The Museum will be closing early on May 31st for our Legacy of Apollo event. Final admission will be at 2:30pm with the Museum closing at 3pm.

A Horse of Course: With Planes

In looking at our images of horses, we noticed that many of them feature very rare aircraft and in unusual places.  Take for example this image of Art Smith showing a Wright airplane  from the Albert Menasco collection, which gives rare insight into aviation in Asia during hte 1910s.

A horse looks on as Art Smith prepares to give a flight demonstration in Shanghai, circa 1916

Even in the modern age of the airplane, horses can still be useful, such in the photos belong when an airplane made an emergency landing and had to be rescued by horses! 

A team of horses strain to remove this Loughead F-1A from the mud.

The early years of aviation provide a stark contrast between old and new.  Many of our horse images feature our equine friends trying to figure out if they will still be useful in the modern world. 

This horse seems startled by the sight of this Curtiss Pusher on North Island in the early 1910s.

The French soldiers in this image seem more concerned with the airplane overhead then the horses do in this image from World War One.

When one thinks of horses, it is hard not to imagine a cowboy...and with the ariplane, no ranch is too far to reach. 

This image appeared in an ad for the Ryan Navion, showing how the passenger plane can land anywhere...even in a horse corral. 

Speaking of cowsboys... upon a time, they rode on horses to round up cows.  But as these images show, the horses have been replaced by an airplane, and now the rounder uppers are now the rounded up! 

In these images from 1937, Bill Monday uses his Ryan Brougham to round up horses.

Our four legged freinds are not only keen on fixed wing aircraft, they freely associate with helicopters as well.

These images from our History of Naval Aviation collection show a Navy Sea King from Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 1 (HC-1) rescuing a horse.

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San Diego Air & Space Museum

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