Scooted to the Air Force Museum

[Stig / Major Tom]

 The National Museum of the United States Air force.
Located on a portion of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH - this museum is maybe 30 miles away from my home.
I rode the Burgman 400 there Saturday...with my family following in the car. (the museum has a well looked after cycle parking area)

This museum is open to the public, admission is free, it is clean & well supervised. The staff are friendly and informative. There are a couple of lunch counter areas, and quite a few places to sit down - which is handy now that they've recently opened the 4th huge hanger full of planes.

That 4th hanger houses a few presidential planes, (Roosevelt, Truman, Ike) including the one which took Kennedy to Dallas, and back .... - all of which you can walk through.

(Roosevelt's plane has an elevator cut in the plane's belly  to board him in his wheel chair.)





After going through security there is a large gift shop...

















Bing up pictures of the museum. The scope of what is on display in this museum is amazing. We paid for the hardware on display - donations paid for the museum.
I've been there maybe 75 times over the past 35 yrs, as a hospital tour director and as a citizen. It never fails to impress me or teach me something. If you had a week, you might see & read it all.
Stig

[MJR]

That looks like such a cool place to wander around. Is that a B58 Hustler in the top photo? I've never seen one in person. My personal favorite will always be the SR-71.

[CROSSBOLT]

Really fantastic pictures! Must be HUGE hangars to have the likes of B-52's and a B-36 in 'em!

Karl

[Snorvey]

The plane in the top picture (i.e. the one in front of the hangars) looks like an F16.

[MJR]

The plane in the top picture (i.e. the one in front of the hangars) looks like an F16.

Yes it looks like a F-16 in the very top photo but not in the top photo I reposted, I should have said that, sorry. This is a B-58 Hustler.

[GLV55]

Drooling over all the fantastic planes. Dang, I could spend a month there, heck, I could live there. My idea of heaven!

[CROSSBOLT]

First B-58 I saw was Vietnam. Second was at the Pima Air Museum, Tucson, AZ, outside, with flat tires. Third I was advised of a B-58 at my 10 o'clock crossing. I told center I would be looking for that since the last I had seen was at the Pima Air Museum with flat tires. That turned out to be a Beechcraft model 58. Oh, well.....

Karl

[MJR]

Found the Wiki page, OMG they have all the cool stuff including a XB-70 Valkyrie! You'll notice other cool items like the X-15 and a lifting body like the one that crashed in the intro to the TV show Six Million Dollar Man. I have to go just don't know when I can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_the_United_States_Air_Force
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

[Stig / Major Tom]

Found the Wiki page, OMG they have all the cool stuff including a XB-70 Valkyrie! You'll notice other cool items like the X-15 and a lifting body like the one that crashed in the intro to the TV show Six Million Dollar Man. I have to go just don't know when I can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_the_United_States_Air_Force
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

This XB-70 sat in front of the museum for years. I used it , and the B-52, for cover from summer rains when walking outside.
Sign said they made two; the other crashed on a test flight.
The Hustler was my fav. model plane when a kid - and even though my Dad was a 30 yr Air Force flight officer - I never saw the plane in the air.

Was walking outside one day when an F-117 made a very low pass over the museum - it was low enough and loud enough to set off dozens of car alarms in the massive parking lot.

The displays range from first flights, several WWI planes and through all the wars to date.

When they first displayed the B-2 Stealth - it had very dramatic dark lighting and a set powerful speakers under the wing tip , playing this song on a loop :

This didn't last too long - probably some feisty aircrew members rigged it up. Impressive though, before politically correct powers had it removed.

Stig

[MJR]

This XB-70 sat in front of the museum for years. I used it , and the B-52, for cover from summer rains when walking outside.
Sign said they made two; the other crashed on a test flight.

Yes I has seen the video footage, apparently a chase plane (F-104) go too close and sadly it was destroyed.

[CROSSBOLT]

Remembered and liked the song. The collision and crashes not so much. Formation flying is essential for all branches of military. How could this happen?

Karl

[ole two wheels]

The Viet Cong called the B52 silent death because they would fly 6 miles up and unless they weren't in a clearing where they could see the contrails , they couldn't hear them and the first thing they knew was all hades broke loose. I love anything with wings, thanks Stig


Mac

[Snorvey]

Was walking outside one day when an F-117 made a very low pass over the museum - it was low enough and loud enough to set off dozens of car alarms in the massive parking lot.

I always knew it's stealth capabilities were massively overrated.