(bright music) - Hey, guys!

Welcome to Arkansas Air and Military Museum.

My name's Laci and I'll be giving you a tour today.

Come on in.

All right, welcome to the first portion of this museum.

Up here you'll notice a proclamation.

This proclamation's talking about the first flight here in Fayetteville in 1911, just eight years after the Wright brothers flew.

I'm sure we've all heard about Amelia Earhart before, but have you ever heard about Louise Thaden?

She's from Bentonville, Arkansas and held more records than Miss Amelia ever did.

She held altitude, endurance, and speed records.

She also won the first Powder Puff Air Derby.

Welcome to the white hanger.

In this hanger, we'll get inside a Jeep, an airplane, and peek into several others.

This is our SNJ-5, or T-6, or Harvard, whatever you want to call it.

Every branch of the military and every country called it a different name.

This was often called the Pilot Maker because you make or break on this aircraft.

And these were used for training during World War II again, and these were used for aircraft carriers.

So the plane you see behind me is our Stinson S Junior.

This aircraft was built in 1931, the same year as this truck.

This is also where we get our logo from.

And it does not go very fast.

It only goes about 100 miles an hour, a very slow plane compared to the planes we fly in today.

This is the Pietenpol Air Camper.

These got very popular during the Great Depression 'cause you could order them out of Popular Mechanics for just a few dollars.

These right here are the plans for this aircraft, and you'd just build it in your backyard.

This really cool small aircraft behind me is a Piper J-3 Cub.

This aircraft was used during World War II on this airfield, and you can see this cool picture of this airplane hanger full of these things during World War II.

We estimate around 40 to 50 of those aircraft were slammed into this building for the two days this building was used by the military.

This airplane is called the Howard DGA-18K.

This airplane was used, again, for training during World War II here on this airfield.

Two cool facts about this airplane is it's actually never left this airfield, it did all of its life here, on top of the fact it's the only one left in the entire world.

They only built 70 of these and they were very common to crash, and you can see from the photo below the airplane showing it crashed here on Drake Field.

Hey, Gus.

- Hi, Laci.

- This is Gus, and he's gonna show you around the C-130 Hercules and our military hanger.

- Come on, let's go inside.

So this aircraft is what we like to consider the crown jewel of our collection.

It's a C-130H Hercules cargo helicopter made by Lockheed.

It has sentimental value to the state of Arkansas since it was finally flown by the Air National Guard down in Little Rock.

Its nickname is The War Pig, and that's in conjunction with the razorback that you see on the front.

The capability of this aircraft is quite extensive, and it could be considered the most versatile aircraft in the United States' inventory.

It can actually do loops and has been demonstrated to be able to land and take off of an aircraft carrier.

Inside, the cargo area is quite large and can fit up to 90 passengers, 64 paratroops, and you can even fold up a Black Hawk helicopter and fit it inside this aircraft.

This aircraft is used primarily for cargo purposes, to move troops, cargo, and vehicles in and out.

And the side doors can be used by the paratroopers to exit the airplane.

Also they can exit once the rear ramp is lowered and they just jump out and free fall down.

As you can see, the cockpit for a C-130H is quite a bit more complicated than the other cockpits that you've seen in the smaller aircraft.

It has four engines and four propellers.

Each of these engines is over 4,000 horsepower each.

And all these gauges tell the pilot, who sits here, the copilot, who sits there, the flight engineer, and the navigator, who sits in the back, what the airplane is doing and how the health of the airplane is as they're flying on their mission.

The new aircraft, the C-130Js, which are taking the place of the C-130Hs, which are being retired, like this one, have glass cockpits and a lot less switches and a lot less knobs.

And so, because it's simpler for the pilot and copilot to fly, they no longer need a flight engineer or a navigator in the aircrew.

- Thank you so much for visiting the Arkansas Air and Military Museum right here in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Drake Field.

Next time you're in town, be sure to swing on by.