Museum reoopens

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Valerie Gardner and her son, Justin, look at displays at the Air Force Armament Museum. The museum reopened to the general public May 2. (USAF photo by Lois Walsh)

Women's History Month

Col Paul Tibbets with Dorothea Johnson and Dora Dougherty, Women's Air Service pilots with B-29 crew at Eglin Army Air Field, Fla. On Aug. 6, 1945, Colonel Tibbetts piloted the B-29 "Enola Gay" off a runway at Tinian Island. The aircraft carried the world's first atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. (Army Air Force photo from Texas Women's University)

13 WSEP

WSEP

13 WSEP

Capt. Michael Schmidt, 13th Fighter Squadron, Misawa, Japan, fires an AGM-65h Maverick air-to-surface missile while participating here for Weapon System Evaluation Program, commonly known as Combat Hammer. The WSEP program, run by the 53d Weapons Evaluation Group, is used to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of combat air force weapon systems. The evaluations are accomplished during tactical deliveries of fighter, bomber and unmanned aerial system precision guided munitions, on realistic targets with air-to-air and surface-to-air defenses. For many of the aircrew participating in WSEP, it is the first time employing live weapons. This provides a level of combat experience many units face during combat. (U.S. Air Force photo)

McKinley Climatic Laboratory

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The C-5M Super Galaxy undergoes extreme heat and ultraviolet exposure during the Re-engining and Reliability Program at the McKinley Climactic Laboratory Oct. 21 through Nov. 17. Some of the unique challenges the laboratory crew faced was getting the C-5M inside the hangar. Another deviation from normal loading procedures was building the solar panels after the aircraft was loaded. This required special crews and crane systems to mount more than 90 solar panels to accurately simulate solar radiation during the extreme heat segment of the testing. (Photo by Wendell Rowan)

McKinley Climatic Laboratory

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The C-5M Super Galaxy undergoes extreme heat and ultraviolet exposure during the Re-engining and Reliability Program at the McKinley Climactic Laboratory Oct. 21 through Nov. 17. Some of the unique challenges the laboratory crew faced was getting the C-5M inside the hangar. Some of the hangar piping hung lower than the C-5 tail creating an obstacle for the crew moving it inside the hangar. They needed to lower the tail-end of the airplane within inches of touching the ground and jacked up the front-end in order to get the right leverage. Because the airplane's size, the solar panels had to be constructed after the C-5 was loaded rather than have everything pre-constructed. (Photo by Greg Murry)