Commander Kelly: Flying Heritage Skyfair

Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum
Everett, WA

Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection in Everett was recently renamed the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum (http://www.flyingheritage.com/). I first wrote about this museum in 2012...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.com/2012/06/flying-heritage-collection.html. Since then the museum has expanded enormously offering an amazing slice of World War II history and technology.

Their biggest event of the year for Flying Heritage is their annual Skyfair which took place on Saturday, July 22, 2017. Thousands of people showed up to see these iconic WW2 planes take to the air again on the same weekend that Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk was the most popular film in the world.

Fieseler Fi 156 C-2 Storch
German Reconnaissance Aircraft

The Skyfest features an air show with vintage World War II planes. A Luftwaffe Storch, an ultra-slow reconnaissance plane, required only about 100 yards to takeoff. In the closing days of WW2 Hanna Reitsch hoped to fly the Fuhrer out of Berlin in a Storch.

de Havilland Mosquito TV959
Flying Heritage, Everett, WA

The Museum's latest trophy, an RAF Mosquito, flew for the first time from its new home at Paine Field. The Mosquito is a light bomber that was used on the famous "Dambuster" raids on German targets. This particular plan had previously belonged to the Imperial War Museum in the UK which had, at one point clipped its wings in order to fit it into one of their buildings. The plane needed a full restoration to make it airworthy again.

Mitsubishi A6M3-22 Reisen ("Zero")
Flying Heritage, Everett, WA

Japanese Zeros from World War II that can still fly are rarer than hen's teeth. Surviving Zeros must have survived dogfights, Kamikaze usage and the moisture of countless jungles. But you can find one in the Flying Heritage Collection.

8-Ton Half-Track Sd. Kfz. 7 &
88 mm Flak 37 Anti-Aircraft Gun

In addition to planes the newly renamed museum features an impressive collection of Combat Armor from WW2. And these babies are interactive too. The Museum even fired a German 88 ("Acht - Acht") at the Mosquito that flew overhead. The ammunition was a blank but these guns were used in the war as anti-aircaft weapons.

M4A1 Sherman Medium Tank
Combat Armor, Everett, WA

The Sherman tank was the iconic American tank of the war. You will, of course, find one at Flying Heritage. The Allies called them "Ronsons" due to their unfortunate propensity to catch fire.

KMDB (Main Design Bureau) T-34/85
Soviet Combat Armor, Everett, WA

Soviet tanks were among the very best of the war. The T-34 tank played a major role at the 1943 Battle of Kursk which ranks as the greatest tank battle of all time.

Polikarpov U-2/Po-2
Flying Heritage, Everett, WA

One of my personal favorite planes in the Collection is a Soviet WW2 biplane that was flown by, among others, women pilots in the Red Air Force. For more on the "Night Witches" who may have inspired Pussy Galore'e Flying Circus (James Bonds' Goldfinger) see my earlier blog...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.com/2012/06/night-witches-nachthexen-of-world-war.html. Russia, Russia, Russia seems inescapable these days!

Travel Notes: The Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum (http://www.flyingheritage.com/) is easy to visit. It is just off of the I-5 freeway in Everett about 25 miles due north of Seattle.

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