USA air museums to visit
 

Assuming a modest budget and a 2 week time frame, what air museums on mainland USA would be worth visiting? Would be prepared to cross the country as required. Obvious choices would be USAF in Dayton, Steven F.Udvar-Hazy Center and Smithsonian, Davis Monthan. Any hidden gems or slightly off track/beat places to be recommended?

The Smithsonian should be on your must-see list.

A browse here may give you some ideas.

US Demobbed - Out of Service Military Aircraft in the USA

Pima Museum in Tucson should not be missed

There is a small museum dedicated to Neil Armstrong in Wapakoneta, Ohio, near the border with Indiana. There is a collection of rockets in Huntsville Alabama, including 2 Saturn Vs, one standing and providing a place to gather some road traffic from.

If your interests include vintage light aircraft, the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum at Hood River is excellent.

If you want to stick to your two weeks, don't get talking to the guides....

https://www.waaamuseum.org/

Valiant Air Museum Titusville Florida - lots of post war US military kit - some exotic Russian and occasional UK V friendly and very close to Canaveral as well

https://www.valiantaircommand.com/flyingcollection

Museum of flight in Seattle. In San Diego there are several ones. I like the one in Balboa park. And don't forget USS Intrepid in NYC.

Visiting the states - it is what you have to miss out on that makes planning difficult LOL
Udvar - Hazy definitely
The Mid Atlantic at Reading,Pa is not too far from U-H ,we did not visit the Mid Atlantic museum per se but attended the great airshow/reenactor event in June (?).
Next door to that is the lovely Golden Age Air Museum at Bethel,Pa - a gorgeous grass field with lots of lovely biplanes etc.
Old Rhinebeck (NY State) is a different sort of experience but great fun if they have a flying day on.
New England Air Museum,Windsor Locks - has the gorgeous Sikorsky VS44 Flying Boat,the unique surviving Burnelli CBY -3,B29 and some rare helicopters,one of the docents came in on his day off to show us round the restoration hangar where the Burnelli was (at that time) being restored and also took us into the storage hangar.
Depending on your route - the Curtiss Museum at Hammondsport is a lovely little spot and also fairly close to the Soaring Museum at Elmira.

Over to the west
WAAAM - (Western Antique Aeroplane And Automobile Museum) at Hood River,OR is an absolute WOW - a phenomenal collection of aircraft,cars and gliders.
Erickson Collection at Madras,OR is a lovely collection of mostly airworthy a/c.
Evergreen at McMinnville,OR of course has the Spruce Goose and other lovely a/c.
Tillamook,OR is worth visiting just for being inside the huge wooden airship hangar.
Further south - Castle AFB is quite a collection with a couple of real rarities.
And depending on time of year you are visiting - it is the final ever Reno Air Races at Reno/Stead this year (september),definitely worth a visit to the pits.

https://www.midway.org/

Try that. Gutless Cutlass latest exhibit.

Meanwhile in Colorado
At Colorado Springs you can dine either inside or underneath a KC97 at the The Airplane Restaurant :)
Then just down the road is the lovely National Museum of World War II Aviation/West Pac restorations - then just across the runway is the Edward J. Peterson Air and Space Museum which is based around the original Air terminal - but is located on an active AFB so one needs to email prior to visit (for permission to visit) and then pick up permit from the 'Guardroom' on the way in.
There is a Fly In at Montrose,CO which we attended in 2018 - it was a really well attended fly in inc a B52 but don't know what it will be like post covid.

@ desertjockey - if you are interested in Steam Railroads we have loads of info on some of them too ;)
2 weeks is never enough time to do the states unfortunately - our last visit to colorado was squeezed into a paltry 12 days :)

I recall going to one near Galveston in Texas which was good. I have been to the Evergreen museum with the Spruce goose. If its any use even my ex wife commented that it was interesting and one of the better ones we had visited.

Pima and the Boneyard are a must, San Diego is also good and obviously the Smithsonian goes without saying.

Personally I was recentally in Savannah where there is a museum dedicated to the 8th Air Force. A B47 and B17 etc however the sheer amount of history, memorabilia and dedication to those who served in the East of England was simply fascinating. I bitterly regret not allocating more time to it as it was simply one of the most interesting museums I have been to.

Palm Springs has an excellent museum foccusing on naval aviation.

Dayton
 

The National Museum of the USAF, in Dayton, Ohio is the premier collection of aircraft in the US. Give yoursel two days, three if you
can. Great collection of all nations aircraft in a great setting.
After that, Pima, Az. is way up there too.

If you are going to Tucson for Davis Monthan AFB and Pima Air Museum make time for the Titan Missile Museum as well.
https://titanmissilemuseum.org/

Should you end up driving from Washington to Dayton, you might consider a stop a the Hagerstown (Maryland) Aviation Museum. It's a collection of Fairchild aircraft, housed at the former Fairchild plant. (Photos of the collection: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJLLw1v )
Don't be put off by the lack of information or published hours on their website (their FaceBook is a better source); they're very tolerant of walk-ins.

I was lucky enough to be shown around 'The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force' whilst on a GE CF6 course; it a ride outside Cincinnati towards Dayton.

If you are in California, a visit to Chino, near LA, is a must. There are 2 excellent museums, both with a large number of airworthy warbirds, as well as various restoration companies.

Home Page | Planes of Fame Air Museum

Yanks Air - Airplane Museum California, Air Shows at Chino Hills, Aviation Museum

It very much depends on your aims for the holiday, are you mixing aeroplanes with leisure /sightseeing?

San Diego is a wonderful place to visit with its harbour & beaches. As mentioned above, the Museum there is very good, but not huge. There is also a collection on a Carrier. You could spend an hour or so at Coronado Beach and watch the US Navy in operation from North Island.
March AFB further North has a very good Museum too.

Most Bases have a nice collection of Gate guards which are often easy to see, as in HaveQuick's post #3.

Boeing Field in Seattle is also recommended, as is the Carrier in New York.

2 most excellent Museums are The US Navy Museum at Pensacola, Fl, and the US Army Museum at Fort Rucker, Al. However (according to conversations on "Fighter Control" website) you need to pre-book your visits and this is a bit hit and miss.

Museums
 

Dayton - See the Memphis Belle
8th Air force museum - Pooler Georgia.....a lot on money spent here, by those that came back in honour of those that didn't
https://www.mightyeighth.org/

If you are passing - https://warbirdsnews.com/aviation-mu...n-in-2023.html
here you can see the Miracle on the Hudson plane, flown by Sully!

The EAA museum in Oshkosh