|
 |
Hill Aerospace Museum
The aircraft collection at the Hill Aerospace Museum, just off I-15 in Roy, would make a motley air force of its own.
Visitors wander around planes outside Hill Aerospace Museum.
Ravell Call, Deseret News |
Many of the historic bombers, fighters, cargo carriers and 'copters have nicknames befitting lean, mean war-machines: the A-26B Invader; the F-89H Scorpion; the F-84F Thunderstreak and the P-38J Lightning. Others sound rather protective: the C-123K Provider; the C-131D Samaritan - and the T-29C Flying Classroom. All are impressive - even the benignly named Snark, Aardvark and Goonie Bird.
The 50-acre Hill museum has almost 70 aircraft, and more are on the way as aircraft technology advances. The Hill Aerospace Museum first opened on a smaller scale in 1987, moving to its current site, about 23 miles north of Salt Lake City, in 1991. With its proximity to the freeway, the museum has become a draw - to passersby, vacationing tourists and families and kids out of school. About 200,000 visitors drop by the museum each year.
The museum grounds include open space for the historic aircraft parked outside, a huge hangar-like building sheltering 16 planes, large and small, and an administrative and gallery area.
One gallery near the entrance is packed with equipment and uniforms used by aviators throughout this century, from the fleece- and cloth-lined leather helmets of World War I to the outfits of modern airmen from the United States, Britain and even Russia.
Dozens of uniforms and flight suits have been collected by or donated to the museum, allowing curators to attire standing mannikins. A well-dressed B-17 bomber crew member, for instance, would don a shearling leather outfit, including jacket, pants, gloves and boots; a parachute would be strapped onto his chest; he'd add a holster and pistol, an oxygen mask, headphones and polaroid goggles, and top it off with a fleece helmet.
Smaller exhibits, including a wall "timeline," outline the history of neighboring Hill Air Force Base. The northern Utah site was designated as "Hill Field" in 1939, in honor of Ployer P. Hill, a chief test pilot of the U.S. Army Air Corps who was killed in a 1935 crash. During World War II it became Hill Air Force Base, and its duties expanded over the decades to include modernization, repair and upkeep of various fleets of aircraft as well as a home field for airmen.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the Hill Aerospace Museum, however, is the large hangar. There a dark SR-71C Blackbird holds center court, just about stretching from one end of the hall to the other. The sleek reconnaissance plane looks like it could pierce the sky - and indeed it could soar to 80,000 feet.
Nearby, a B-17G Flying Fortress from World War II dwarfs a Jeep sheltered under its left wing. A painting on the fuselage shows a cartoonlike Adolph Hitler stuck sitting up in a short coffin, his bare toes sticking out the end. The name given the plane: "Short Bier."
Other exhibits - a few of them hanging from the ceiling - include a P-38J Lightning fighter, one of the museum's most recent acquisitions, recovered from an Aleutian island and restored; a P-51D Mustang; an I-84G Thunderjet; and a Russian MiG-21F. Also on display are a remotely guided "smart bomb" and a couple of bulky atomic bombs - at least, the green, snub-nosed housings for an early generation of such weapons.
Checking out the aircraft is, most of the time, a mildly distant "look but don't touch" - and certainly a "don't climb on the aircraft" - proposition. But at certain times of year the museum does open up a few planes. Stairs are moved up to the cockpits and portals so visitors can peek inside.
Admission to the Hill Aerospace Museum is free. The museum, adjacent to I-15 in Roy via Exit 341, is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. year round, but closes on the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays. For more information, call 801-777-6868 or 801-777-6818, or check the Web site at www.hill.af.mil/museum.
|
|
|
