I took a trip a while back to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola Florida and I finally got around to pulling the images from that day. Looking back at these images after so long gives me a huge appreciation for the quality of these museum displays and the history behind how they got there. This truly is a treasure of a museum even if you are not all that interested in aviation. If you are interested in aviation, it has to be one of the must see museums on your list.

Accord to the Museum this is the world’s largest Naval Aviation museum and one of the most-visited museums in the state of Florida. They have more than 150 restored aircraft representing Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Aviation. They also have some historic and one-of-a-kind aircraft are displayed both inside the Museum’s over 350,000 square feet of exhibit space and outside on its 37-acre grounds.

This was actually my 2nd or 3rd trip to the museum, but the first time I had been able to bring my camera equipment, and the first time I was able to share the experience with two Veterans (Navy and Air Force), which is my Dad and my Father-in-Law (these are the two subjects in the images below). If you are in the Gulf Shores / Orange Beach area this is a great day trip.

These images are a little strange to me in that they are both “new” and “old” at the same time. This is the first time they have been published, the first time I’ve actually gone through them, but they were taken so long ago they already have an historical age attached to them. I’m sure the aviation displays have changed at this point, which makes me want to take another trip down there. For now, the gallery below is from my trip several years ago.