Jack Bradshaw, museum guide. The volunteer museum guides are more than eager to show people the new museum. Jack, here, has a pretty interesting history. He joined the Royal Air Force before the US got in the war and then switched to the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor. He flew Spitfires (his favorite), P-51s, P-47s, and some other fighters I forgot. He's been around.

He flew escort for the bombers that dropped the "Grand Slam" bombs on the exhibit sign behind him. The Brits couldn't bring down a German railroad viaduct with ordinary bombs so they made a monster bomb that only needed to hit in the general vicinity to get the job done.

Jack recalls a secret mission he flew during the war. They sent him and a wingman to a base north in England. They were to take off at a specific minute, fly low across the English Channel to Belgium, then turn 90 degrees left and report what they saw. He prepared to take off at the specified time when his commander said wait, we're holding the flight for eight minutes. Then off they went in their P-51s just above the waves for a 45 minute flight to the coast of the mainland where they turned left just in time to see a V-2 rocket launch. When they returned, they reported what they saw and told to keep their mouths shut. Top Secret.

Jack asked his commander after the war what that was all about. It seems the Belgian resistance was covertly reporting the launches of V-2s. It took about thirty minutes to move the rockets and their launchers out of their hidden positions, prepare them for launch, and fire them off. The Allies were testing the intelligence to see if it was authentic.

After the war, Jack got out and flew for Pan Am. When they went bankrupt, Jack flew for Braniff, which was headquartered in Dallas. They went bankrupt, too. Jack says he has to pay for his own airfare now.

He's on the crew of "Fifi," the B-29 that the Commemorative Air Force flies to airshows. He says that it costs $5000 an hour to fly it. They just break even by flying airshows. The big problem is maintaining the engines. There are plenty of B-29 engines left over from the war but they are all the wrong kind for "Fifi."