Had a chance yesterday to go to the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio. If you haven’t been there you should plan on finding the time to go. I live about 2 hours away in Indiana and try to make the trip once a year anyway here is some photos I took while I was there, they aren’t the best since all I have is my cellphone but it has a perty good camera in it. Thanks for looking.
Nice pics, Rambo. I’m like you and live two hours away. Haven’t been there for a few years. I will be going this fall to see the “Belle” and the new hangar.
I’ve only been there once, back in 1970. My Father too me there just before the draft made me join the Air Force. It was very different then. Many of the aircraft were kept outside and you could touch them, walk into the bomb bays of the B-17 and B-25, go up a maint stand and see inside the flight deck of the B-36. The A-1 was mounted on a concrete platform just inside the entry point which was a gate in the chainlink fence.
The B-24 was sitting a short distance away on a gravel area next to s flat car holding the XF-85 Goblin. They had a few aircraft tucked under the XB-70 which towered over almost everything except the B-36. A long time ago I posted shots I took on my visit. Several shots I took inside the old building didn’t come out for some reason.
When I was in the 5th F.I.S. at Minot in the mid 80s I had to hit up all the pliots and anybody else i could find for donations for the ocnstruction of the buildings they have now.
A number of years ago we had a couple of programs with Wright Pat that required monthly progress meetings at the base. So I got to visit the base each time. Meetings were usually in the mornings, finished several hours before return flight. I gave a good going over of almost every inch of that museum.
There is a neat history of the base. I can’t find my copy at the moment, but it covered almost every major R&D effort at the base.