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A Trip to the Zoo
Ben Keirn, Contributing Editor & Photographer
Columbia City, Indiana, USA

A few months ago, in warmer climes and happier times, I went for a road trip with my cousin up to Michigan. If we had our druthers, we would have flown into Muskegon (KMKG), and then on to our second destination and the focus of this article. A place where you can see a black bird, several cats, a dog, a few varieties of cobras, a robin, a warthog, and even, of all things, a hornet. My cousin and I spent a day visiting the zoo. To be precise, we spent a day visiting the Air Zoo!

Our weekend started with a Friday evening filled with Irish music, food, beverages, and culture. We even enjoyed an impromptu flyby from The Hooligans Flight Team at the Muskegon Irish Music Festival. Sad to say that the trip was by land and not by air for us, but I was in the middle of training for my instrument ticket, and it was full-on IFR when we had to leave for Michigan. Regretting the drive, rather than flight, from KMKG to Kalamazoo (KAZO), we nonetheless arrived on a fantastically warm Saturday, ready to visit all the wonderful creatures waiting inside the Air Zoo.

Waiting inside the door was a Camel!
And across the aisle, a Robin.
And just down the pathway was a goose; a Tin Goose, that is.

With the penchant of aviation designers and enthusiasts to assign animal names to aircraft, the Air Zoo is vary aptly named. Alright, so it might also have something to do with this Midwestern Air and Space museum being located at KAZO, the airport near KalamaZOO, Michigan. Regardless of the history behind the name, believe you me, there is a lot to see.

Just inside the door was a replica Sopwith Camel. The wings were uncovered, so as to display the wonderful intricacies of a wood-framed aircraft. Not too far away was one of my favorites, a Ford Trimotor, aka "Tin Goose", and a 1928 Curtiss Robin, powered by a Wright V-8 engine. Keeping up the Irish theme of the weekend, a Curtiss Robin just one year newer, and with the radial engine, made history by surviving a transatlantic flight from New York to Dublin. And the man at the controls? None other than Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan. Quite the feat in any single engine monoplane, let alone Corrigan's Robin, which I read was a trash heap find that he repaired to flying condition, though some would question whether airworthy condition.

Look out, it's a Cobra!
Yikes, Cobras everywhere! And this one's baring its fangs!

You could hardly break me away from the planes of the 1920's and 1930's, but eventually I did move on to another section. The Air Zoo's collection is quite extensive and spans all eras of heavier than air flight. When we got over to the planes of the later wars, there were two, count'em, two cobras. Alright, so it would seem that folks have not always been original when assigning aircraft their animal call signs. Though both were manufactured by Bell Aircraft, the Airacobra is a wee bit different than the Seacobra, and not just in the name. Actually, with the props facing different directions, the turbine on the chopper, vs. pistons on the plane, and the vastly superior firepower on the gunship...well, "Bell Cobra" is about all these two aircraft have in common.

The "front office" of the Tomcat on display.
The Hornet, with stowed wings.

Naval and Marine aviation is well represented at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. With cats of nearly every variety; Tomcat, Hellcat, Wildcat, and the not so cat-cats, the Tiger and Cougar. For those who are fans of folding wing planes built by someone other than Grumman, there is the McDonnell-Douglas Hornet, and Douglas planes (pre-McDonnell merger), the Skyhawk, Dauntless, and Skyraider. Vought aircraft are represented by a Crusader, but the Corsair on display is a Goodyear variant, not a Vought.

The wings of a gull on a Corsair, this one made by a tire company; Goodyear.
Yellow wings and tailfeathers. A three-ship lineup; Stearman in front, an N3N next in line, and a Timm Tutor just visible in the back.

After a trip through the main building and a jaunt past the last lineup of Navy training aircraft, it was time to head out to the original museum. When I first came to the Air Zoo years ago, it was just the old terminal building and hangar. The new complex has grown beyond anything I could have imagined back then. But the collection has grown along with the complex, and they haven't given up any floor space. The original museum building still houses several amazing exhibits. It also serves as both the entry point for those who fly in to visit the Air Zoo, and the staging location for rides given at the museum.

Fill the oil and check the gas. Rides could be purchased in a B-25 Mitchell the day we came to the Zoo.

Some of the fun at the Air Zoo comes in the experience, rather than the inspection, of the exhibits. The Zoo still has flights and rides available, not to mention the three full motion flight simulators where kids of all ages can test their own flying skills, located over by the F-18 Hornet on display in the main museum building.

Where's Waldo? A museum visitor takes a closer look at the workmanship and intricacies of the old Pratt and Whitney radial engine on this Howard.
Waldo isn't here. My cousin takes a look up the middle, yes, the middle, of a rocket engine on display.

Some of the displays were outdoors, including an old Howard DGA-15P that someone flew in, with a great big Pratt radial on its nose. No animal nickname for the plane, but the engine is called a Wasp. As I mentioned earlier, the Air Zoo is also a space museum, with historical exhibits on the moon landings, space flight, and with rocket power and space capsules on display. One such display is the massive Rocketdyne F-1 rocket engine suspended on quite the impressive steel rigging. When a full-grown man stands centered under the engine, it's hard to believe that he isn't way out to the other side!

We found Waldo! The New Standard was on hand for some open cockpit, two-winged, bugs in your teeth type fun.

When my cousin and I were younger, we used to enjoy taking a gander through the Where's Waldo books. So, imagine my surprise when the folks giving the biplane rides were from an outfit called Waldo Wright's Flying Service. The photos throughout the trip wound up including several that appeared to be folks looking for Waldo, too; very apropos. Of course, with all of the various aircraft, historical items, and memorabilia on display at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, a trip through the museum can seem like a massive game of Where's Waldo. If there is something in particular that you would like to see, it's probably there...and finding it is half the fun.

The museum is open year-round and has some pretty fun looking events throughout the colder months, including open-cockpit weekends. The airport has services year-round as well, but if you aren't able to fly yourself, there are small regional flights in and out of KAZO on United, American, and Delta. And if you're wondering "Where's Waldo" now, he has moved on. Winter in Michigan is no time for an open cockpit biplane ride. But if you're feeling adventurous, you can chase him down. Waldo Wright Flying Service is giving rides even now. Through the winter months, they offer biplane rides at another fine aviation museum, Fantasy of Flight, just outside of Lakeland, Florida.

By Ben Keirn, Contributing Editor & Photographer
Columbia City, Indiana, USA
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