Flying Tanks?

I just read that the Flying Heritage Collection here in WA has added some WWII armor to their ranks. They will be driving and firing them this Memorial Day weekend!

A T-34, a Hetzer, and a Flak 88. For WWII armor buffs, sounds like a sure thing.

Memorial Day Update: We took the kids and my father-in-law to have a look around. Nice place! The hangar is very clean and well-lit. There are just over a dozen aircraft on display, including what I believe is a full-scale replica of Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne. We also saw a V-1 and a piloted version of the V-1 next to the ME 163 Komet.

There is also a nose section from a Lancaster - I had no idea it was so skinny! Talk about crowded quarters.

The T-34, Hetzer, and 88s were outside, along with a smattering of WWII vehicles and weapons from the Puget Sound Military Vehicle Collectors Club.

The T-34 demo was a bit of a fiasco, though. It was supposed to start at 12 noon, but was pushed back to 12:10 due to the line of people still waiting to get in. At 12:15, it was pushed back to 12:30. By this time, all three kids had retired to the Kidmobile (our minivan) due to boredom - and I cannot blame them, because I was tired of waiting too.

Finally, around 12:35, the crew climbed into the T-34, fired up the engine, rolled it forward about 20 or 30 feet, rotated the turret, and the announcer said "Ready...Aim...Fire!" - and nothing happened. LOL! But then they did manage to fire off a (blank) round, which was quite loud and impressive. They rolled the tank back into the display position, and that was that. Needless to say, we didn't stick around to see the Hetzer or 88s.

While we were waiting for the T-34 to open fire, I spied a sign on a nearby building that read "ME 262 Project" so I can only assume that would refer to the ME 262 project detailed here. I've always thought the Swallow was a beautiful warbird to look at (although I'm sure our WWII bomber crews would beg to differ).

All in all, a nice way to spend an hour or so looking around at some of my favorite historical pieces of equipment. I'll have to get a few of the pics I snapped posted later tonight.