Chac Fall Event

[Jschmus]

After taking a year off due to construction around the airport, the Carolinas Aviation Museum held its annual Fall Event the weekend of October 19-21.  The centerpiece of this year's event was the dedication of the restored CH-46 "Blood, Sweat and Tears".  The Museum was also host to a reunion of Marines from HMM-263, the unit which flew the helicopter in Vietnam through to the current war in Iraq.  To jazz up the festivities, the Marines of VMM-162 were kind enough to send out an MV-22 Osprey for static display.

I wasn't able to be there, but one of my friends was kind enough to send me some extra photos from the weekend.

I've posted photos of "Blood, Sweat and Tears" before, but here she is in all her Vietnam-era glory.




And again from the other side.




Past and future.

[Jschmus]

Here's the Osprey from the right side.



And from the left, with the rotors folded.




Here's a closeup of the engine nacelle.  Yes, that's one of the crewmen sitting on the fold-down panel.

[Jschmus]

Before anyone says anything, yes, I know that the helicopter is painted gloss, rather than matte.  Apparently, for outside static display, gloss paint holds up better than the equivalent matte finish, and eventually it bleaches/wears down to a matte surface anyway.