Museum Quick Stop ~ The National Museum of the United States Air Force requires a day or more to properly take in all the exhibits but as it was a travel day for me I was only able to get a taste of what it has to offer. The museum is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base about 6 miles from downtown Dayton, Ohio. The National Museum of the US Air Force is the oldest and largest military aviation museum in the world, with over 360 aircraft and missiles on display.
There are ten galleries with displays from the early years of aviation, the World Wars and the Korean War, the Southeast Asia War and the Cold War, as well as missiles and space exhibits. There are some notable aircraft in this museum including Bockscar, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the last days of World War II and the Boeing B-17F Memphis Belle was one of the first United States Army Air Forces B-17 heavy bombers to complete 25 combat missions. The museum also has a gallery dedicated to Presidential aircraft, the centerpiece of which is SAM 26000, a modified Boeing 707 regularly used by presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. This aircraft took President John F. Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy to Dallas on 22 November 1963, the day of the President’s assassination. This museum is on my bucket list to return too and do more in-depth photography and article on its offerings.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
1100 Spaatz Street Dayton, Ohio 45431
N 39º 46′ 53″ W 84º 6′ 38″
