{"id":18530,"date":"2026-03-29T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/?p=18530"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:08:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:08:04","slug":"warbirds-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/warbirds-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Warbirds Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I first visited the Tri-State Warbird Museum<\/a> in the pre-blog days of 2010, when this website used things called odments to deal with non-trip topics. The oddment for that 2010 visit, which is here<\/a>, attracted a couple of visitors recently, and that prompted me to reread it myself. The first paragraph mentions that both the Warbird Museum and another museum visited the same day, the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati, were open only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. That stuck with me so that when I was looking for something to do on a Wednesday, the Warbirds naturally came to mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Nearly all the airplanes on display are from World War II, including this unlikely-looking pair. Flying the Boeing-Stearman bi-wing<\/a> was relatively simple. It was the first airborne step for many new military pilots. The Piper L-4H Grasshopper<\/a> was the military version of the extremely popular Cub. Its ability to fly low and slow made it very useful in training, observation, medical evacuation, and more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>These three probably more closely match your idea of WWII fighting aircraft. Like the Stearman, the bright yellow North American AT-6D<\/a> was a trainer, but it was used for more advanced maneuvers, such as aircraft landings. The twin-engined Beechcraft TC-45H Expeditor<\/a> was originally designed as a civilian craft but was adopted by the military as a versatile transport plane. North American P-51 Mustang<\/a>s were very effective as bomber escorts and served in every theater of WWII.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This North American TB-25N Mitchell<\/a> might be the museum’s biggest star. It is my biggest memory, in any case. That could be because about two years after my 2010 museum visit, I saw this and 19 other B-25s in flight at the Doolittle Raiders 70th reunion. The sight of all those big planes was pretty impressive, and the sound was incredible.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM 27-Aug-2014:<\/strong> I somehow failed to mention how friendly and helpful the volunteers at the museum were, but I now get a second chance. As I originally put this post together, I noticed that the nose art on the B-25 had changed since my 2010 visit, and I reached out to the museum via email to see why. I now recall being told that a couple of the museum’s planes had appeared in movies and TV shows, but I had not paid much attention. As I quickly learned, the B-25 name change came from a movie role with another local star. The story is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>A couple of the museum’s planes were not at home Wednesday, but every plane that was there was capable of flying except one. This Goodman Corsair<\/a> is in the process of being restored, with some assembly required before it leaves the hangar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>On the way back to the museum’s front door, I climbed to the balcony to get an overhead shot then snapped one of the flight simulator area on the way down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>This isn’t a warbird, but it is the sort of vehicle my Dad piloted during the war. He was a courier. Every time I see a Jeep from that era, I think of one of the few stories he ever told of those days. During the Battle of the Bulge, snow covered the ground, which was where most soldiers slept. He considered himself lucky to have his Jeep to sleep in. He could even lie down on his side between the seats, “but I had to stand up to turn over.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first visited the Tri-State Warbird Museum in the pre-blog days of 2010, when this website used things called odments to deal with non-trip topics. The oddment for that 2010 visit, which is here, attracted a couple of visitors recently, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[83,19,50],"class_list":["post-18530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attraction","tag-airplanes","tag-museum","tag-ohio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WE0S-4OS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18530"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18601,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18530\/revisions\/18601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}