TSG's Ironclad Contact

 On the itinerary today, a visit to the very cool USS Cairo in the Vicksburg National Military Park

Tony's B-29 Engine

 Today we stopped in to check out Tupelo's Veterans Museum and met the museum's owner/curator Tony Lute  (seen below in the personally autographed museum pamphlet)

Showing me around a bit, he pointed out his most impressive item, a Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engine from a WWII B-29 bomber

Tony related the story of how he acquired the engine. One day he was talking to a friend and mentioned he would really like to have a radial aircraft engine, and through some sort of nudge-nudge-wink-wink collector's grapevine network, two weeks later the engine arrived on the back of a large truck. 

I asked Tony if he knew the provenance of the engine. He didn't know which plane it might have come from, but he did say that the Commemorative Air Force wanted to buy it from him as a replacement engine for their touring, still-flying B-29 Fifi. (The Wright-Cylones were notoriously unreliable) He turned down their offer of $100,000,even when they offered to include a non-functioning engine as a "trade-in". 

Anywho, we talked for a bit more and I thanked him for the personal tour before heading on down the road. If you ever find yourself in Tupelo TSG highly recommends a visit to check out Tony's awesome collection of military memorabilia.

Elvis Has (Not) Left The Building(s)...

 ...at least not in the buildings we were in today.

Memphis TN / Tupelo MS