Kalamazoo Air Zoo

[Travis Butler]

Was getting late by the time the last pics finished exporting, so just going to post a couple of teaser pics to start with... full set of 270 pics is here:

Kalamazoo Air Zoo May 2025

Visits to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo in May 2025.

flic.kr

20250526-SDIM5616 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Sigma fp, TTArtisan 11/2.8 Fisheye

The Air Zoo was founded by Suzanne and Pete Parish, using planes they started collecting starting in 1959. Suzanne was a WASP in World War II, and the P-40 was the plane "she had always dreamed of flying"; when she had a chance to grab one, she jumped on it. And here it is hanging in the museum's atrium.


20250526-SDIM5642 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Minolta MD 35-70/3.5 Macro

I mentioned in the Henry Ford Museum thread that the Tin Goose was in a real sense 'my' airplane, the first one I was able to recognize as a little kid; it's neat that the Air Zoo has one as well.

Alas, it was also when I started really picking up flaws with my old favorite Olympus OM Zuiko 24/2.8:


20250526-SDIM5634 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
OM Zuiko 24/2.8

Indoors, in a dimly lit environment with heavy spotlighting, it flares like crazy. I switched to the Minolta, which does much better, but has a much tighter FoV.

I had an unexpected chance to stop by again on my way home, and went back in with my Konica Hexanon 28/3.5; that one worked out better in both respects.


20250531-SDIM6790 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Hexanon 28/3.5 (8-element version)

 

[Travis Butler]

The Air Zoo has four main settings.

The 'main' room is overall dim with spotlights, so has a lot of problems with both light levels and glare:


20250526-SDIM5880 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
(Had to boost the brightness a lot in PP; I was once again impressed with how well the fp does in low light, almost everything in here was ISO 1600 or above, with several at ISO 6400.)

There's the World War II room, which is much better lit but still has a lot of problems with glare:


20250526-SDIM5721 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

There's the 'space' room, which is sort of in between:


20250526-SDIM5785 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

(I give them credit for effort, especially since they're not a dedicated space museum, but there's not a lot there that's unique; it's almost all replicas and stuff like an Iron Man armor replica.)

All these are on the main campus. There's also the museum's original home building, which is now the Zoo's restoration shop, but which also houses some exhibits:


20250530-SDIM6569 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

It's not as big as the Henry Ford, but there's still a lot to go through. I did several hours at the main building on the first visit; squeezed in an hour at the restoration hangar on the second visit; and when I had a chance for a third visit, I went back to re-shoot with the Hexanon 28/3.5 as I mentioned above, plus pick up some exhibits I passed up the first time.

 

[Travis Butler]

How could I go without some more beauty shots of my founding plane?


20250526-SDIM5646 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
MD 35-70


20250526-SDIM5647 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Some flare, but more attractive to me than the OM 24/2.8's.


20250526-SDIM5655 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

Unlike the Henry Ford, the Air Zoo had good shooting angles for most of the way around the plane.


20250526-SDIM5894 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

As well as a decent top view.


20250531-SDIM6794 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Hexanon 28/3.5


20250531-SDIM6809 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

 

[Travis Butler]

The North American Aviation B-25 is another old friend:


20250526-SDIM5627 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

Just as the B-24 was produced in Willow Run, the B-25 was produced in Kansas City, building around 2/3 of the total planes at a plant at Fairfax Airport. (Although the airport was closed 40 years ago, with a GM assembly plant built over it, you can still see the runways in a satellite photo today.)


20250526-SDIM5673 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

There were a lot of B-25 variants. It was hard to call some of them 'bombers' at all; one version had a big 75mm cannon mounted in the nose, replacing the bombardier's position. This was a milder version, with 8 machine guns in the nose instead of the cannon.

20250526-SDIM5668 by Travis Butler, on Flickr


20250526-SDIM5855 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
(You can see their P-38 scale model flying in the background.)


20250526-SDIM5891 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

They did really pack the planes together at the Air Zoo, which made it hard to get photos... but I'll admit they did a better presentation than the Strategic Air & Space:


20240902-SDIM2416 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
(One of the bomber versions, with the glass nose for the bombardier.)


20250531-SDIM6831 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
I mentioned in the Willow Run posts that other museums had tributes to Rosie the Riveter; the bit in the lower-right is the kind of thing I've seen most places, which is why I was so impressed by Willow Run's Rosie exhibit.


20250526-SDIM5661 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

...you don't think it's jealous of the attention the Tomcat got in Top Gun, do you?

 

[Travis Butler]

Ah, yes, the F-14.


20250531-SDIM6822 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

I do wonder sometimes what's up with the Tomcat. Was it just Top Gun?


20250526-SDIM5847 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

Because even though it has a very distinctive look:


20250526-SDIM5871 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

Its actual service record wasn't all that distinguished. A competent plane, but not the kind of success that, say, the F-86 Sabre was, or the F-4 Phantom. The early production engines were problematic and it didn't get a really good engine until the 80s. The missile it was designed to carry, the Phoenix, was kind of a one-trick pony and was never actually successful in combat for the USAF. (Though the Iranians did use it.) It was complicated and required a lot of maintenance.


20250526-SDIM5842 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

But still the Tomcat got (and gets) a lot of attention. A few years ago, there was a question on Quora suggesting the US make a deal with Iran to get some of their F-14s back for display, since it claimed there were only 3-4 available. Which was wrong on the face of it - Wikipedia lists dozens on display - but it shows how attached some people got to it. It was used by the anime Macross as the inspiration for the transforming Veritech fighters.


20250531-SDIM6840 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

I can't say I'm immune, either, as I thought it was cool as a kid. (Though the F-104 Starfighter was and remains my standard for 'cool fighter'; we'll get to it later.)


20250531-SDIM6853 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

20250531-SDIM6863 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
(One of the few angles where I couldn't get a clear shot of it; kudos to the Air Zoo for keeping the sight lines open.)

I dunno. It certainly gets star billing at the Air Zoo.


20250526-SDIM5878 by Travis Butler, on Flickr

 

[Travis Butler]

As a side note - and to peek ahead a bit - I've been here twice before, but this was the first time I really felt satisfied with the technical quality of the pics. See this pic from 2013, and compare it to this visit:


20130615-IMGP1036 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Pentax K-01, DA 18-55


20250531-SDIM6883 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Sigma fp, Hexanon 28/3.5

Or this even earlier pic from 2000:

• OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD - C2020Z
• 6.6 mm
• ƒ/2
• 1/30 sec
• Pattern
• ISO 200

Olympus C-2020


20250526-SDIM5757 by Travis Butler, on Flickr
Sigma fp, MD 35-70