Well, this definitely woke the air fan in me up. There is a B-52 in Darwin! At the Australian Aviation Heritage Center to be more precise. It became instantly the goal of my day, since I had never seen such a monster. I had seen the results of B-52 bombing raids in eastern Laos, near the Plain of Jars. It was very impressive, with the landscape looking like the face of capitain Castillo in Miami Vice. Funny thing though was that trees and plants were mostly growing out of bomb craters, where they could easily reach the under and more nutritive layers of the ground.
The noise of a C-17 taking off lets you know that you're right next to an RAAF Base. The hangar that serves as museum has been built specifically for the huge US bomber. Built in the late forties early fifties, it dwarfs all the other exhibits that seem to be here only to fill the gaps. Well, it may be a bit unfair, since there's a magnificent replica of a Spitfire, all kind of relics from WWII or a Bell Cobra chopper that served in Vietnam. But the main attraction is incontestably the mighty bomber. There's even free guided tours twice a day, and the guy knows the bird by heart and makes an hour fly by in a heartbeat.
