While enjoying a brief vacation in California's Palm Desert this past week, I thought it might be interesting to visit the Air Museum at the nearby Palm Springs International Airport. It's noted for its collection of World War II aircraft, all in flying condition—the European theater is represented by a B-17 Flying Fortress, P-51D Mustang, a King Aerocobra (a larger version of the Bell P-39), and other USAAF fighters; also an English Spitfire and a Russian YAK fighter trainer. And planes from the Pacific theater were in another hangar; this interested me mainly as we're preparing to review the forthcoming Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2. That's why you see me admiring their F4U Corsair in the photos below, as well as looking over a P-41 Flying Tiger, a Grumman Bearcat (these entered the war late in 1944), Grumman's Goose seaplane, and several others.

 

The Chance-Vaught F4U Corsair

Note the distinctive "gull wings"

But what made this a special event was the brand new Boeing 717 in TWA livery parked nearby for a special "Kid's Flight 2000" event at the museum—this plane had been registered for commercial flight just the day before. Talk about that "new car" smell! And this plane is truly gorgeous as you'll see in the photos below.

Seeing the Avsim logo on my cap they rolled out the red carpet <G>

 

Here's the Captain doing his preflight inspection

Note the commemorative Boeing 717 "nose art"

What made my day, of course, was the opportunity to view this plane's panel up close. Though the bright sun through the windows made it difficult to get sufficient contrast in these photos to let you see the panel's MFDs as clearly as they really are, they're nevertheless very impressive. We're definitely looking forward to some flight simulation development team taking on this one!

I couldn't resist the Captain's invitation to step into the cockpit

 

Check out the most recent of "glass cockpits" and console...

...and this clean, uncluttered overhead panel

TWA loaded up the dozens of folks who had given their day to fly out from the Long Beach plant and show the kids this marvelous plane. I kind of wished I was with them as it climbed to join TWA's fleet for regular passenger service.

 

Liftoff from Runway 31

Returning to Long Beach Airport