I’m one of those people who likes getting pictures with museum objects instead of just of them (in most cases, better photos than I can even hope to take can be purchased/downloaded elsewhere if that was all I wanted).
I was wondering if the Air Force Museum in Dayton has an environment conducive to that or if it tends to get too crowded/has too narrow of walkways/has the exhibits too close together.
I obviously wouldn’t want to inconvenience other visitors if I’d have to block a path or hold up a crowd for her to take a shot of me with [insert super awesome plane, rocket, helicopter, or spacecraft here] & I’d like to know what to expect when planning the trip.
Also, with SAM 26000 (the most recent and recognizable Air Force One that they have on display), they say you can walk through it and pictures show stairs at both the passenger doors. Is it one way (up one side, down the other, with all traffic flowing in one direction) or are there two lanes of traffic? And what’s the state of the inside? Is it gutted or can one see what it looked like during it’s heyday (which, fun fact, could also include it being gutted, depending on your definition of “gutted” and which specific day you’re talking about)?
I’m probably most excited about SAM 26000, as with that & a trip to the Reagan library, I’ll have stood in the presence of all 3 planes used as Air Force One in the modern era (the most recent of which was actually Air Force One when I saw it). Anyway, I just want to know what to expect.
Thanks in advance!
PS I wasn’t sure if this belonged here or in Cafe Society, but a quick Google search showed that a decent majority of these types of questions were posted here, so I went with that. If I chose wrong, apologies.
It’s been a few years since I’ve been. Some aircraft are outside and you can stand a good long ways back to take in the entire scene.
As Crafter_Man said, the hangars are large. But they’re also densely packed. If you have an expectation of getting a picture of a whole aircraft with nothing else intruding in the foreground or background that’s just not going to happen.
Here’s the photo gallery at the museum’s site: Photos. Notice that every interior photo is shot with a fisheye to try to get more of the aircraft into it. And every background is cluttered with other aircraft. These are the best pix their pros could do while the museum is closed and nobody else is in their way.
The very first pic happens to be somebody standing in front of 26000. Notice another thing about that pic. People are small: about 2 feet wide by 6 feet tall. Airplanes are big, anywhere from 50 to 200 feet long & wide by 20 to 50 feet tall.
You’re not going to get a pic that has both a whole airplane and a whole recognizable person in it. That’s just a fact of photography.
And definitely go on a weekday and get there at opening time. That’s how to get decent pix without lots of people intruding.
Most of the aircraft that were outside have been moved inside. They just completed the 4th hanger and it houses the presidential planes as well as the experimental planes that were either outside or in the annex (which is now closed). The SA 2600 “Kennedy” plane is a one-way walk through. Just so you know what to expect, there is plexiglass on both sides of the aisle so photography of the interior is limited.
I live in the area and just spent the last 2 weeks of rehab walking the museum for exercise. If you have a particular focus in mind I can steer you in the right direction. If you want to see esoteric interesting stuff I’ll just list what I think you’ll enjoy seeing.
I’ve been to the Air Fore Museum several times, but the last time I was there was about 6 years ago, so I’m not familiar with how it’s arranged now. You can get good photos there, but it is hard to take pictures of a whole aircraft with an uncluttered background: there almost always is another plane or two behind what you are photographing. But here are some of my photos of the museum, posted on Flickr.