National Museum of the United States Air Force

[cavuman1]

We are fortunate to know a young gentleman who is a Captain in the U.S.A.F. He is currently stationed at Wright-Patterson A.F.B. in Dayton, Ohio. (We live an hour south of this base.) Our friend has offered to act as a docent for a full day or two of personally guided tour. How can I say no?

My questions are these: have any of you visited this facility, which I believe is a veritable cathedral to military aviation? Having spent weeks at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - an extraordinary place which is supposedly the most visited archive on Earth - I surprise myself in that I haven't made it to Dayton.

My second question concerns health issues. I suffer from C.O.P.D. and my wife from Multiple Sclerosis. Neither of us can walk great distances. Does the museum allow wheelchairs/spaz chariots? Would a day or two be sufficient to inspect and drool over the astounding array of aircraft hangared there?

Most importantly, is there beer for Civvies on base?

Thank you in advance for your response!

- Ed :ok:

[megan]

Have visited and could have spent a week or more, if you're an anorak you would probably say the same, just so much to see. They have a limited supply of wheelchairs and advise you should bring your own. See,

Visitors with Disabilities (http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Questions/Disabilities.aspx)

No beer, sorry.

https://www.afmuseum.com/dining

Enjoy your visit. :ok:

[cavuman1]

After my initial post, I had an uncharacteristic moment of brilliance and decided to visit the museum's website. WOW! 1,000,000 sq. ft. of indoor displays! As referenced in your kind answer, wheelchairs are available, but no beer! :{

I see what you mean about taking a week - perhaps I will start with the virtual tour offered online.

- Ed ;)

[Herod]

Now I know why they call us Limeys. I'm green with envy!! Enjoy.

[Liffy 1M]

Here are some photos that I took on a visit a few years ago.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/albums/72157629941448218

[b1lanc]

Do enjoy. There is so much to see and read. The enormity of some of the aircraft is also amazing (B-2, Valkyrie, B-36 come to mind). I expected I'd spend most of my time in the WWII area but interestingly have spent most of my time in the early aviation and cold war sections. My only regret (Note to USAF) is that there is not an exhibit for the Women's Airforce Service Pilots. If they can have an exhibit on Bob Hope (not to take anything away from his stellar dedication to our military), they darn sure should have a WASP exhibit.

[snooky]

I visited last year. A truly amazing place but I was exhausted after a full day. It's worth going just to see the XB 70, the USA certainly know how to do things when it comes to military museums.

[ORAC]

The National Museum of the Air Force took a hit from a suspected tornado. It hit the restoration building and did some nasty damage.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrightpattafb/albums/72177720315118225/


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1024x683/image_44dfeab7bc26a40b8bc05550537eb42845d33e81.jpeg


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/918x612/image_dd745df2c1ca705ad9232279930da8b8c0fcda45.png


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/800x559/image_e23bd88ed883c3d05f43f7f9e50afab748970e97.jpeg

[Quemerford]

I think the T-33, TF-104 and A-26 were in poor shape prior to the big kablooey, so hopefully everything else was OK.

[TURIN]

"spaz chariot"
Not heard that used for years!

[Liffy 1M]

That looks more like a storage hangar, with aircraft inside. I could make out an F-15 (Streak Eagle?), the XB-42 Mixmaster and/or XB-43 Jetmaster and a helicopter (UH-12?) - hope no serious damage to anything in there.

[treadigraph]

Yeah it's a row of five hangars to the east of the exhibition area.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YqNzW59Je1EFUPrC7

[tdracer]

At one time, one of those 'storage' hangers was part of the museum with several unique (and irreplaceable) aircraft such as the one surviving XB-70 and several former Air Force One aircraft.

It's been quite a while since I was there, and I'd heard they'd expanded the main museum and moved much of the stuff from the annex to the main museum - but I don't know how much. I hope that the hangers that were hit were not the annex and/or it didn't do meaningful damage to the aircraft inside...

[Innominate]

That looks more like a storage hangar, with aircraft inside. I could make out an F-15 (Streak Eagle?), the XB-42 Mixmaster and/or XB-43 Jetmaster and a helicopter (UH-12?) - hope no serious damage to anything in there.

I visited last March and was fortunate to get a "backstage tour" via contacts. The building with the Mixmaster is used for restoration as well as storage. One of the volunteers had spent ages sorting tens of thousands of nuts and bolts by size and type; I hope the storage cabinet has remained in place - it would certainly have been heavy enough!

[India Four Two]

The last stop on my "Round the World, Get Away from the Prairie Winter" trip is Dayton. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Level bust]

We're planning to visit in September, sounds like 1 day is not going to be enough!

[Liffy 1M]

There is a good overview here of some of the aircraft not on public display. Some may eventually be restored, but others have already been displayed and have been returned to storage for one reason or another.
https://vintageaviationnews.com/aviation-museum-news/whats-store-national-museum-us-air-force.html