I was out in PA this week, and on Wednesday I searched out a couple of small aviation museums. My first stop was at the Delaware Valley Historic Aircraft Association, in Willow Grove, PA. It's a small museum adjacent to the Willow Grove NAS/JRB. They have a building with a couple of aircraft and a number of displays, as well as an outdoor area with about a dozen aircraft.
Inside, they have the only 2-seat trainer version of the Me-262 to survive WWII:
Outside, they have one of only four surviving Convair Sea Darts:
F7U Cutlass
Grumman C-1A Trader
Grumman F9F-2 Panther
Please ignore that other retired Grumman fighter in the background...it's not supposed to be photographed. The museum has this F-14D as part of its collection (listed on their web site and everything). Unfortunately, they don't have room for it on their property, so it is displayed on the other side of the fence, on the grounds of the base. And photographs of the base are prohibited, so you can't take pictures of the Tomcat. Due to "insurance regulations" a museum volunteer has to accompany visitors outside (he said they had problems with people trying to get on/into some aircraft) so they keep a close eye on you. Of course, the Tomcat was the main reason I went down there. :(
From there, I went to the Air Victory Museum in Lumberton, NJ (about 20 minutes east of Philadelphia), on the grounds of South Jersey Regional Airport. They have an interesting collection of aircraft and displays, almost all indoors, but could use twice as much space.
They have an F-14A, the 59th off the line at Calverton.
There was some clutter behind the aircraft as they were building a new display.
They also have an F-104G Starfighter, in Dutch Air Force colors.
I had the chance to talk to with several of the volunteers at the AVM, they are a friendly bunch, glad to talk about the airplanes and their museum, and very accommodating to visitors. For $4 admission, it's hard to go wrong if you find yourself in the area.
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