The first all metal aircraft to use a machine gun

The Peashooter—

The Peashooter airplane here, was in World War I, in 1918, and was the first all metal airplane to use a machine gun. I have a picture of the gun and it came out in front to the right of the propeller hub.

My wife of 52 years, Patty, and I went to see the National Museum of the United States Air Force. We last visited there some fifteen years ago and took along our grandchildren, Justin and Brittney Lincoln, who flew up from Florida. The museum building has mushroomed into buildings with galleries—the Early Years-Early flight to World War I; Air Power Gallery-World War II; Modern Flight Gallery-Korea and Southeast Asia; Cold War Gallery; and, the Missile/Space Gallery. What was nice then is incredible now. The museum has used clever ways of presenting aircraft. It is no longer one plane parked on concrete, it is many planes parked on concrete and some strung-up from the arched ceiling. From the earliest days of aviation right up to those missiles that we used to dig bomb shelters to avoid, are there in plain sight. I found the lighting used to be absolutely stunning. The aircraft parked at many angles offers portrait possibilities to kill for, and the lighting is so ethereal that I snapped lots of photographs at the slowest speeds possible. I had four bad photos out of a hundred. Not bad for a days work. My wife carried one camera with a long lens and I carried another with a short 18-55mm lens that is like a wide angle with a built in macro. I never used the long lens but did use the 18-55mm all day. I also used a monopole tripod and leaned heavily on it each time I snapped a picture.

If you go—
National Museum of the United States Air Force
1100 Spaatz Street
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433-7102
Phone: 937.255.3286
Website: <a href="http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/">http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/</a>