Sounds fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation.

Was at Pensacola NAS last weekend (for a funeral, alas, so no museum going), but you're probably aware of the fully restored K-47 control gondola there as well as the outrigger and ruddervator of a ZPG-2.

Connecting back to our submarine thread: I wanted to see if the story ever got sorted regarding the USGC Widgeon at the museum that may have sunk a U-boat. Just now, from the museum website: By mid-1942 the German submarine war extended into the Gulf Sea Frontier. In response, the Navy increased the number of aircraft available along the Gulf Coast, including Coast Guard number V212, the aircraft currently on display in the Museum. On 1 August 1942, Aviation Chief Machinist's Mate Henry C. White and Radioman First Class George H. Boggs, Jr., took off in V212 for an antisubmarine patrol south of Houma, Louisiana. White spotted a surfaced U-boat and attacked. An expanding oil slick lent credence to the belief that the U-boat had been sunk or severely damaged. It was first thought that White had sunk U-166. Postwar analysis and the finding of wrecks on the sea floor during exploration by an oil company revealed that this was not the case. V212 only damaged U-171, which was able to continue operations.

And connecting with our main interest: Some lovely ship models; nothing CLOSE to our scale, but quite a few (perhaps fifteen?) very impressive monsters of fully loaded carriers.

It really is a first-rate museum. Highly recommended.