Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – Seattle to Dayton
Part 3 – Dayton
Part 4 – National Museum of the United States Air Force
Part 5 – Dayton to Seattle
Part 6 – Conclusion
This museum was pretty much the whole reason I came to Dayton. It is apparently the largest aviation museum in the world (definitely the USA for sure) and has a very amazing collection of rare planes and exhibits. One thing that is unique is that the collection is made up of a very limited amount of planes from outside of the US. The museum rules is “if we flew it or fought it, it’s here” which means you don’t see a lot of non airforce aircraft.
The sheer size of the museum blew me away when I arrived. Three giant hanger sized buildings in the main complex, and outdoor air park, plus two more hangars on base at Wright Patterson. When I got there at around 930 it was pretty quiet but the crowds were coming quickly. I hadn’t really planned what to see ahead of time or anything was just going to take it as it came. Entry was free and the tours were free which was a mega bonus, I just had to control myself in the gift shop.
As the weather was pretty crappy to begin with I decided to cover the air park first just in case the weather got worse. Outside in the Air Park is pretty much where some of the bigger items are, not sure why these are out here but you have aircraft like the C-141 Starlifter. The one on exhibit is infact the Hanoi Air Taxi which was the last one ever flown and actually went into Hanoi to pick up the last of the POWs after the Vietnam War.
You also have the EC-135 Aria. The Aircraft used to track the Apollo rockets and space program. Its unique cause of its big snoopy styled nose! This thing just looks funny and you can’t help but not like looking at it.
One other thing they have outside in the Air Park is actually a full size replica of a WW2 Control tower and base set up with a few buildings as well. This totally shocked me at how small these facilities were compared to modern towers.
With the airpark out of the way I headed around to the main entrance, past the Memorial garden where there were hundreds of memorials set up to comemorate the fallen.
When I came in I saw a big line for limited tickets so I jumped in it not 100% sure what it was for but after a bit of deduction turns out it was to head over to the base to see the two hangars over there. The Presidential Aircraft Gallery and the Research & Development Gallery. Aka the goodies. I will let someone of the pictures talk for themselves but there was so much going on in these hangars. (full album link in final part of the trip report)
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| From USAF Museum |
My highlights were the XB70 Valkyrie which is the only remaining example left in the world.
The YF12 the prototype they would eventually lead to the A12 and the SR71 (my favorite aircraft).
SAM 26000 which was the first jet “Air Force One” and was the aircraft that took Kennedys body home after his assassination.
I could of spent hours in those two alone as you can get up close and personal with the aircraft. Your not meant to touch (hah like you wouldn’t) the exhibits but I did, just one, the YF12 just cause if I didn’t I would hate myself forever. You only get about an hour in total at the hangars before your back on the bus to the main museum. Upon returning it decided to head to a local grocery store for some lunch supplies for a picnic in the air park.
My lunch in the park was good, there was heaps of people doing similar and gives a good alternative to the museum food as you can’t take anything into the museum, not even water. So if you want to have a nice break a picnic is a good idea. My entertainment was plenty of people watching, always interesting at an aviation museum.
Upon returning into the museum I actually joined the free tour they offer but when I asked how long it went for it thought he misheard me when he replied “it should finish around 4pm”. It was scheduled to start at 130pm. He wasn’t far off being right. I ended up leaving the tour at almost 2 hours in after the WW1 & WW2 galleries and there was still way more to go. My estimate would very 530ish.
The tour (at least what I did of it) was great, I learnt a bit, got good history into the specific examples of the aircraft on show. A lot of the stuff in these galleries I already knew about but I still enjoyed it. The few things I really enjoyed seeing was the B24 Liberators which I had not ever seen a real example of before (I don’t think anyway) and didn’t realize how low to the ground they are.
The big drawcard for the WW2 gallery in my opinion is Bockscar. The B29 Superfortress that dropped the 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki. I had seen Enola Gay before and this closed out that series. I had to get a photo of me with it, to compliment the one of me and the Enola Gay almost 4 years ago.
After I left the tour in the Southeast Asia gallery (aka Vietnam & Korea) I was pretty Damn tired so just grabbed photos of all the stuff I could think of. I did the same in the Cold War Gallery next door. I was just to tired to finish the day off to late.
Out of both the last two areas I loved seeing the F4 and the Century series aircraft, like the F100, the F104 or 105.
But I was there to hunt down some rare stuff. The F82 Twin Mustang, the F111 for a blast of home, The SR71 cause I never Tire of seeing them and the F117 stealth. All these aircraft just made the whole trip worth it to me.
By the time I left the final gallery is was beat. It’s definitely somewhere you could easily spend 2 days seeing everything on offer, 1 day is just to rushed to fully immerse yourself in the experience and not rush through it. Even though I wasn’t there open to close, you would need that to do it in one day.