Out of the gate in 2022, I decided to visit three museums that have been on my “to do” list for some time: the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center outside of Washington, D.C., and the USS Midway in San Diego, California.
First stop was in Dayton to visit the USAF! What a MASSIVE museum. My Apple Watch reported just under 6 miles of walking in this museum. A must stop visit for any aviation enthusiast (a.k.a. an avgeek).
While these do not represent all of my photos from this stop, these are my favorites. I hope you enjoy!
SAM 26000, President Kennedy’s Air Force one on that fateful day in Dallas…
Presidential Seal on SAM 26000, otherwise known as Air Force One
B-52 in the Southeast Asia gallery
B-2 Spirit
CV-22B Osprey
B-1B Lancer
AC-130A Hercules “Azrael Angel of Death” flying gun platform
F-117A Nighthawk
F-100D Super Saber in Thunderbird 6 livery
SR-71 Blackbird
The pointy end of the SR-71 Blackbird
B-58 Hustler
B-36 Peacemaker (yep it’s HUGE)
RB-47 Stratojet
Air Force One, SAM 26000, President Kennedy’s plane to Dallas…
X-13 Vertijet
X-1B experimental aircraft
X-15 experimental rocket plane
Apollo 15 Command Module Endeavour
XB-70 Valkyrie
Missle gallery
A-7D Corsair II
F-4C Phantom II
Bell UH-1P Iroquois with the 20th SOS “Green Hornet”
OV-10A Bronco
F-100 Super Sabre under the wing of a B-52D
F-22A Raptor
F-86A Sabre (love the gunsmoke stains)
MiG-15bis
C-124C Transport
Fat Man Atomic Bomb, type dropped on Nagasaki to end WWII
B-29 Superfortress “BocksCar”, the plane that dropped the Fat Man on Nagasaki, Japan
Junkers JU-88D Bomber
Messerschmitt ME-262 Schwalbe, first jet fighter of WWII
Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet
P-47D “Five by Five” bubbletop
Messerschmitt Bf-109 G-10 series
P-51D Mustang, “Shimmy IV” (what happened to 1, 2, and 3…)
B-17F Flying Fortress “Memphis Belle”
B-24D Liberator “Strawberry Bitch”
P-39Q Airacobra
B-25B Mitchell, Doolittle raid…
Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero
P-40E Warhawk featuring the Sharkmouth
B-10 Martin
P-26A Peashooter
Martin MB-2
Spad XIII C.1
Fokker Dr.1 tri-plane (red baron, anyone?)
Nieuport 28 bi-plane
Spad VII bi-plane
Video Tour
If you enjoyed the photo gallery, here’s my video tour of the museum!
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