OFF WE GO INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER!

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

Ohio in general and Dayton in particular is rich in aviation history.  The Wright brothers were born here and developed some of their flying machines in Dayton.  Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is located here as well. Today we visited the United States Air Force Museum.  

This has got to be the biggest museum we have ever visited.  Robert and Bet, friends we met on our Alaska trip, told us about this place, and am I glad they did.  The museum covers the history of flight starting with the Wright brothers and going through today's stealth bombers. It is currently in three huge hanger type buildings capable of holding an incredible number of planes - the largest being a B-52.  

The first gallery was devoted to the early years of flight through World War I.  It was amazing to think that some of those contraptions actually got into the air, much less engaged in combat.  

             

    This was  an actual military fighter - amazing!

It was also interesting to see how quickly airplane development progressed.  Those folks back then were not only brave but also very smart.  The other half of this gallery contained World War II planes in every shape and size.  

       I think this is the kind of training aircraft they used in Corsicana to train pilots for WW II

     

Every gallery was complete with thousands of historical items that helped chronicle the evolution of military flight.

The second gallery contained displays related to the World War II, the Korean War and the Viet Nam and Southeast Asia War.  Video displays gave background historical presentations which were interesting as well as informative.  We were particuarly impressed with the Prisoner of War exhibit that gave both written and video descriptions of conditions in Viet Nam POW camps. The centerpiece of the WW II collection was the B-26 Bockscar that dropped the atmic bomb on Nagasaki, and exhibits of Little Boy and FatMan - the two different types of atomic bombs.  I was surprised that they weren't larger than that.

Little Boy

     

Fat Man

               

The third gallery contained Cold War displays along with planes used in current operations.  The display about the U-2 was interesting.  It suggested that the U-2 is surprisingly still in use today.    Information about the Berlin airlift was also fascinating.  

Part of the Belin Wall

 One of the original wheels on a B-52.  As much nylon as 60 auto tires or 12,300 pair of nylon hose.

 The wheels were too large for most runways so each was replaced by 4 smaller tires. 

We studied a lot of this stuff in school so I was aware of most of the events, but this all made it very real.  The B-52, B-1 and Stealth fighters were particularly impressive both in size and design.  I've seen these planes on TV, but to see the real thing is really neat.   There is also a small gallery containing missles and rockets to employ nuclear warheads.  Again, knew they existed but got to see the real thing here.

They are planning to build a 4th gallery that will contain spacecraft, global reach aircraft and an exhibit of presidential aircraft.  Currently the museum houses on a different sight the aircraft used by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.  However, due to sequestration we were unable to visit that facility.  The proposed new gallery wil contain these planes.  My only thought about the proposed gallery was that this museum will be almost too large to see in one day.

Altogether we spent a little over 5 hours visiting this museum, and our feet were tired as we headed to our home away from home.  If you are ever in the Dayton, Ohio area, this museum is a must see.  And by the way, you can leave your checkbook at home because admission is free - my kind of price!