For Photographic Work Only

Druring the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, Jenne and I were in Ohio and part of the trip was a day long visit to the National Museum of the US Air Force. Jenne could tell you that the USAFM is like a religious pilgrimage for me. I can roam around there all day until the kick me out. In fact, about five years ago I spent two days there from open to close. The museum volunteers had to tell me the museum was closing and that I had to leave both days. Well they do have more than three-hundred aircraft, missles and space craft on display plus other artifacts to look at and photograph. Of all of the markings on all of the aircraft the the one pictured above - on a World War I plane - is one of my favorites. What a great use for an aircraft.

The aircraft in the photo is a De Havilland DH-4.

The below is for the real aircraft geeks and tech heads that visit my site. Lynn, you might want to tell The Hub about it.
From the USAF Museum web site:
The DH-4 was an ever-present element of the US Army Air Service both during and following World War I. When the US entered World War I in April 1917, the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps only had 132 aircraft, all obsolete. Modeled from a combat tested British De Havilland design, the DH-4 was the only US built aircraft to see combat during World War I. During World War I, the Air Service used the DH-4 primarily for day bombing, observation, and artillery spotting. The first American-built DH-4 arrived in France in May 1918, and the 135th Aero Squadron flew the first DH-4 combat mission in early August. 1,213 DH-4s were delivered to France by war's end.
With few funds to buy new aircraft in the years following World War I, the US Army Air Service used the DH-4 in a variety of roles, such as transport, air ambulance, photographic plane, trainer, target tug, forest fire patroller and even as an air racer. In addition, the US Post Office operated the DH-4 as a mail carrier.
The DH-4 also served as a flying test bed at McCook Field in the 1920s, testing turbosuperchargers, propellers, landing lights, engines, radiators, and armament. There were a number of notable DH-4 flights such as the astounding New York to Nome, Alaska flight in 1920, the record breaking transcontinental flight in 1922 by Jimmy Doolittle and the first successful air-to-air refueling in 1923.
1,538 DH-4s were modified in 1919-1923 to DH-4Bs by moving the pilot's seat back and the now unpressized gas tank forward, correcting the most serious problems in the DH-4 design. A further improved version was the DH-4M whereby over 300 DH-4s received new steel tube fuselages.
By the time it was finally retired from service in 1932, the DH-4 had developed into over 60 variants.
The reproduction DH-4B on display is marked as a photographic aircraft used by the 12th Observation Squadron in the early 1920s to take pictures of the U.S.-Mexico border and potential emergency landing sites.

SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 43 ft. 6 in.
Length: 30 ft. 6 in.
Height: 10 ft. 4 In.
Weight: 3,557 lbs. loaded
Armament: Two .30-cal. Marlin machine guns in the nose and two .30-cal. Lewis machine guns in the rear; 322 lbs. of bombs
Engine: Liberty 12 of 400 hp.
Cost: $11,250
Crew: Two - Pilot and observer/gunner

PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 128 mph.
Cruising speed: 90 mph.
Range: 400 miles
Service Ceiling: 19,600 ft.