The fine folks at the Pacific Aviation Museum treated the Bytemarks gang to a lunch and tour of their Ford Island Control Tower as well as the aircraft museum. The Control Tower was used in certain scenes in the movie Pearl Harbor to recreate the attack on December 7th, 1941. The tower itself is a real historic building from World War II and is in the middle of an ongoing restoration effort.
The aircraft in the museum are the real gems of the place. If you happen to be an aviation geek or history buff, I can guarantee that you will not want to pass up a trip to this slice of American history.
I recently had the opportunity to take a tour of the Sea Based X-Band radar ship, or SBX-1 as it is called. It is a large radar mounted on what would have been a oil drilling platform. SBX-1’s mission is to detect and discriminate incoming ballistic missiles so that they can be shot down by the U.S.’s Ballistic Missile Defense System. Although it is currently docked in Pearl Harbor, it has been deployed recently during North Korea’s missile test.
The Bytemarks gang as we were about to climb up the 151 steps to the deck of the SBX-1
151 steps is definitely not the kind of commute I would want to do every day. Our guide, Lt. Col. Steve Braddom, said that the crew has the option of going ashore but I’d guess they keep that to a minimum.
The SBX-1 is now in a limited test support role and will remain in Pearl Harbor unless it needs to be re-activated. The original intent of the ship was to go wherever it is needed in the Pacific theatre and be stationed in Alaska. However, SBX-1 was moved to Hawaii for budget reasons. The maintenance in lower in places that don’t freeze I suppose.
Up close with the radome of the SBX-1. Believe it or not, the dome is an inflated structure being supported by air pressure alone.
The most intriguing part of the tour was when we went inside of the radome, the inflatable dome that surrounds the radar. The radome can protect the radar from winds of at least 130 m.p.h. It’s remarkable since the difference in air pressure inside the dome was only about 1.5″ of water higher than the outside. Call it about 0.05 psi.
