I think I’ve seen all of the Apollo capsules when they went on tour after each mission. My grandfather worked at the Rockwell plant in Seal Beach, which was one of the stops on the tours of NASA contractors.
I’ve been to the museum several times, most recently during the pandemic. For me, it’s always been Bock’s Car.
Along with the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian, seeing the only airplanes that have ever deployed a nuclear weapon against people is powerful and sobering. I’ve occasionally seen Asian tourists viewing these planes, and I’ve wondered what that experience is like for Japanese people. I’d very much like to ask them, but it seems a difficult conversation to have (apart from possible language differences).
We were there for about 3 hours and barely scratched the surface. Our priorities were the Memphis Belle and the whatever plane it was that was in my brother-in-law’s command. Apparently he was there when it got donated but because he had to say something during the ceremony he didn’t get to sign it
I happily could have spent all day there.
I didn’t donate to the Museum but when you consider that I spent $85 in the gift shop, I think I donated.
We ignored the Blackbird - they have one at the Pima Air and Space Museum here in Tucson.
While we’re geeking out on air museums, the US Navy’s corresponding National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola is pretty darn good too. Not as vast as USAFs, but a great collection of both planes & stuff. Besides, Pensacola is a much better tourist destination than is Dayton. And you might get to see the Blue Angels coming or going. USAF’s Thunderbirds are at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, not Dayton.
Huntsville AL (home of Marshall Space Flight Center - NASA) has a fully assembled Saturn 5 standing by the roadside at their museum/visitor center: U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
I think it’s the tallest manmade structure in its county. Coming over the hill it’s just not the sort of thing you expect to see standing there. Surprise! Any / every US space geek should visit sometime.
Alongside I 80, just a few miles from StratCom headquarters at Offut AF Base is
Worth at least a full days visit. Nearby also is Henry Doorly Zoo (Omaha). Consistently rated the #1 zoo in the US. That alone can take 2 days to fully explore, so between them a pretty good family mini-vacation destination. You can time it right for the international college World Series if you’re a baseball fan. We call it the ‘world serious’ and have lots of fun with it.
I’ll throw in a plug for the “Open Cockpit Days” at the Castle Air Museum. I don’t know of any other place where you can get inside so many big bombers all in one day.
I discovered this museum while on a business thrip. I was so impressed with it that I brought my son to it the following year. In addition to the upright Saturn V that is outdoors (which is actually a mockup, but still very impressive), there is a “real” Saturn V in the Davidson Center. It is oriented horizontally and you can walk under it. Photos cannot do it justice; you have to see it in person to understand just how massive it is.
I’m going to suggest the Pima Air and Space Museum again. It’s smaller and privately owned but very nice. They have a Blackbird, too. Sadly they discontinued the Boneyard tour, though.
But they are affiliated with the Titan Missile Museum, which people should visit.
I noticed that too-- the SR-71 Blackbird was my favorite jet plane as a kid. Would love to see one in a museum. My wife and I have talked about doing a kayak cave tour in Kentucky one of these days-- that museum would be a nice side-trip stop.
I was lucky enough to see one fly, once. In 1986 there was a World’s Fair in Vancouver. There’s an airshow in nearby Abbotsford, and that year they had a fantastic lineup of acts and displays, including an SR-71 on static display. On the last day of the show, one of the guys told us what time the Blackbird was leaving the next day, and they might do a flyby of the Fair site. I was there with a friend, and we were waiting in line to enter one of the pavillions, but got a decent look as it flew past. I hadn’t seen any other announcement that it was going to happen, but I expect some people there got a big surprise.
This pic (not the SR-71) was taken that weekend. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hrdAdn4LlfE/sddefault.jpg
Nice!
I have been there twice, massive, massive place. If you are an aviation buff it is heaven on Earth. Look over there a B-58 Hustler, OMG a B-36!!! An Apollo command module, The X-B-70!!! A Sopwith Camel, A P-61 a PBY Catalina!! I highly recommend a long visit.
Aviation trivia to experience:
-The B36’s jet engines had inlet shutters. They could shut the engines down in flight to save fuel and close off the inlets.
-the SR-71 is a modular plane. they could swap out noses for different camera systems.
-The similar looking YF-12A was an intercept prototype. they had to cut back the chines in the nose for radar. To compensate for the flight characteristics they had to add 2 fins on the bottom along with a folding stabilizer in the back. It’s the only one left.
-The ME-262 started out as a tail dragger but the jet wash kept the elevator from working while on the ground. There’s a cutaway of the engine next to it. Look at the center of the inlet. There’s a little handle that looks like something on a lawnmower. It’s a pull-start for a small 2 cyl engine in front used to start the jet engine.
-when you walk into the hanger with the B-58 look at the desk at the entrance. There’s a little shadow box with a working example of the articulated nose gear. It has to maneuver around the hanging weapons pod.
And as a fond memory going back to the 60’s they flew an SR-71 at the air show every year until it stopped flying. It would com in from the West obscured by the Sun and then fly by as close to Mach as possible and then climb with the afterburners on. It was really something to experience.
There’s another one out front on a pedestal at
Other than that quibble, you’ve got a great list there.
That’s an A-12. A different kind of Blackbird, altogether.
There were only three YF-12s made, one crashed, one got blended into the SR-71C, and the one at Dayton.
D’oh. Thanks for correcting that. I glommed onto the “12”.
Quite right: similar but definitely not the same plane. The amount of evolution over that very short project starting w Oxcart says a lot about just how far out on the bleeding edge they were.
And about the vagaries of DoD procurement when they don’t really have any idea what they want. But they’re sure they want it bad.
Well you’re sorta right. The YF12A was developed off the A12 platform (thus the 12). I wish the Museum had an A-12 with all 3 together so you could see the difference. The single seat A-12 is shorter than the SR-71 and the chines come to a sharper point. It’s considered the sports car of the series. The other odd duck that came from the A12 is the M-21 mother ship that launched the D-21 drone. A little too ahead of it’s time.
That reminds me… the SR-71 aircraft were built with Russian titanium procured from CIA shadow companies.
On the general topic of aviation museums, I went to Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology yesterday, specifically looking to visit the Aviation Hall. It’s quite small compared to the USAF museum but it has three planes I really wanted to see: a Lancaster, a Short Sunderland and it’s passenger-carrying sibling the Short Solent. The whole museum complex is pretty neat, very much worth a stop if you’re in the vicinity.