I have been to Wright-Patterson, very nice.
I was at Seattle, must have been when they first opened it up. . .it was pretty bare.
Pensacola is a good place for not only US Navy, but US Coast Guard as well (I helped restore the USCG HH52A on display)
But, by far the best I have seen was in Cadillac Michigan. . .not a museum but a WWII fly in! A B17G, a B24J, a P47, a P51, a Spitfire, 10 SNJ’s with various “make up” Best of all, you were allowed to view each aircraft up close and go inside the B17 and B24 with NO FEE!
ANGB Selfridge (MI) has a fly in airshow every other year with lots of aircraft of all eras that must fly in to participate, one exception was an Me109G being restored.
I should let you all know that the Champlin Fighter Museum near Phoenix will be no more after Memorial Day. They are going to move the entire collection to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, and they hope to have them on display for D-Day 2004. If any of you will be in Arizona before then, I strongly suggest you hightail it out to Champlin before they close it down for the big move.
An excellent museum in California is the Castle Air Force Base museum in the small town of Atwater, near Merced (between Sacramento and Fresno). They’ve got dozens of aircraft, including a B-36, a B-52, an F-104, an F-101, and others. Another good one if you’re in southern California is the one in San Diego (I forget its exact name) that has both airplanes and spacecraft. It’s in Balboa Park, not too far from the San Diego Zoo–that’ll keep the wife and kids happy!
Jim,
Thanks for the update on Champlain. About a year ago I heard it was sold to some interest in the east and that’s where it would be moving. I think that must have fallen through. Glad to know where it’s going.
Dave
I lead a sheltered life…I’ve only been to two…the Canada Aviation Museum here in Ottawa and the Canadian Warplane Heritage in Hamilton.
The C.A.M. has a very extensive collection. Once they get the second building finished they’ll be able to display their entire collection. Many of the aircraft there are capable of flight however it’s strictly a static display. Their site is at :
www.aviation.nmstc.ca
On the other hand, the C.W.H. is a smaller collection but many of the aircraft are flown regularly. If you have the desire, and the financial ability, you can go for a flight in their Lancaster. I was fortunate enough to be able to do so. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. They also sell flights in their Beech 18, Harvards, and PBY 5A Canso (Catalina to our friends south of the 49th parallel). Their site is at:
The Kalamazoo Air Zoo is a very interesting museum. They have a nice selection and they fly them for the guests. My Dad paid for a ride on a vintage Ford Trimotor! How cool is that[:D]
Here in Southern California we have Planes of Fame at Chino airport. They are a working museum and a large percentage of their planes fly. They put on a great warbird show every year ( next month, in fact ). They also give rides in many of their aircraft ( if you have the $$ to pay that is ). I live just a few miles away, so am out there fairly often. Chino airport is also home to the Yanks Air Museum, as well as two warbird restoration companies - Square One Aviation & Aero Traders. Yanks has some very unusual aiplanes - a YP-47M, and a P-51A for instance. While many of Yanks airplanes are flyable, they never do fly.
Also in So. Cal. there is the March AFB Museum, San Diego Aerospace Museum, and Palm Springs Air Museum.
In Georgia, the museum at Warner-Robbins is quite good. Tons and tons of planes! Most of them displayed outside, just parked around.
Let’s see if I can remember some of what they had there…
B-25, B-29, B-52, B-57, SR-71, C-47, Globemaster, C-119, bunch of C-130 variations, A-3, MiG 17, F-4E, F-100, F-101, RF-101, F-102, F-104, F-105, F-106, P2V Neptune, a British Lightning, and a U-2.
Inside, they have a beautiful F-15 display, a P-40, a P-47, a bunch of choppers and other aircraft. They also have a great display of models.
I haven’t been there since 1995, so a lot of things may have changed, but it certainly was an interesting place. It’s off of I-75, south of Atlanta.
The 8th AF museum near Savannah,GA. was just opening several years
ago when we visited. Small , but they had some rare equipment and
aircraft on display. Also an excellent film on the events prior to WW2
and its effect on a young boy in the USA. An 8th AF B-17 pilot from WW2
gave us a breifing and answered questions.
Fuzzy
If you guys ever go to Belgium, it’s well worth visiting the Air Museum in Brussels (in the same location you also have the Army and Tank Museum and the coolest AutoWorld museum. Entrance to the Air Museum is free. There’s some cool aircraft there, including some really rare WWI stuff, and of course many, many machines flown by rthe Belgian Air Force, from the Hanriot HD1 to the F-16. Lots of Easter European/Russian stuff nowadays too. My favourite though was always the Saab Draken…
Of all museums I have visited, these are my top five.
There’s a few I wish I could visit and hopefully will one day if I ever get close to them! Links to all these are on my website. Here goes:
USAF Mueum, Dayton, Ohio
Monino Museum VVS, Moscow, Russia
RAF Museum, RAF Hendon (London)
Musee De L’air, Paris-Lebourget
National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida
I’m waiting for the NASM to open their new facility at Dulles Airport. Once I’ve seen that, one of those top five will probably fall off the list…
When in East Central Florida, (Titusville) hit the Valiant Air Commands Warbird Museum at the Space Center Executive Airport. (Previously named Tico Airport). They have a nice museum there with a few surprises. THey have a couple of flying C-47’s and they are restoring an ME208 along with a few other projects. They also now offer flights in a T6. Its close to Kennedy Space Center as well. They have a Warbird show in March where they have a bunch of vintage aircraft fly in.
Its a nice day to walk around and you have easy access to all their displays.
I do not know what the standard for “cool” would be, but I have enjoyed the following: Tillamook Air Museum (located in the WW II airship hangers!)
and a recently started one in Fargo ND. Both are not as big as the one’s mentioned above, but they were great to visit.
I really enjoyed the 8th Air Force Musuem near Savanna just off of I-95.
A long time ago I went to one in FL. Kissimmee I think. Kind of small but they were restoring aircraft. When I was there they were doing a F4U Corsair.
Another one I liked was the aircraft carrier Intrepid docked in NY.
Castle AFB Museum near Merced California is a must visit. They have an excellant bomber collection. You can see a B-18, B-23, B-24, B-25, B-29, B-36,B-45, B-47 (last one every to fly), B-50, B-52 and a Vulcan on loan from the RAF. Lots of fighters, and transports too.
I did a virtual tour of Castle and a few others you can see on my site here:
Well, here’s one I haven’t seen anybody mention. The Hill AFB museum about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City, UT has a pretty large collection of “static” planes. I’m not sure if any are flyable, but they are in great shape. I understand that they are in the process of getting a B-24. The big one for me is that this museum is the home of the sole surviving (I believe) SR-71B.
All of the museums mentioned in this forum are good. Some others are:
Museum of Aviation, Warner-Robbins, Georgia, (south of Macon). They have SR-71, U-2C, B-52, B-29, C-124, C-130, C-121, B-25, B-26, Mig 17 and many others. Beautiful place, big enough to be very interesting and small enough to see in 1/2 day.
USAF Armament Museum, Fort Walton Beach, Fl. They have examples of most bombs and other things that go bang as well as SR-71, B-52, B-25, B-47, P-47, P-51, and many more. The front sign is mounted on a 44,000 lb iron bomb. Talk about the “big bang” theory.
Museum of the Cosmos, Liberal, Kansas. They have SR-71, other planes and much space related stuff, including Gemini and Apollo capsules.
Kalamazoo Air Museum, Michigan. They have SR-71B (they only one), and many WW-II fighters and Korean war jets. Grumman Iron works represented by F-4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat, F9F Panther and F9F Couger.
Battleship Alabama Museum, Mobile, AL. They have the USS Alabama, submarine USS Drum, A-12 (early version of SR-71), prototype F-105B, P-51, FG-1 Corsair, B-25, H-21, UH-1, F-86D, HU-16, Russian T-55 tank, etc
March AFB Museum, Riverside, California. They have SR-71, B-52, U-2C, B-47, B-25, HU-16, F-101, F-100, and many more.
Castle AFB Museum, Merced, California. They have SR-71, B-36 (1 of 4 in existence) B-52, B-47, B-25 and many more.
San Diego Naval Aviation Museum, Balboa Park, California. They have A-12, Ryan NYP replica, Mig 17, F-4 Phantom, PBY Catalina and many other Navy and AF planes.
Travis AFB Museum, Fairfield, Calfornia. They have examples of most of the cargo planes flown by the USAF since WW-II
USS Intrepid Museum, WW-II aircraft carrier in New York City with about a dozen planes on her deck including an A-12, RA-5C, FJ4 Fury, F9F Panther
To WIPW.
The SR-71 at Hill AFB, Utah museum is the one and only “C” model. It is actually the rear fuselage and nacelles from YF-12A # 06934 and the front fuselage from an SR-71 mock up. It was glued together to replace the #2 SR-71B # 17957 that was lost in 1968 at Beale AFB, CA. darwine@accessus.net
If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area try the Cavanaugh Flight Museum at Addison Airport in Addison. They have a great collection including a beautiful B-25 Mitchell, an F-4 Phantom, a Spanish-built HE-111 and Me-109, an F-86 Sabre, and much more. Very nice collection, well displayed. You can also pay and get flight in a Stearman or T-6 Texan.
If you really want to get carried away with visiting aircraft museums, get a copy of Michael Blaugher’s paperback book titled, Guide to 500 Aircraft Museum’s. It has a listing for nearly every place in the US where one or more aircraft are on display.
It lists one eaches in cities, in front of VFWs or American Legions, restaurants, etc. Some of the better hobby shops and museum gift shops carry copies or order direct from Mike. They cost about $8 or $9. The book also has an index where you can look up a particular aircraft and it will tell you all of the museums where one of this particular machine is located.
Michael Blaugher
124 East Foster Parkway
Fort Wayne, IN 46806-1730
1-219-744-1020