Summary
Ralph Olson provides this update on the Palm Springs Air Museum and some important new additions to its collection.
Have you visited? Details of how to do so are at the bottom of the page…
The B-17 Movie Memphis Belle: History Returns to the Air
Movie Memphis Belle was painted for the movie to the exact specifications as the famed aircraft of WWII. (Ralph Olson)
The 1990 movie Memphis Belle, tells the story of this famed aircraft and crew as they fly the 25th and final mission which was a prerequisite for the completion of their tour of duty. During filming, two B-17s were used to depict the Belle; one was the movie version of the Memphis Belle (N3703G) and the other, Sally G, which was used only briefly for scenes requiring pyrotechnic smoke and sparks to show machine gun hits. Three additional B-17s were also briefly used for takeoff scenes, but the undisputed star of the movie was the Movie Memphis Belle (N3703G).
N3703G came to life at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA as B-17G-85-DL. Built in late 1944, the aircraft was put into storage at the end of the war, but was eventually converted into a staff transport plane, serving in post-war Germany, Kodiak, Alaska and in the Korean War. The aircraft was stored again in 1954 and later converted into a water bomber in 1960.
N3703G was converted to a water bomber to fight fires in Northern California. (angelfire.com)
One of the modifications during water bomber conversion was the removal of the chin gun turret which was the configuration of B-17F models. As a water bomber, the aircraft was assigned civil registration N3703G and re-painted with an all red tail plane in 1974. N3703G was kept in good flying condition at Porterville, California until its retirement in 1981.
Later in the 1980s, the aircraft was acquired by Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation (MARC) where it was modified and re-painted with the livery of 41-24485, Memphis Belle. The founder of MARC, the late David Tallichet had amassed a large collection of vintage aircraft. He had a personal connection with B-17s as he had flown as a copilot on missions with the 100th Bomb Group, 8th AF during World War II. N3703G was restored to flight status and used in filming the movie “Memphis Belle” in 1989.
N3703G used to be based with MARC at Chino, California, but through the decades has moved around trying to find a happy home. It had spent a number of years at the National Warplane Museum at Geneseo, New York. It was flown to the Palm Springs Air Museum in late 2021, where it is on long-term loan, under a ferry permit. The move to Palm Springs was largely driven by a required climate change to better preserve the aircraft.
The Palm Springs Air Museum is restoring N3703G, the Movie Memphis Belle, to flight status and is expected to fly in late 2025. It will be flown by museum flight crews and will be operated under the Living History Flight Experience program, but will not be available for passenger rides. Instead, it will be flown to museum events and air shows to offer the public an opportunity to see the aircraft and take an interior tour.
Darkstar; A Movie Star with a Preview of the Future
An artist’s rendering of Darkstar in flight. (Lockheed Martin)
Palm Springs Air Museum received Darkstar from the division of Lockheed Martin known as the Skunk Works, which is the most important and influential division that works on top secret and state-of-the-art classified aircraft programs. Darkstar looks like a sleek aircraft capable of Mach speeds, but it is actually a 3/4 scale wood model of a Lockheed aircraft design used as a movie prop in making the 2022 movie Top Gun: Maverick.
The opening scenes of Top Gun: Maverick, depict Captain Pete Mitchell taking his need for speed to the hypersonic realm. Thirty-six years after the first movie debuted, Mitchell is a test pilot flying the SR-72 Darkstar, in which he attempts to reach a new speed record of Mach 10. The aircraft breaks apart from the aerodynamic forces and Mitchell ejects safely back to terra firma. The movie was the second highest-grossing film of 2022 and picked up six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Film Editing and Visual Effects.
By starring in the movie, Darkstar may have gotten another shred of confirmation that it actually exists. In a tweet celebrating the success of Top Gun: Maverick, Lockheed Martin mentioned the famed SR-71 Blackbird, as being the fastest crewed air-breathing jet aircraft. The tweet could be a subtle reference to the SR-72, the long rumored hypersonic successor to the Blackbird.
Lockheed Martin’s Darkstar shows off its sleek lines at Palm Springs Air Museum. Note the Skunk Works logo on the tail fin. (Ralph Olson)
While no such jet is known to exist, there have been hints that a follow-on aircraft to the SR-71 might be flying, or at least in the planning stages. Darkstar in the movie, called the SR-72, looks like a Skunk Works concept art for the real un-crewed SR-72. The hypersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft, first announced in 2016, had a long blended wing and fuselage. The Skunk Works logo can be seen on the tail fin, and it is described by Lockheed Martin as a Mach 6 capable jet.
Maverick’s Darkstar SR-72 does have windows on both sides of the fuselage, which is different from Lockheed’s conceptual SR-72 which is un-crewed and would not need windows. The aircraft that the SR-72 succeeds, the SR-71, is a universal icon of aerospace engineering.
The new aircraft design is sometimes called the “Son of Blackbird”, which throws down a challenging gauntlet for designers at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works engineering team. With a lot of eager speculation about what is promised to be a highly capable aircraft, there is undoubtedly a lot of excitement. Before even being tested, Darkstar is already a movie star.
X-38 Crew Return Vehicle: Palm Springs Air Museum’s First Spacecraft
The X-38 at Palm Springs Air Museum was one of five prototypes used in the test program and was actually dropped from high altitude and landed successfully. (Ralph Olson)
The NASA X-38 was an experimental reusable re-entry vehicle used to return an astronaut crew from the International Space Station (ISS) during an emergency. Only 5 prototypes were built and 4 were flight tested before the program was cancelled in 2002. The X-38 at Palm Springs Air Museum is one of three test prototypes designed at 80 percent of the size of the full scale version.
The ISS is the earth’s most remote outpost; it’s a difficult place to get to, or to leave. Lead time and intricate planning are required to pull off the immense logistical and technological feat of flying a spacecraft to and from the orbiting space station speeding along at 17,500 miles per hour. But what happens when time is short, and the crew’s lives are in jeopardy? The X-38 was developed for such a contingency.
The X-38 is shown being dropped from its B-52 mother ship on a test flight. (NASA)
After being carried to the ISS in the cargo bay of a space shuttle, the X-38 would be attached to one of the ISS docking ports. In the event of an emergency requiring crew evacuation, the X-38 could accommodate up to seven astronauts with seven hours of life support. The X-38 would be undocked from the ISS and after a deorbit engine burn, the vehicle would return to earth much like the space shuttle.
The spacecraft’s landing would be completely automated. Mission Control would have sent coordinates to the onboard computer system. Onboard wind sensors and a Global Positioning System would be used to calculate the shortest and safest trip home. Since the X-38 was designed with medical emergencies in mind, it made sense that the vehicle could find its way home automatically in the event the crew members were incapacitated or injured. In addition, seven high-altitude low-opening parachute packs were included in the crew cabin which gave them the ability to bail out of the craft.
On the decent back to earth, a steerable parafoil parachute would deploy at an altitude of 40,000 feet to carry the vehicle to its final decent and landing. The X-38 would then be landed at a manageable 60 miles per hour. The entire sequence from undocking from the ISS to a safe landing was estimated to take 2 to 3 hours.
After successful atmospheric tests, NASA set out to build the first fully operational prototype X-38. But budget cuts in the early 2000s forced NASA to cancel the program with the prototype about 90 percent complete.
F-117 Stealth Fighter #833: A combat veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Allied Force
F-117A #833 at Palm Springs Air Museum is on display in its own 5,000 square foot hangar and has the second highest amount of combat hours in the fleet. (Ralph Olson)
This rare aircraft is one of only 59 built, most of which are now retired, and is one of four F-117 Nighthawks on display in museums. The Palm Springs Air Museum stealth fighter which was acquired during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now on display in its own 5,000 square-foot hangar. When they operated, the F-117s were one of the most secret programs in the United States military. From the 1980s to early 2000s the aircraft operated in combat conditions, but today fewer than 10 are still actively used in tests and experiments.
The aircraft on display at the Palm Springs Air Museum is F-117A #833, the second-highest combat mission aircraft in the fleet, logging 75 combat hours during Desert Storm and Allied Force, the Kosovo War in 1999. This stealth fighter logged a total 5,140 flight hours.
The entire process of getting the aircraft took about four years and included a trip to Area 51 in Nevada. After being delivered to the museum on the back of a truck and in pieces, the amazing museum restoration crew spent hundreds of hours working to restore this stealth fighter to what it once was, down to the finest detail.
The F-117A cockpit is one of many displays in the aircraft’s hangar at Palm Springs Air Museum. (Ralph Olson)
The exhibit featuring F-117 Nighthawk #833 also includes displays including the cockpit, weapons used on the aircraft, and numerous films to help visitors better understand stealth technology. The original production cost of the aircraft was $111 million. The museum exhibit, including the stealth fighter and accompanying displays, cost about $500,000, or about five years of fundraising efforts.
Major General Greg “Beast” Feest, was an F-117 combat pilot during Desert Storm and flew sixteen successful missions including flights in aircraft #833. He is recognized for having dropped the first bomb of operation Desert Storm while flying the F-117. Holding the rank of Major during the conflict, his name is depicted under the left cockpit window.
Major Greg “Beast” Feest’s is now also depicted as a virtual pilot in the cockpit that will greet visitors to the exhibit. The virtual pilot effort took years to perfect and was brought to life by the creative team at the Palm Springs Air Museum and former image engineers from the Walt Disney Company. The exhibit will also feature tower interaction and the simulated whine of the plane’s auxiliary power unit.
Visiting Palm Springs Air Museum:
Visit the Palm Springs Air Museum website at: palmspringsairmuseum.org. And be sure to watch the live webcams on YouTube; just type Palm Springs Air Museum. Two live webcams switch back and forth allowing views of the museum ramp and the PSP active runway. The webcams also allow you to hear live air traffic control.
For more pictures of the museum’s collection, check our Ralph’s photo page: https://flickr.com/people/rrolson
