How Many Air/Ship/Armor/Car Museums Have You Visited, And Where?

General Discussion FSM Ready Room
1

HI, folks. Based on another thread, I thought it would be interesting to see how many museums you folks have ever visited.

I’ve been to:

Museum Of The US Air Force (at least, I think that’s what it’s called now…) Dayton, Ohio

Naval Air Museum Pensacola, FL

Tennessee Air Museum Pigeon Forge, TN

Grissom Air Museum Peru, Indiana (they’ve got a B-58 on display there)

Air Force Armament Museum Eglin Air Force Base, Florida

Corvette Museum Bowling Green, Kentucky

Cherry Point Air Museum Havelock, NC

Museum Of Flight Seattle, WA

There’s a few more to add, but I just called out to work. I’ll update later. Hope we get a lot of resonses to this!

Gary

2

Aberdeen Proving Grounds.Mayland

Intrepid Air and Space,NYC

San Diego Air and Space

Submarine Museum,Groton

Smithsonian Air and Space,Washington

The Constitution,Boston

The Constellation,Baltimore

Battleship New Jersey,Camden

Gettysburg Battlefield

Fort McHenry

More on the bucket list for sure

3

During my trip to Great Britain last May I was able to visit the beautiful British cruiser HMS Belfast in London.

But I had such a great time at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, near Cambridge.

What an awesome museum ! Plenty of tanks and aircrafts and land vehicles and stuff, you can easily spend entire days there.

I’ve also been to the Ottawa Canadian War Museum, which is very cool too.

4

Of those that apply to this list, only the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH and the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, ME. Many are on my list to visit- but for those who don’t know Owls Head specializes in early 20th Century machines- and most are in operating condition including the airplanes.

Dave

5

Smithsonian Air and Space, Washington

Deutsches Museum, Munich

Royal Arsenal, London

Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution, Beijing

The Constitution, Boston

Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, Oslo.

Wasa, Stockholm

Presidio of Monterey Military Museum

The National World War Two Museum, New Orleans

Maritime Historical National Park, San Francisco

Mariner’s Museum, Newport News

USS Pampanito/ Jeremiah O’Brien, San Francisco

Whaling Museum of Nantucket

Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland

National War Museum, Edinburgh

Musee De L’Armee, Paris

Harrah’s Collection, Reno CA

Arizona Memorial

Plymouth Plantation (Mayflower replica)

Mystic Seaport, Dayton, Gettysburg, Waterloo, Cutty Sark, Victory and Uder Hazy are on the bucket list.

6

Holy Cripes, GMorrison! That is one impressive list! That’s a lot of traveling…

7

Ok, to continue my listing:

Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Washington, DC

Aberdeen Proving Grounds Museum Aberdeen, Maryland

Royal Arsenal London, England

Royal Swedish Flight Museum Linkoping, Sweden (this is an AWESOME museum!! Put it on your bucket list. It’s the small town where SAAB is based)

Hill Air Force Base Utah

Barksdale Air Force Base Louisiana

That’s all I can remember for now. Thanks for all the posts so far, guys!

8

Oops. Forgot the outdoor museum at Hurlburt Field (home of Air Force Special Ops and the AC-130s), which is about halfway between Pensacola & Panama City Beach, FL.

9

Hard for me to walk by one without going in. You never know when you’ll be back.

Forgot McLellan in Sacramento.

10

GMorrison - quite the list and the appropriate attitude!

Let’s see, but not too many.

USAF Museum in Dayton,

Patton Museum of Armor at Ft Knox,

USS Alabama and the aviation museum adjacent,

USS Texas

Naval Aviation, Pensacola

A roadside Graveyard no longer there near Jacksonville Fl area.

Small naval (a destroyer and sub, I think) in the same area as the Texas,

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (u-505)

Oshkosh - and behind the scenes

Lyle.

11

That is the exact same logic that I use. Never know when you’ll be back, and never know what you might see. The Charlotte airport supposedly has a nice air museum, but I have yet to make it to that one. Work seems to get in the way at the most inopportune times… I’m gonna try to get to that one this spring or maybe summer.

12

Oops- thanks to the replies I remembered:

Gettysburg battlefield

USS Midway, San Diego

Part of the wall that overlooks the St Lawrence River, defending the old part of Quebec City (some of the guns were still in place when I was there in the late '80s)

Fort Knox, Prospect, ME- overlooking the Penobscot River

Dave

13

Reno Air Races, but that’s not really a museum.

I did see Glacier Girl though, along with all of the other “heavy metal”

14

Just remembered:

USS North Carolina Battleship (+ all the little ships and submarine next to it) Wilmington, NC

USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier Charleston, SC

Fort Macon Morehead City, NC

15

Are the Reno Air Races still active? I am under the impression that the race doesn’t happen anymore, but I don’t know where I heard that. I would love to see that race, though…

16

Here in the UK

Hendon RAF museum

Imperial War Museum in london mostly ground based exhibits

Imperial War museum at Duxford just outside Cambidge (the usa air momorial wall - a bit like the Vietnam wall) that lists the aircew lost in WW2

Cosfod air museum - attached to Hendon and the main restoation center

Coventry air museum a small private museum where I managed to get inside a Vulcan bomber, F- 104

F-4 and mig 21

Bovindon Museum - which is the home of the Royal Tank regiment - if you are a afv fan it’s absoulote heaven they have got the first ever prototype called Little Willy several WW! tanks (about 6 I think) all the way up to modern day equipment. As you have to drive past the training area you never know what you could see.

17

They do indeed still run.

There was the bad crash in 2011, but there were some safety measures taken and the races are every September. I last went in 2010.

It’s a real lot of fun. Spring for the pit passes if you go it’s essential.

Along with all of the overachiever Bearcats and Mustang modifieds I saw an FW 190 and a Wildcat in the air, never thought I would see that.

Got inside a Vulcan?

I am truly envious there’s one in California I think out at Castle AFB but I haven’t been there yet. So many museums so little time.

18

Simon, did you know that at the Duxford IWM there is a Land Warfare Hall, with a bunch of armored vehicles of all types and era ?

My girlfriend said that I grinned like a young boy seeing gifts under the Christmas tree when I entered the building !

Also, when I was there they were actually filming the upcoming movie Monuments Men (almost went for a coffee with George Clooney (joking), but when she learned that, it was my girlfriend turn to grin like a teen ! [:D])

19

I have been to a few over the years-

Planes of Fame- Orange County Airport (long since closed)

San Diego Air and Space Museum

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Smithsonian Air and Space

Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry

Ft DeRussy Museum Hawaii

Ft Benning Infantry Museum

Ft Polk Museum

Ft Irwin collection

Ft Lewis Museum

Deutsches Museum Munich

Dachau Barracks Museum/Memorial

Camp Chitose collection Hokkaido Japan

Camp Roberts Museum

Museum of Flight, Seattle

El Toro MCAS Museum (now closed)

March AFB Museum

McClellan AFB Museum

George Patton Memorial Museum, Desert Training Center

Chino Planes of Fame Museum

and while not really a museum per se, the Edward AFB open houses used to be like going to a museum… incredible stuff there on display on the flight lines, in the hangers, and in the air…

Arizona Memorial- Pearl Harbor

US WWII Submarine Memorial, Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station

20

Ft. Knox, Ky : Patton Museum[^o)]

Ft. Sheridan Museum , Illinois ( now long closed )

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago…not strictly an aircraft museum…but does have a Spitfire mkI and Ju-87B STUKA[:P]

Illinois Railway Museum

First Army Museum, Cantigny

Volo Auto Museum, Volo, Illinois…for Batmobile, Dragula, Batboat, plus military armor display

Don’t seem to be able to locate a Manstein museum

Visited various American Civil War battlefields during my enlistment in the Federal Cavalry

I don’t have much time for travel lately so museum visits have suffered [:'(]