THE WESTERN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT
 (Pete Porter - RSVP)
Workshop Instruction
 F-14 Group Shot
Bill Downs, RSVP volunteer at the Western Museum of Flight, instructing students of York Elementary School, Hawthorne. Students from York Elementary School, Hawthorne, with the Western Museum of Flight F-14 Tomcat.
Along with the film industry, the major activity in Southern California has been a heavy involvement with the growth of aviation in the United States. Up until recently, most of the large aerospace companies have been based in and around the Los Angeles area and the heritage of their presence is something that the Western Museum of Flight is attempting to preserve.

RSVP volunteer Herb Stark is the Project Manager at the museum, and he graciously took some time out of his busy schedule to give me an informative tour of the facilitylocated at the corner of Prairie and 120th in the city of Hawthorne and is also the Airport complex. It is very much a working museum, with several active projects currently underway, including a Tiger Moth that is nearly complete and a North American AT-6 that Herb is working on in his spare time. Herb told me that the museum got started when the remains of a Norwegian Air Force Northrop N-3PB seaplane found in an Icelandic glacier. The remaining pieces were brought back and the aircraft was completely restored with the aid of the museum volunteers before being returned to Norway in pristine condition. Norway responded by donating one of their F-5s and this aircraft is now located as part of the museum exhibit.

Herb is aided in his work by Bill Downs, Stan Newland Moe Starr and Hy Joseph (all members of RSVP) along with a further seven people who also donate their time. As one can see, this is a fairly small number of people to be involved in such a large project and Herb tells me that they are always on the lookout for more volunteers.

One item of obvious pride was the ongoing work that is being done with several elementary schools from Hawthorne area. Along with teacher supervision, these children are given rudimentary classes in aviation history and the basic principles of flight. They can even get to "fly" in a working version of the "Link Trainer", one of the original simulators that all aspiring World War Two pilots had to master before being allowed to handle an actual aircraft. Herb is very proud of this mentoring program and says that it is wonderful to see the expression on the children's faces as they are exposed to things that are totally outside their daily experience.

The Link Trainer

The Museum's Link Trainer.

As I left the facility, he stressed the need for additional volunteers. He said that they are particularly needed in the above mentioned mentoring program as this would go a long way in helping relieve the time that the current members donate to this task.

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