Imagine taking flight with your son over the Hawaiian Islands on a peaceful Sunday morning. You’re piloting an Aeronca 65TC, sportstrainer airplane en route to Honolulu. The views are incredible, you’re enjoying your son’s company, and the ride is as smooth as silk. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, you encounter the first wave of Japanese Zero fighters on their way to attack Pearl Harbor. Next thing you know, your plane is being riddled with machine gun fire and you’re fighting to keep it in the air.
Sounds like the stuff movies are made of (a version of the scene was featured in the movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!”), only on December 7, 1941 it happened for real. It’s a point driven home with incredible clarity when you visit the newly opened Pacific Aviation Museum (PAM) on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island. That’s where you can see the original Aeronca 65TC in all its glory… and so much more.
The museum offers you hands on history lessons that will take your breath away. The massive exhibits left me humbled beyond words. In addition to the Aeronca 65TC (the first American plane engaged in combat during World War II), you get the chance to get up close and personal with a variety of other historic aircraft, including a Zero fighter, an Army Air Corps B-25 Mitchell bomber, and a Navy Wildcat fighter. One of the most popular vintage aircrafts on display is a 1942 Stearman biplane in which former President George H.W. Bush learned to fly, and took his first solo flight.
Once you’ve worked your way through the aviation artifacts area, I suggest heading to the interactive display area. That’s where you will be able to “fly” an American or Japanese plane and communicate via radio with others. The line for that particular display was very long, but once you are behind the plane’s controls you realize it was worth the wait. That said; the exhibit that most interested our family (keep in mind we are locals) was the one that told the story of the Ni’ihau residents who captured Japanese pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi when his plane crashed on the tiny Hawaiian island shortly after he attacked Bellows Army Air Field on Oahu during that fateful December day.
If you would like to take a tour of the museum the next time you are visiting the island of Oahu, you can purchase tickets at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum or at the Pacific Aviation Museum’s entrance. Adults pay $14, children $7. Active-duty military personnel in uniform get in free.
For more information on Pearl Harbor’s exhibits click here.
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