One of our favorite places in Florida is up along the panhandle near Destin – Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. This park has beautiful dunes leading to a white sandy beach, great bicycle and walking paths, a small coffee shop with delicious pastries, and 156 RV sites with full hook-ups.
“Topsail Hill is named for its dunes, which rise like a ship’s sails over soft sand beaches and the emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico…Topsail Hill offers 3 miles of pristine beaches and is a bird-watching and hiking paradise.” – Florida State Parks
“An inconspicuous, pale little bird, easily overlooked as it runs around on white sand beaches, or on the salt flats around lakes in the arid west. Where it lives on beaches, its nesting attempts are often disrupted by human visitors who fail to notice that they are keeping the bird away from its nest; as a result, the Snowy Plover populations have declined in many coastal regions.” – Audubon
While we were at Topsail Hill Preserve we heard many jets flying over us and what sounded like bombs going off nearby. We never felt like we were in danger, rather, we kept trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Joel did some research and discovered that there is an Air Force Armament Museum on Eglin Air Force Base about 30 minutes away. By then we also met some other campers who had been out to the museum. They said it was worth a trip out.
At the musuem, we were told that Eglin is a bombing range used for training, which explained the noises we’d been hearing. They had quite a collection of bombs, missiles, and airplanes displayed inside and around this two story building.
Joel found the sensors very interesting. “The concept under which the system operates calls for the types of sensors displayed here to be dropped from pods mounted on specially modified F-4 aircraft and implanted along communications routes or near storage areas. As the sensors become activated by ground movement a C-130B orbiting aircraft receives and relays sensor radio to the Sensor Reporting Post.” – Air Force Armament Musuem
This CBU-24 cluster bomb breaks open in the air and scatters tennis-sized bomblets over a large area.
While we were in the museum the lower floor was closed off to the public for a ceremony.
“Driving onto the grounds of the Air Force Armament Museum, visitors first notice the array of numerous aircraft on display. The fastest plane ever built, the SR-71 Blackbird is the centerpiece flanked by numerous planes from World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Gulf War eras.” – Air Force Armament Museum
“The B-52 has been the flagship bomber of the USAF for more than four decades. The Gulf War involved the longest strike mission in the history of aerial warfare when B-52s flew from Barksdale AFB, LA., launched conventional air launched cruise missiles over Iraq, and returned to base. A 35 hour non-stop combat mission. The B-52 is capable of dropping or launching the widest array of weapons in the US inventory. This includes gravity bombs, cluster bombs, precision guided missiles and joint direct attack munitions. Current analysis of the B-52 shows its lifespan to extend beyond the year 2040.” – Air Force Armament Museum
“The B-47 was the world’s first swept wing bomber and the first to use a bicycle arrangement landing gear, which was necessary because of the thin wings. It was also the first plane built solely for the delivery of nuclear weapons.” – Air Force Armament Museum
“The USAF’s first swept-wing jet aircraft and first production aircraft to break the sound barrier (Mach 1). The F-86 first flown October 1,1947 and set a world speed record in 1948. Originally designed as a high altitude day fighter, it was redesigned into an all-weather interceptor and fighter- bomber.” Air Force Armament Museum
Joel likes military stuff more than I do, though I still found this to be an interesting and well done museum.
Leave a reply