On the way to NSL-2018 in Geneseo, NY, from Colorado, my wife and I stopped in Dayton. Spent one and a half days at the museum. I was surprised my wife was so willing to spend that much time there. It was just a few days after the grand opening of the Memphis Belle exhibit. That exhibit alone is worth a visit. We both were amazed at how huge the museum is. I could have spent 2-3 days there, if I stopped and tried to read every storyboard.

We also timed the visit perfectly, and attended Build Night at eRockets. Lots of fun!

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

No.
Closed and gated.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

1 spent a week there in 2019.
I got to know one of the volunteers.
He had me come in after closing hours.
I got to go inside some aircraft including the XB-70.
Awesome.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

I got to sit in Robin Olds' F-4 while at the USAF Museum.
Awesome experience.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

I am a big fan of the USAF Museum, but it comes in a very close second on my list of favorite aviation museums.

Number one is the National Air and Space Museum. The facility on the Mall and Udvar Hazy together is a real national treasure. It covers military aviation, civilian aviation and space and has the most iconic and historically important aircraft and spacecraft from the U.S. on display.

Number two is the USAF Museum. A fantastic collection. The only small shortcoming is that it is USAF centric. The are a lot of fantastic historical aircraft that never served or fought against the USAF.

Number three is the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. Another amazing collection. Smaller than the USAF Museum, but has the same high quality restorations, including just about everything ever operated by the U.S. Navy.

There are lots of other great aviation museums in the U.S. and I have been to just about every major museum and a LOT of the smaller ones. For me, no single museum can the singular best, as none of them can cover everything.

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Tom Blakeney
NAR 52002 L1
AMA 28682
TRA 2150 (lapsed)

I do not see having the USAF Museum as being USAF centric as a downfall at all. I consider that an attraction.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Agree, was there June 18, 2021 and it is worth what ever you need to do to visit. Tried to take photos of everything there, well over 5-hours for my visit.

Used several GB's for photos, bring water bottles if you drink water, all the fountains were shut-down due to Covid issues.

Best museum you can visit if you like US Air Force aircraft. A few rockets standing tall as well.

Easy to get lost without one of their maps.

Items in the souvenir shop are reasonably priced. They had some awesome books I would like to have purchased, was in my very small two seat airplane and could not take much as room was already used up.

I did buy some t-shirts and small trinkets for my kids that were light weight and small.

Pay attention to the signs as you get near. Several roads were getting worked on and the traffic was stacked up a little, wouldn't want to back track if you know what I mean.

Mike

About ten years ago, over about an 8 week period I visited Wright-Patterson, Smithsonian Air and Space on the Mall, and Smithsonian Udvar Hazy. All three are fantastic and I'd have a hard time picking a favorite. I took a guided tour at Udvar Hazy - the guy was really good and knowledgeable and I even gave him a bit of a set-up when we got to the Boeing 247 - I asked 'is that the one that they ditched in Elliot Bay when they ran out of fuel?' (I knew one of those pilots - never got brave enough to ask him about it). The guide responded 'that's what I was just about talk about...'. When I got to the one on the Mall a few weeks later, I again took a guided tour - but this time the guide was clueless (I knew way more about what he was talking about, and some of what he said was flat wrong) so I quickly bailed and found my own way around.

The XB-70 is one of my all time favorite aircraft - first time I went to W-P (2003 - 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight), I was so enthralled I just wondered around for a long time before it donned on me that I hadn't seen the XB-70 - and it's big enough that even in that huge museum it would be hard to miss. So I asked at a help desk. 'Oh, that's in the Annex (glances at watch) - the last bus left about ten minutes ago'. (expletive deleted).
So when I went back, first thing I did was ask about how did we get to the annex...
I'm told that since they finished the latest expansion, all the stuff in the annex has been moved to the main museum.


That's a nice museum (it's on Ford Island in the center of Pearl Harbor) but it's not in the same class with the three I listed above. It's smaller and is mainly focused on WW II (for understandable reasons) .

That is the main reason why I visited it. Then was totally surprised when I found the X-3 there. Took several photos of both for detail work on the models I plan to design. The XB70 is amazing. The speed record holder X-15 was an added lure, I knew it was there.

All in all the X-3 was an excellent surprise. Thinking it will make a nice boost glider.

Read a book, The Lonely Sky by William Bridgeman who flew the Douglass Sky Rocket D558-II who was scheduled to fly it next, for its first flight.

The X-3 has the coolest looking windows of any X-Plane.

Mike

The last time I went, the XB-70 was still in the main museum.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !