The Empire State Aeroscience Museum

While visiting a CVS in Scotia, NY I happened upon the Empire State Aeroscience Museum located a few miles from the store. So I had to stop for a minute and take pictures.

MiG-17 "Fresco"

A short distance from the Warbirds' flightline is a wonderful collection of aviation artifacts. The Empire State Aeroscience Museum also has an active restoration facility on its grounds where volunteers rebuild historical aircraft. If you combine a tour of the Museum with the Miniature Warbirds fly-in, you have a combination that is unique and well worth the trip to Scotia, NY.
The museum is right next to the Schenectady municipal airport and a taxiway connects it to the active runway. The Museum is housed in what was once a General Electric test facility. During WW II, GE tested the first successful jet engines at this site and later went on to develop such jet engines as the J-47, J-73 and J79. Other systems, such as the superchargers used on B-17 Flying Fortresses and fire-control system for Boeing B-29s, were also developed at this GE facility.
The U.S. government also tested the first ideas of "stealth technology" at the facility by reducing the amount of metal used on airframes, thus reducing their radar signatures. The first such aircraft to be tested was the Lockheed Gamma racer which had its metal fuel tanks replaced with ones made of fiberglass.
On display are many aircraft and aviation artifacts. Inside are dioramas of significant aviation events, mockups of antique aircraft and control systems, a replica of the interior of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra and the 28-foot-long miniature of a Japanese aircraft carrier used in the motion picture "Tora, Tora, Tora."
Outside, there's a B-25 Mitchell, a Douglas C-47, a MiG 17, an F-101, an F-105, anA-4 and an F-4 Phantom to name just a few of the display aircraft. Of particular note is the Museum's newest acquisition, an A-6 Intruder. This aircraft-almost complete, but without its engine-was saved from a bargeload of similar aircraft the U.S. Navy dumped into the ocean to produce artificial reefs! The reef's loss is the Museum's gain.

For more visit: http://www.esam.org/content.php?menu=Libraries