Springfield - Day four

Days 1 - 3 are in post below.

Cathy can't be in a State Capitol without going to the archives just to see what see can find, so that,s where I dropped her off, right after we finished off another "pony" at Charlie Prides Diner (see day two about this). The Capitol Building is a copy of the US Capitol in D.C. except that it is 65 feet taller.





While Cathy was in a windowless building looking up old files I drove over to the Air Combat Museum, it's pretty small but they had a few very rare and expensive planes on display, all of their planes are air ready and can be ready to fly within a hour. This little guy is a two seater, front to back and was used for low level observation flights to scout out the enemies position, my cousin Fred flew one of these in Korean Conflict.


The Corsair is one of my favorites, this ship was flown in Combat in Korea between 1950-1953, its 14 cylinder engine produced over 2300 HP giving it a top speed close to 500 MPH, while burning 80 gallons of fuel an hour. There are only 24 known restored Corsairs and only 12 of those are capable of flight, this is one of those and is flown at least once a month. This plane is valued at $3,000,000.



This is their P-51D Mustang, it is fully restored and flyable, this plane flew escort missions for bombers over Germany. When the Mustang Pilots Association had there last national meeting they voted this plane the most original and best in the country.

They had a few more restored units there and a couple that they were in the process of restoring. a very nice little stop if you're ever in Springfield.