation Support Facility, home of the Blackhawk-equipped 135th Aviation Regiment, is just beyond the right edge of this screenshot.

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Minuteman, No Más: Launch Control Center Hotel-01
MSFS: 37.860000 -94.066389
Skyvector: 375136N0940359W

The 351st Strategic Missile Wing’s three squadrons each occupied five Launch Control Centers (LCC) and fifty Launch Facilities (LF) surrounding Whiteman: the 508th Strategic Missile Squadron to the east, the 509th to the south, and the 510th to the west. With fifteen MAFs and 150 silos spread around Western Missouri, we struggled deciding which to tour!

Pee-Wee says: We finally settled on the 509th SMS’s historic LF Hotel-11 and its associated LCC, Hotel-01, located 64 miles (103 kilometers) southwest of Whiteman near El Dorado Springs, Missouri. Hotel-11 was the very last Minuteman II silo imploded on 15 December 1997.

The Minuteman LCCs are hardened, subterranean bunkers from where two-man Minuteman Combat Crews (MCC) monitored and controlled their ten missiles. The LCCs were connected via a hardened telephone network, and those designated as Squadron Command Posts (SCP) could launch any of the squadron’s fifty missiles. One of these SCPs was designated as the Wing Command Post (WCP) and could launch—or prevent the launch–of any of the Wing’s 150 missiles.

Pee-Wee says: Here’s the abandoned LCC Hotel-01 in the lower right of this south-facing screenshot. El Dorado Springs–population 3,493–lies about one mile east and would have been totally destroyed by a Soviet attack against this high-value target. The only above ground structures remaining here are the security fence and a few overgrown foundations, but MSFS erroneously places an autogen building at the site. You can clearly see the circular hard high-frequency transmit antenna between bales of hay, the presence of which indicates H-01’s designation as a Squadron Command Post.

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Atomic Bird’s Nest: Launch Facility Hotel-11
MSFS: 37.917222 -94.121667
Skyvector: 375502N0940718W

In a field alongside County Road AA five miles (eight kilometers) northwest of Hotel-01 are the nondescript remains of Launch Facility Hotel-11. A Minuteman II launched from here could have struck the entirety of the Soviet Union south to central Kazakhstan and northeastern China with its single 1.2-megaton warhead.

On 15 December 1997 three hundred people, including a local school group and “Red” and Suzanne Bellinghausen, owners of the farmland surrounding Hotel-11, were on hand to witness the silo’s destruction. After the ninety charges detonated, the Delta-09 Launch Facility in distant Wall, South Dakota became the last surviving Minuteman II silo in America. Today, the Delta-09 LF and LCC are both part of the Minuteman National Historic Site.

The Hotel-01 LCC and Hotel-11 LF are both located on private property and are not open for tours.

Pee-Wee says: These days Hotel-11 stores hay instead of a nuclear missile. It’s interesting to note that the original security fence still surrounds the former silo. If I was the landowner, I’d keep that high-quality government fence, too!

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Where Old Airplanes Go To Die: Harry Truman Regional Airport (2M1) and BAS Kansas City
MSFS: 39.018 -94.087
Skyvector: 390107N0940515W

Scenery by SkyArkDesigns @ www.flightsim.to

Pee-Wee says: Oh, how I’d love to explore this next spot in real life! The Harry S. Truman Regional Airport in Bates City, Missouri, is home to BAS Kansas City, formerly White Industries, an aircraft scrap and parts dealer. One online report I found says that there are more than 2,000 junked aircraft here!

Would you be more interested in tinkering or researching the airplanes’ histories?

Pee-Wee says: Yes.

Here we are flying northeast along Truman’s 4,400-foot (1,341-meter) Runway 3. That’s Interstate 70 in the distance and the “I-70 Mobile City” RV/mobile home community directly behind our Phantom. SkyArkDesigns did a great job adding “junked” airplanes and other detritus to the default MSFS airport. There’s even a few pleasure boats sitting on the west side of the runway as depicted in current satellite imagery! Aircraft stored here cover the entire spectrum from GA singles to business jets and turboprop commuters.

Pee-Wee says: White Industries was acquired by BAS Parts Sales of Greeley, Colorado in 2023, and the new owner quickly implemented changes to bring White’s aged sales model into the 21st Century. That’s great for buyers, but maybe not so great for plane spotters: according to its website, BAS is “listing the KC inventory that we are trucking home to Colorado,” which could mean the end of this fascinating airplane graveyard.

Regardless of its name, the Truman Regional Airport is privately owned and doesn’t appear open to the public. At one time White Industries allowed limited tours of the airfield and its inventory, but we’d recommend calling ahead!

Pee-Wee says: Incidentally, although it’s missing in SkyArkDesign’s wonderful scenery, in real life you’ll find Learjet N20EP on display just outside the airport. She’s the eighth Learjet 23 built, and one of the oldest surviving examples of this pioneering bizjet.

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Can We All Just Get Along?: Independence Temple
MSFS: 39.091043 -94.426395
Skyvector: 390528N0942535W

Scenery included in World Update #10

Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism and leader of the Latter-Day Saint movement, prophesied in 1831 that “New Jerusalem” would be established in America. Six months later Edward Partidge, First Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, purchased 73 acres (30 hectares) for the church in Independence, Missouri, including the “temple lot” where a single stone was laid marking the northeast corner of the future temple that would be New Jerusalem’s centerpiece. The Mormons planned to purchase all the land from Independence westward to the Missouri River.

Pee-Wee says: I suppose you could say they made a wrong turn, because things went south instead. The white settlers already living between Independence and the Missouri River didn’t appreciate the Mormons’ plans, or their political beliefs, or even their very presence in Missouri, and violence ensued. To make a long story short, “New Jerusalem” never appeared, and the “temple lot” remained vacant. The Mormons eventually returned, and after more than a century of fighting and infighting, the Independence Temple was built in 1994 across the street from its ordained location.

The 300-foot (91-meter) tall Independence Temple was designed by Gyo Obata, designer of the McDonnell Planetarium in Part 1 of this tour. It stands on the “greater temple lot” amidst the headquarters of the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). The main sanctuary seats 1,000 on the main floor and an additional 600 in the balcony and features the spectacular 5,685-pipe Opus 3700 pipe organ designed by renowned Canadian builder Casavant Frères Limitée.

Pee-Wee says: Here we are desecrating eardrums at the Independence Temple. In this north-facing screenshot, the original “temple lot” and the small Church of Christ (Temple Lot), an independent LDS offshoot that claimed the original lot in 1867, are visible to the left, across South River Boulevard from the imposing Independence Temple. It seems that Joseph Smith’s prophecy still hasn’t come to pass.

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We’ve reached the eastern suburbs of Kansas City, so we’ll break here. Next time we’ll explore sites in Kansas City proper, including art museums, a notorious prison, an abandoned airport, a fragile hotel, and a memorial that played a major part in a movie about the end of the world. Stay tuned!

Pee-Wee says: Thanks for tuning in again, everyone. We’ll be back soon!

[MaverickKing57]

This looked like a fun little trip. I’ve driven that I-70 route towards Columbia several times for work and didn’t know there were missile sites near there. I always learn something from your writeups. Incidentally if you look at Whiteman AF base on Google maps you can see a B-2 off to the side of the runway, about halfway down. Looks like it skidded off as there are trucks on the runway as well. As always, great job and happy flying.

[LeafyNight67562]

Pee-Wee and Nag Over Middle America

St. Louis to Kansas City, Part Three

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Pee-Wee says: We’re entering the home stretch, gang. Let’s jump right in!

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My, What Big Shuttlecocks You Have: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
MSFS: 39.042598 -94.580870
Skyvector: 390233N0943451W

Pee-Wee says: It’s your turn to talk. Don’t cock it up.

Are you going to do this the entire time?

Does a cockatoo have feathers?

…

" Nag looked at her with mild disgust and cocked his head toward the door as if to say, ‘please leave.’ "

Anyway, upon his passing, William Nelson, publisher of the Kansas City Star newspaper, bequeathed his entire estate to the purchase of artwork for public display. Similarly, former schoolteacher and art aficionado Mary Atkins left more than $300,000 (nearly $10 million [€9 million] today) for the establishment of a public art museum in Kansas City. Trustees decided to combine Nelson’s and Atkins’s estates to create a single large museum. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art opened to the public on 11 December 1933.

Flush with cash, museum curators took advantage of the thriving worldwide art market as other museums, bankrupted by the Great Depression, struggled for survival. Nelson-Atkins’s collection swelled and before long it was one of the largest in the United States.

Pee-Wee says: We found the museum in the Rockhill neighborhood about four miles (six kilometers) south of downtown. Patterned after the Cleveland Museum of Art, the main building was originally two museums: the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in the west wing, and the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts in the east wing. To the right is the award-winning Bloch Building with its five glass pavilions rising above a vast underground gallery. The Hall Sculpture Park lies beneath the trees to the right of our Phantom, and Robert Morris’s triangular Glass Labyrinth maze/sclupture is visible just beyond.

In 1994 long-time Kansas Citians Morton and Estelle Sosland commissioned husband-and-wife artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje can Bruggen to create a large sculpture for the museum. The artists contemplated different designs before settling on a fanciful quartet of oversized badminton birdies. Three of the 18-foot (5.4-meter) tall fiberglass and aluminum shuttlecocks lie on south lawn, with a fourth on the north. Thematically, the lawns represent the badminton court, with the museum building playing the part of the net.

Pee-Wee says: As with the Denver Airport’s installation of its iconic blue mustang known as “Blucipher,” the public’s response to the shuttlecocks was both swift and vocal, ranging from frothing support to unfettered disgust. Today, Kansas Citians and visitors alike have taken a liking to the quirky game pieces, and the shuttlecocks are now considered so much a part of the city’s culture they were featured during television coverage of Super Bowl LVIII.

Incidentally, the word “shuttlecock” is formed from the English words “shuttle” and “cock.” The badminton birdie’s back and forth motion is reminiscent of the wooden “shuttle” which carries the weft thread between layers of thread in a floor loom, and its feathers are like those of a rooster or “cock.” So, you can stop now.

Pee-Wee says: Sounds like a cock and bull story to me.

…

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Should Have Been a POI: The National World War 1 Memorial and Museum
MSFS: 39.081 -94.586
Skyvector: 390452N0943510W

Barely one year after Armistice Day, the Liberty Memorial Association of Kansas City raised $2.5 million (almost $44 million [€3.9 million] today) for the construction of a memorial honoring the millions of Americans who fought and died in World War 1. Built atop a prominence south of downtown, the 47-acre (19-hectare) National World War 1 Memorial opened in 1926 and features the 217-foot (66-meter) tall Liberty Tower, Exhibition Hall, Memorial Hall, and a museum.

Pee-Wee says: Here we are flying north past the memorial. You can see (1) Liberty Tower, (2) the Exhibition Hall, inside which the museum displays temporary exhibits of equipment, artwork, and other historical artifacts, and (3) the Memorial Hall. Two sphinxes stand astride the tower, their wings folded across their faces: (4) “Memory” faces east toward the battlefields of Europe, its eyes shielded from the horrors of war, while (5) “Future” looks west, its eyes shielded from an unknown future.

An elevator and steps lead to an observation deck atop Liberty Tower, where visitors are treated to a panoramic view of Kansas City and its environs. At night, steam billows from the bulkhead atop the tower. Red and orange lights illuminate the steam, giving the appearance of a funeral pyre (unfortunately, not in MSFS).

The Memorial played a pivotal role in the landmark 1983 television drama The Day After when Dr. Oakes and his doomed daughter visit here before the nuclear attack on Kansas City, and again when the dying Oakes returns near the film’s end.

Pee-Wee says: The Day After is one of the more depressing films I’ve watched, but pales in comparison to the emotional onslaught that is Barry Hines’s 1984 apocalyptic drama Threads. The very last scene, during which young Jane delivers her baby? Wow.

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An Egregious Engineering Error: The Hyatt Regency Kansas City
MSFS: 39.084969 -94.579787
Skyvector: 390506N0943447W

Pee-Wee says: On 17 June 1981, the newly constructed Hyatt Regency Kansas City hotel gained international notoriety when two of its suspended lobby walkways collapsed, killing 114 people and injuring another 216. Investigators blamed chief engineer Jack Gillum and Havens Steel, manufacturer of the steelwork that supported the walkways, citing poor communications and oversight, and an egregious and elementary design flaw.

The walkways were each suspended from the lobby ceiling by six steel rods connected to box beams carrying the walkways’ decks. As originally designed the second-floor walkway’s suspension rods passed through those of the fourth-floor walkway. But the beams were redesigned so that the second-floor rods connected directly to the fourth-floor walkway’s support beams, which meant that the upper walkway was carrying its own weight…and that of the lower walkway!

Pee-Wee says: Investigators also faulted the city’s emergency response. Fire fighters and first responders lacked proper equipment to extricate victims from the wreckage and were forced to borrow saws, jacks, and other equipment from local residents and construction companies.

Lessons from the Hyatt Regency disaster rippled through the construction industry, bringing much-needed improvements in engineering education, structural design, and project management in an era when many large construction projects were being fast-tracked to completion, sometimes with disastrous results.

The hotel was rebranded as the “Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center” in 2011.

Here we are turning north past the former Hyatt Regency (the high-rise building on the right). The lobby is directly below and to the right of our Phantom (in shadow, with the twelve pyramid-shaped skylights on its roof). The collapsed walkways ran beneath the row of skylights on the right. Today, the lobby remains structurally unchanged from 1981, with the notable lack of suspended walkways.

Pee-Wee says: Whew! I think that’s enough nuclear holocaust and death for today. Let’s talk about something less awful, like airlines and spaceships!

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Part 121 to the Moon: Trans World Airlines’ Headquarters and Moonliner II
MSFS: 39.092278 -94.584381
Skyvector: 390532N0943504W

Trans World Airlines’ relationship with Kansas City began in 1932 when progenitor Transcontinental Air Transport established its primary base of operations at the Kansas City Municipal Airport northwest of downtown. TWA relocated its corporate headquarters from the airport to a new building south of downtown Kansas City in 1956. After the airline moved its headquarters to New York City in 1964, the iconic red-and-white building at the corner of 18th Street and Baltimore Avenue continued as an accounting center, ticket sales center, and even a flight attendant school. Restored to its former glory in 2006, the building now houses advertising agency Barkley Inc.

Pee-Wee says: TWA teamed with Disney to produce the 76-foot (23-meter) tall Moonliner for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland in Anaheim, California. Designed by Disney with help from Wernher von Braun himself, the iconic spaceship was painted in TWA’s colors and stood taller than Cinderella’s Castle. At around the same time, TWA placed a 22-foot (6.7-meter) replica of the spaceship, dubbed Moonliner II, atop its Corporate Headquarters in Kansas City. Moonliner II now resides at the Airline History Museum at Wheeler Downtown Airport, but a new replica, dubbed Moonliner IV, was placed atop the restored headquarters building in 2006, and it’s that replica we wanted to see in MSFS.

Pee-Wee says: And we failed. More correctly, Asobo failed! Photogrammetry certainly has its limitations, and while you can clearly see Moonliner IV atop the old TWA Headquarters, the representation is…somewhat lacking! (“Dear Barkley: Sorry about the windows.” )

Want to see Moonliner I on location at Disney? Head over to www.historicaerials.com and search for coordinates 33.81207 -117.91685, then select the 1963 aerial image and look for the rocket-shaped shadow. Gosh, I love the Internet!

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Who Put That Hill Next to My Airport?: Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (KMKC)
MSFS: 39.124194 -94.592655
Skyvector: 390727N0943534W

Scenery by JustOkayPilot @ www.flightsim.to

In 1927 Kansas City replaced its original airport at Raytown, Missouri with the Kansas City Municipal Airport. The field had two 2,800-foot (853-meter) runways, a third shorter strip, hangars, and a passenger terminal and maintenance hangar for Transcontinental Air Transport (later Transcontinental & Western Airlines). By the 1960’s, Municipal’s primary runway was stressed and lengthened to accommodate large jet transports and provided all-weather capability with a single Instrument Landing System (ILS) for aircraft landing from the north.

Pee-Wee says: There was one drawback to the arrangement. The southern approach was obstructed by terrain and buildings across the river in downtown, which meant that, if instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed, airplanes were essentially restricted to landing on Runway 18, regardless of the wind.

On 1 July 1965, Continental Airlines Flight 12 from Los Angeles overran 7,000-foot (2,130-meter) long Runway 18. The approach and landing were normal but the Boeing 707 hydroplaned and was unable to stop on the runway. Investigators determined that the crew was not informed of the 5-knot (9-kilometer per hour) tailwind or the heavy rain at the field. Three passengers and two crew received minor injuries, but the aircraft, 707-124 N70773, was destroyed. Had an instrument approach been available into the wind the airplane may have stopped on the pavement.

Pee-Wee says: There were numerous incidents and accidents involving jet airliners hydroplaning during landing in the early 1960s, and the industry’s safety apparatus soon set itself to the problem. The results were changes that seem obvious now but were groundbreaking then: grooved runways and the dispatch requirement to add 15% to an aircraft’s landing distance on wet runways.

Pee-Wee says: Here we are flying north past Wheeler Downtown Airport. I’ve marked (1) the Airline History Museum with its Lockheed L-1011 (or at least a reasonable facsimile) parked alongside, (2) the approximate location on Lou Holland Drive where Continental Flight 12 finally stopped, (3) the original Trans Continental & Western maintenance hangar, now Signature Flight Support and the TWA Museum, and (4) the approximate location of the original passenger terminal.

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From General Mitchell to General Motors: Fairfax Airport
MSFS: 39.147 -94.603
Skyvector: 390852N0943613W

Across the river from Wheeler is the closed Fairfax Airport, from where TAT’s rival Universal Air Transport (later American Airlines) operated a portion of its air-rail transcontinental service. Before World War 2, Fairfax was the home of several notable aeronautical endeavors, including Southwest Air Fast Express, Rearwin, American Eagle Aircraft, and Curtiss Flying Service.

Pee-Wee says: In 1941 the U.S. Government built an assembly plant on Fairfax’s northwest corner for the assembly of North American B-25 medium bombers. The plant was huge: in one month in 1945 its 24,000 employees produced a record 315 B-25s. During the war, all civilian operations at Fairfax moved to Municipal Airport but returned briefly after V-J Day. General Motors purchased the factory outright and closed the airport in 1965 to make way for a more modern factory, ending more than sixty years of aviation at Fairfax.

The 1951 Missouri River flood inundated Fairfax Airport and severely damaged its infrastructure, including TWA’s aircraft overhaul center in the former B-25 modification center. Intent on keeping TWA in Kansas City, the town built a new airport on farmland northwest of town, far from the river’s floodplain, and TWA’s new Kansas City Overhaul Center opened there in 1957. The new Mid-Continent Airport grew and is today the Kansas City International Airport (KMCI).

Pee-Wee says: While most of Fairfax was plowed under in favor of automobile manufacture, some of the field’s infrastructure remains. Here you can see (1) the site of the original passenger terminal, (2) the Kansas City Terminal’s storage tanks, (3) the site of the B-25 modification center/TWA overhaul center, now a railyard for outgoing auto racks, (4) the new G-M factory, and (5) the field where North American’s B-25 factory stood. Further east you can also see the remnants of three of the field’s runways and several taxiways. Sadly, it seems that no historic structures remain.

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Worse Than a Big Chicken Dinner: United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth
MSFS: 39.377 -94.935
Skyvector: 392240N0945607W

Standing beside the Missouri River twenty-five miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City is Fort Leavenworth, location of the most notorious military prison in America. Since 1874 Leavenworth has confined U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen convicted by courts martial of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The original prison, nicknamed “The Castle” because of its imposing stone walls and hilltop position overlooking the river, was replaced by the current United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) in September 2002. Over 400 inmates are currently interred here.

Pee-Wee says: Not all UCMJ violators land in Leavenworth. To wind up here you have to do something really bad, like sell military secrets, massacre civilians, murder a bunch of your fellow soldiers, or order your Marines to kill Private Santiago.

Here we are turning northeast around the USDB. The original “Castle” stood in the distance just above our Phantom’s wingtip. Sherman Army Air Field is visible above our canopy, and Kansas City International Airport can be seen in the extreme distance.

By the way, don’t confuse this facility with the nearby United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. One of the first Federal prisons in America, USP Leavenworth houses only civilian criminals.

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We learned several important things during this marathon tour. First, even seemingly uninteresting places have stories to uncover. Second, MSFS’s photogrammetric cities are great but need improvement.

Pee-Wee says: Third, the F-4 is totally unsuitable for scouting closely spaced sites within a metropolitan area. It was like trying to garage a Ferrari in overdrive.

Thanks for hanging with us, everyone! We’re going to take another break this weekend and do some hiking next week, so expect another Skytour sometime later this month.

Pee-Wee says: Hey, we didn’t mention that Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States, was from Missouri and lived very near the Independence Temple. While he was in office, a woman from Missouri sent him a puppy named “Feller.” Do you know what type of dog he was?

A cocker spaniel.

Bye for now!

[LeafyNight67562]

Hello, again!

We noticed the B-2 off the runway at Whiteman, too. Our best guess is that it’s 89-0129, Spirit of Georgia, which suffered a landing gear failure in 2021. It seems she was repaired and is back in service now.

Perhaps the FY1989 production block is cursed: of the three aircraft ordered that year, Spirit of Kansas (89-0127) was destroyed at Andersen AFB in 2008, and Spirit of Georgia had its landing accident at Whiteman in 2021. Spirit of Nebraska (89-0128) better be careful!

Thanks again for the response! It’s always encouraging to hear from our readers!

Oh, by the way, thanks for the video review of the new C-46. I think we’ll let that one simmer a little longer.

–PW