Into the Wild Blue Yonder

SOh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings…
—John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Do you ever get the urge to “slip the surly bonds of earth?” When the pressures of our fast-paced society start closing in on us, I imagine that we all, at one time or another, would like to just soar off into the wild blue yonder.

While few of us actually get the opportunity to take the controls of an airplane, a visit to the Hill Aerospace Museum in Utah will let you vicariously “kick the tire and light the fire.” Here in one place you can explore the history of aviation from the beginning to the present day.

The museum occupies 30 acres at Hill Air Force Base, which was named after Maj. Ployer P. Hill, an Army Air Corps test pilot who was killed in 1935 while flying an early prototype of the B-17 “Flying Fortress” long-range heavy bomber. The base had its origins in the 1930s, and expanded rapidly during the 1940s, concurrent with the war. Now it sprawls over 6,698 acres along the Wasatch Front near Ogden.

Since its inception, Hill AFB has been a major maintenance and logistics base. It provides engineering and logistics management for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt II and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile and performs maintenance on the F-16, A-10 and C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft. With a work force of about 23,000 civilian, military, and contractor personnel, the base is the largest single employer in the State of Utah.

Major Attraction
The Hill Aerospace Museum was initiated in 1981, opened its doors in 1986 and moved into the building it presently occupies in 1991. The museum has become one of the major tourist attractions in the State of Utah, hosting nearly 200,000 visitors a year. For convenience, the museum has its own entrance off Interstate 15, so it is not necessary for visitors to clear through any of the base security checkpoints.

The museum boasts an amazing collection of more than 80 aircraft exhibits spanning the entire spectrum of aviation from the first Wright Flyer to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

The Burgess-Wright Flyer, “Model F”, is similar in appearance to the one first flown at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. It boasted a top speed of about 42 mph.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird started flying operational missions in 1968 over Vietnam, was retired in 1990 and saw its last flight in 1999, but to this day it remains the fastest aircraft ever mass-produced, capable of speeds exceeding 3.3 times the speed of sound, or slightly faster than a 30-06 rifle bullet as it leaves the muzzle.

The Blackbird was the epitome of manned reconnaissance aircraft. Its development became imperative when the Russians shot down Francis Gary Powers in his Lockheed U-2 aircraft in May 1960. The SR-71 flew so fast and so high (over 85,000 feet) that no country on earth had the means to shoot one down. It could and did fly with impunity around the edges of the Soviet Union and over other world hot spots. After the Powers incident, international agreements precluded sending the Blackbird directly over the Soviet Union. The aircraft was expensive to fly and to maintain and for that reason its role was eventually assumed by reconnaissance satellites.

Planes of the Vietnam Era
Somewhere in the technological middle of the spectrum between the Wright Flyer and the SR-71 Blackbird lie the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, and the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom. These jet fighters served as workhorses during the Vietnam War.

The “G” version of the F-105 was known as a “Wild Weasel,” that moniker owing to the fact that it carried a radar homing and warning (RHAW) device designed to detect enemy radar. It also carried the AGM-45 Shrike air-to-ground missile designed to knock out enemy radar before it could home in on approaching attack aircraft. I had the privilege to accompany the first contingent of F-105G Wild Weasels to Thailand in 1965 as part of a technical assistance team to monitor the effectiveness of this new combination of offensive systems. The Wild Weasels would fly into Vietnam ahead of the main strike force, identify the radar-operated surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, and knock them out with the Shrike missiles. This allowed the main strike force to proceed with a reduced risk of getting shot down. The Wild Weasels proved so successful that later versions of the systems were built into F-4 Phantoms and then into F-16 Fighting Falcons.

Both the F-105 and F-4 were big, heavy fighter-bombers. They could take a lot of punishment and still get their crews back home. At the same time, they were fast and maneuverable enough to hold their own against the Russian MIGs that were trying to shoot them down.

Today’s Aircraft
Modern aircraft exhibits in the museum include the fast and nimble General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, still in service with the U. S. Air Force and other forces throughout the world, and the Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt, which proved its mettle in the close air support role in the first Gulf War and now again in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nicknamed the “Warthog,” it can fly low and slow for a long time, providing much needed firepower to the troops on the ground. The 30 mm cannon built into its nose fires depleted uranium armor-piercing projectiles that can shred enemy tanks and armored vehicles in a matter of seconds.

Bombers on display and still in service include the Rockwell B-1 Lancer and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. The B-1 is a swing-wing bomber capable of supersonic flight. The venerable B-52s have been in service for so long, more than 50 years now, that some of the early pilots now have grandchildren flying the same planes.

A number of cargo aircraft are on display, including the Douglas C-124 Globemaster, known by those who flew on her as “Old Shaky.” This big, lumbering, propeller- driven hauler could carry up to 68,000 pounds of cargo or 200 troops. It was once stationed at Hill AFB and, according to my late brother-in-law Frank James, who was a crew chief, was used to bring a lot of hibachi pots back to the base from Japan. (I guess after 40 years it is OK to divulge this little secret. After all, what do you do with an empty airplane that has to come home anyway to pick up another load?)

There is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress on display, the type of aircraft used to drop the two atomic bombs on Japan that brought an end to World War II. The crews of the 509th Composite Group prepared for this mission at the nearby Wendover AFB, Nevada, just west of Salt Lake City.

A number of foreign aircraft are on display, including the Russian-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MIG-17 Fresco and the MIG-21 Fishbed, both high performance jet aircraft.

Missile Exhibits
The Boeing LGM-30 Minuteman solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile is here, along with its transporter-erector vehicle used to carry the missile to the deployment site and then to lower the missile into its silo.

The Northrop SM-62 Snark, the nation’s first intercontinental nuclear missile, is here as well. Powered by an air-breathing jet engine, this missile enjoyed only a limited degree of success before it was replaced by liquid fueled ballistic missiles like the Atlas and Titan and then later by the solid fueled ballistic missiles Minuteman and Peacekeeper. One Snark launched in 1956 from Cape Canaveral was last seen heading toward the jungles of Brazil. The misguided missile was found by a Brazilian farmer in 1982.

Aircraft are displayed outside and in two large indoor galleries. In addition to aircraft and missiles, the exhibits cover other subjects ranging from uniforms to atomic weapons. The museum offers ample parking for cars and RVs. The grounds are visible from Interstate 15 and access is easy from exit 338 (Roy exit). For more information about the Hill Aerospace Museum, visit the Web site at www.hill.af.mil/library/museum/index.asp or call (801) 777-6868 or (801) 777-6818.

Arnold J. Theisen is a freelance writer and photographer living in Irrigon, Oregon.