Up, Up and Away

by Scott Feldman

Looking for a really fun and exciting activity for the holiday weekend? It's as close as the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport in Farmingdale. They've got a wonderful hangar full of vintage military planes and exhibits. And, if you'd like to go airborne, check this out. You can hitch a ride in a B-17 or B-24 for $425, tax deductible. If you are willing to really splurge, how about a half hour in a P-51 Mustang fighter for $2,220. An hour will cost you $3,300, also tax deductible. Admission to the Airpower Museum is 15 dollars for adults. Seniors and veterans, $10. Children 5 to 13, $5. The museum is open from 9 to 5pm.

I was at the museum on Friday for a story on Dr. Roscoe Brown, who makes his summer home in Sag Harbor. He's 86 years old. And a former Tuskegee Airman. Dr. Brown, a former college president and professor, got to co-pilot a P-51 Mustang fighter, the same kind of plane his famed squadron flew during World War II, as they protected B-17 bombers over Berlin in 1945. Brown flew 86 missions and shot down two German jets. The Tuskegee Airman were groundbreaking black aviators with an outstanding record of never having lost a single bomber they were assigned to. Dr. Brown told me, "by our excellence, we changed the hearts and minds of men. Just the way Martin Luther King Junior did and Barack Obama is doing today."