US Air Force Museum

On Friday, September 14, we visited the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

We called as we were on our way to the museum and were told to park at the end of the lot. There was an Air Force Blue Bird bus right next to us!

The museum was HUGE. We did not see even half of it.

We started in the wing with early airplanes.

A replica of the Wright Flyer

Early government interest in flying

While we were viewing the exhibits in that area, there was an announcement that there would be a docent guided tour in the 3rd building, so we left the early flight area and headed to the guided tour regarding the Cold War era.

One of the first things that the docent told us about was the Berlin Airlift

Some of the flyers threw out bags containing candy to children waiting on the ground near the airport.

After the information on the Berlin Airlift, the docent took us into the "terminal" building to see representative display units of many of the airplanes from this era.

Planes on the ground, planes in the air, planes everywhere!

This was the original landing gear planned for the B-36J Peacemaker

Unfortunately, the weight requirements on such a small footprint was not usable on the runway pavement of the airfields.

 

The docent pointed out the landing gear on this smaller airplane - no room inside for big wheels and tires, so instead it has 8 wheels/tires per gear to distribute the weight.

The B-36J Peacemaker replaced the single large wheeled landing gear (on the left) with 4 smaller wheels per gear (on the right, attached to the plane).

We also saw large missiles that contributed to the nation's defensive arsenal.

The docent-led tour was not quite over, but Dwayne wanted to see one of the movies that was offered at the museum, and I had enjoyed about all I could at the museum, so we left the tour...

I went out to Miss Doozie where I enjoyed relaxing in the air conditioning with the cats and restoring my hard drive as my computer once again would not boot up :-( 

After the movie, Dwayne visited a new exhibit at the museum, on the Memphis Belle.

I tried to take a picture of the front of the museum but didn't get the whole name... and I decided I was too hot to make the additional walk over to be able to get the whole name in the picture!

Someone had brought their own airplane with them!

Dwayne pointed out that we could tow an airplane behind Miss Doozie instead of the Jeep! I suggested it might not be very practical...

If you're in Dayton, a few days to visit the Air Force Museum would be a great way to get information about this area of our military!