The Grissom Air Museum is located at the edge of Grissom Air Reserve Base, formerly Grissom Air Force Base and, prior to May 12, 1968, Bunker Hill Air Force Base. Bunker Hill was renamed Grissom AFB in honour of Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Indiana native and the second American astronaut into space, who had perished in the Apollo I launch pad fire on January 27, 1967. This museum has approximately 20 aircraft on outdoor display that reflect both the base’s rich history and that of the USAF in general. The indoor museum contains a number of artifacts related to the 305th Bomb Group and the AVG, among other subjects, and has some interesting artifacts, including a Phantom cockpit that you can sit in.

Grissom’s draw for me can be summed up in one word: Hustler. In its heyday in the 1960s, the 305th was one of only two supersonic bomber units in the world, flying the Convair B-58A Hustler. The Hustler on display at the museum, a rare TB-58A trainer, is the oldest Hustler in existence, and one of the most significant. As part of the testing for the B-58 program, this plane, the fourth prototype, became the first bomber in history to release weapons at Mach 1 and then Mach 2. I would have loved to have visited this base back when B-58s were flying out of it.

The museum’s aircraft are mostly USAAF or USAF types, with a few exceptions (perhaps the most unusual is a NAMC YS-11 Japanese-built turboprop commuter plane, which visitors can go into). The planes run the gamut from World War II types such as the B-17 and B-25 through to such Cold War classics as the B-47 and KC-97 to several Century Series planes (including an F-100, F-101B, and F-105D) and some more recent planes, including an A-10A and an O-2A. Although all of the museum’s aircraft are on outdoor display, they are in remarkably good condition. The relatively benign climate (at least to a Canadian!), coupled with a program whereby local groups sponsor and take care of aircraft, seems to account for this.

The Gold Museum was established 20 years ago and prided itself on possessing one of the largest collections of pre-Columbian gold in the world. However, in July, after more than four months of tests carried out by specialists at the Catholic University of Peru, the museum was examined by the Instituto de Defensa de la Competencia y la Propriedad Intelectual (Institute for the Defense of Competition and of Intellectual Property, or Indecopi).

In fact, since the 1980s Indecopi has been suspicious about the authenticity of the collections in the Gold Museum. The first reports suggested that 85% of the metal pieces on display were fakes. In August, the cultural commission of the government also looked into the scandal. Sanctions, which have not yet been imposed, could consist simply of a threat to prosecute, but there could also be direct legal action. The museum might, for example, be forced to publicize the fact that of “4,349 metal pieces analyzed, 4,237 are false and more than 100 have aroused strong suspicions concerning their authenticity”.