Hidden Gems Of Connecticut

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — To get to the latest Hidden Gem in Connecticut, one must pass an airport, get into a hangar and hover to a far corner of said hangar.

There, at the New England Air Museum, is something that one volunteer scholar said simply, "terrified German U-Boat crews" during World War II.

It's the Navy ZNP-K control car, an aircraft that hung below a 252-foot-long blimp used as an anti-submarine convoy escort and spotter along the North Atlantic coast. It could easily pickup up U-Boat shadows while cruising at less than 70 MPH, the scholar said.

Its Connecticut connections were Pratt & Whitney engines and Hamilton Standard propellers. It is the only one of three put into service that made it to a museum intact, the scholar said.

Here are the particulars of the ZNP-K:

(Chris Dehn el/Patch)

Oh ... and last Saturday ... when the air museum reopened, an inqisitive fourth-grader asked about the pipe in the rear of the aircraft that seemingly led to nowhere. The scholar answered it's not the end, but the beginning of the pipe that completes the question and quietly pointed to the head compartment. He then quipped, "They DID things differently in the 1940s."

That prompted a loud "ewww" from the student.

The craft later made it to the Goodyear fleet.

The New England Air Museum can be a bit tricky to find at 36 Perimeter Road in Windsor Locks, despite it being next to Bradley International Airport. Once there, visitors quickly discover it is loaded with aviation history.

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The Hidden Gems series features out-of-the-way mom and pop restaurants, small specialty stores you may have never heard of, little-known historical markers or beautiful nature spots that may be a bit off the beaten path in Connecticut.

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