Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 17

NEW MEXICO Tuesday, September 2, 1997 C3 Albuquerque Journal "I i MSG CLOSE-UP: A head-on view of a German Air Force MiG-21 on static display at the War Eagles Air Museum at Santa Teresa. The revolutionary fighter has not been flown since It was obtained from East Germany during German reunification. fnuTn(Sl)l 'jl. l7.5., German and Russian aircraft are among the warplanes from another era featured in the newly expanded War Eagles Air Museum at Santa Teresa, south of Las Cruces "4 i i I 1 i 1 1 1 I jj I -J 1 iAxf i i iX' I A 1 1 i'l lv-- I 1 i-i iv '1- I vv I I i J' V.T 1 If '11 I i If 'M- 1 1'. y-V 1 '(V --il 1 1 ftp I t--r i 1 I 'f t.

i Ik 1 rMMMM -VI Xi "'-i- i- I C''" HISTORY LESSON: Tourists, many of them not even born when these vintage planes were flying in combat, check out a few of the 28 warplanes at the War Eagles Air Museum. The navy blue plane in the ground Is an F-4U4 Corsair, credited by many foxhole-bound U.S. soldiers with saving their skins In World War II. Photographs by Richard Pipes Of the Journal 1 fc.lNfc- learning in navy blue, the sleek F-4U4 Corsair has lost none of its menace as it sits now silent in the f4 1 VA1Vv -1 1 Li 1 MEAN LOOK: A snarling visage adorns the nose of a P-40E Warhawk fighter. cavernous, recently expanded War Eagles Air Museum at Santa Teresa.

The Corsair is one of 28 vintage warplanes in the museum. All these aircraft have stories, and the Corsair's claim to fame, told on its storyboard, is that it is the last prop-driven fighter plane built in the United States. The World War II, single-engine Corsair had fold-up wings so it could be crowded on aircraft carriers. It was the pride of the Marine Corps and one of the most fearsome fighter planes in the war. The' Japanese called it "whistling death." It was the best friend a GI in a foxhole ever had, so much so that American soldiers called it "the sweetheart of Okinawa." Supported by memberships and contributions, the museum opened in 1989 on 54,000 square feet of unencumbered floor space in a huge airplane hangar.

It was begun by aerodynamics expert-rancher-pilot John MacGuire and his wife, i If you go WHAT: War Eagles Air Museum VVriCHC: Santa Teresa, 35 miles south of Las Cruces HOURS: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Monday COST: $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, and children under 12 free Betty, who live near Marfa, Texas. The museum recently added 10,000 square feet in floor space to house the growing collection, which now includes about a dozen antique cars and an anti-aircraft tank. The most recently restored plane in the museum is a Tupolev TU-2 Russian bomber.

Last used in 1981 to bomb ice jams, it was retrieved from a cave in China. A majority of the planes in the museum are still flyable. 'VA: 1 BACK IN SHAPE: Airplane restorer Jim Velia works on the fuselage of a Russian Tupolev TU-2. The plane was restored to flying condition..