Gallery Update: A Quick Visit to the Legacy Flight Museum

Air show season for me is about to start! I drove up to Ashton, Idaho today to stay with relatives for the upcoming Idaho Falls Air Show this weekend, which I am excited for because it'll be my first time at a totally new air show venue and it will feature a line-up that I either haven't seen before or haven't seen in years. On the way to Ashton, I stopped in Rexburg to pay a quick visit to the Legacy Flight Museum; hard to believe that it's been two years since I was a volunteer there! Since I left, I've kept an eye on the museum's Facebook page with all the goings-on. In the two since I left, the museum acquired two new aircraft for the collection (while at the same time, rotating out or selling other aircraft previously in the collection): a Beechcraft Model 18 and a North American P-64. These two new acquisitions of the museum were the primary reason why I wanted to stop by and thankfully they were there! And as expected, the Legacy Flight Museum will be participating in the Idaho Falls Air Show this weekend so much of the collection was noticeably absent, so I'll be looking forward to seeing some of the other aircraft later this weekend!

Legacy Flight Museum (Revisit)

Preview:

Beechcraft SNB-5 Navigator (N90265), a US Navy transport variant of the venerable Beechcraft Model 18 (otherwise known as the Twin-Beech!). The museum acquired this aircraft from the Chicago area in October 2016.

North American NA-68/P-64 (N64NA) replica, one of the museum's latest acquisitions as of this past May. This P-64 is actually a conversion from an AT-6 Texan airframe, which is ironic because the original P-64/NA-50/NA-68 were based off the North American NA-16, a predecessor to the popular and very common T-6 Texan warbird. Unlike the trainers, the P-64 is a fighter that was slightly smaller (about two feet shorter in length, and with a wingspan about five feet shorter) than its better-known trainer cousin. The P-64 designation was given to the aircraft type by the U.S. Army Air Corps, while North American designated the aircraft as the NA-50 and NA-68 (the latter being an upgraded variant of the former). NA-50s were purchased by the Peruvian Air Force, which nicknamed it Torito ("Little Bull"), while the Royal Thai Air Force ordered NA-68s which were seized prior to being export by the U.S. government in 1941, following the Franco-Thai War and growing ties between Thailand and the Empire of Japan; these airframes were subsequently used as unarmed fighter trainers by the U.S. Army Air Corps. A total of thirteen aircraft (broken down between seven NA-50s for the Peruvian Air Force and six NA-68s for the Royal Thai Air Force that got seized) were built with two known airframes (an NA-50 on display in Lima, Peru and an NA-68 kept airworthy by the Experimental Aircraft Association) surviving to this day, not including the handful of replicas converted from T-6 airframes.