USS Midway: a visit to an aircraft carrier today turned into a spectacular museum

@ElentirENG ES 10·23·2022 · 23:39 0

There are many ship-museums on the ship, but few are as large and impressive as the one in the port of San Diego, California.

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The USS Midway (CV-41) was built during World War II, being laid down on October 27, 1943. She was launched on March 20, 1945, being assigned on March 10, September of that year, when the war was over. With its 305 meters in length, during its first ten years of service it was the largest ship in the world. Initially it was equipped with the typical rectangular flight deck of that time, but in 1957 it was modernized, adding an oblique landing strip.

The ship was remodeled to its current state in 1970, being provided with a wider flight deck. It participated in the Vietnam War, being one of the ships that received the evacuation aircraft from South Vietnam at the end of the war, in 1975. One of those aircraft, by the way, was a Cessna O-1 Bird Dog plane piloted by Major Buang-Ly of the South Vietnamese Air Force, which managed to land on the flight deck of the USS Midway without resorting to its arresting wires.

Its last combat action was in 1991, during the Gulf War, being the aircraft carrier from which the first air-naval attacks against Iraqi forces were launched on January 17 of that year. The aircraft carrier was decommissioned on April 11, 1992. Twelve years later, on June 7, 2004, the current USS Midway Museum opened its doors on Broadway Pier in San Diego. You can see below some photos of this museum, published by the page from the museum's own Facebook and by Steve Knight.

A US Navy Grumman E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft (161227), located next to the carrier island.

A US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4S Phantom II fighter (number 153880).

One of the most popular "inhabitants" of the USS Midway: a mannequin of a flight deck motion director making the famous gesture with which airplanes are catapulted.

A Douglas A-4F Skyhawk attack aircraft of the US Navy, 154977.

A US Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat fighter (number 158978). Photo by Steve Knight.

A Douglas A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft of the US Navy (the 7937).

A real gem: a North American RA-5C Vigilante reconnaissance aircraft of the US Navy (the 156641). Photo by Steve Knight.

In the hangar of the aircraft carrier there are also aircraft on display. Here we see two World War II aircraft: a Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat fighter (the 12290) a full-scale replica of a Douglas TBD Devastator naval bomber (in the background ).

One of the meeting rooms for the pilots.

If you are left wanting more, you can watch this video published by Gina's Walk Tour showing the museum:

For more information about the museum, you can visit its website: www.midway.org.