National Museum of the USAF, 1100 Spaatz Street,Wright-Patterson AFB(Dayton), OH 45433.

This museum(formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official National Museum of the United States Air Force(USAF) and is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the worlds largest and oldest military aviation museum. More than 400 aircraft and missiles are on display, most of them indoors. The museum draws over 1.3 million visitors per year and is one of the single most visited tourist attractions in Ohio. Admission is free.

The museums collection contains many rare aircraft of historical or technological importance as well as various memorabilia and artifacts relating to the history and development of aviation. Included in the permanent collections are one of four surviving Convair B-36s, the only surviving XB-70 Valkyrie, and Bockscar - the B-29 Superfortress that dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II.

Presidential aircraft

The museum has several Presidential aircraft, including those used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The centerpiece of the Presidential aircraft collection is SAM 26000, the first aircraft to be called Air Force One, a modified Boeing 707 used regularly by Presidents John F. Kennedy through Richard Nixon during his first term; after which it served as the backup Presidential aircraft.

Pioneers of flight

There is a large section of the museum dedicated to pioneers of flight, especially the Wright Brothers, who conducted some of their experiments at nearby Huffman Prairie. A replica of the Wrights 1909 Military Flyer is on display, as well as other Wright brothers artifacts. The building also hosts the National Aviation Hall of Fame, which includes several educational exhibits.

Uniforms and clothing

The museum has a large inventory of USAAF and Air Force clothing and uniforms in its collection. At any time over fifty WWII vintage A-2 leather flying jackets are on display, many of which belonged to famous figures in Air Force history. Included in the museums displays are the jacket worn by Gen. James Stewart, P-38 ace Maj. Richard I. Bongs sheepskin B-3 jacket and boots, an A-2 jacket worn by one of the few USAAF pilots to leave the ground during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and President Ronald Reagans peacoat.

Other exhibits and attractions

The museum completed the construction of a third hangar and hall of missiles in 2004. It now houses post-Cold War-era planes such as the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber (test aircraft), the F-117 Nighthawk stealth ground attack aircraft and others. Fund raising has begun for a fourth hangar to house the museums space collection, presidential planes and an enlarged educational outreach area, making all more accessible to the public.

The museum has an IMAX theater that shows, for a fee, aviation and space oriented IMAX films interspersed primarily with other documentaries.

The museum owns other aircraft that are on loan to other aerospace museums in the United States. Most of these loaned aircraft duplicate aircraft exhibited by the museum. The museums staff has very high standards for the quality of care/restoration of loaned assets, and has, in the past, revoked these loans when it was deemed that these other museums did not have the resources to properly care for an artifact. This happened in the case of the famous B-17, Memphis Belle.

Future developments

The Museum is currently raising funds for the construction of a fourth hangar gallery to be built behind the current Missile Gallery. The project is expected to cost $40,000,000. When completed it will house all the Museums research and development aircraft as well as the presidential aircraft, freeing those hangars for use in future restoration projects, as well as the eventual display of the Convair XC-99.

Partial list of collection

The museum is divided into galleries, covering broad historic trends in military aviation. These are further broken down into exhibits detailing specific time periods and showing aircraft in their historical context.

All aircraft in this list were designed/built in the USA, unless otherwise indicated.

Early Years Gallery (1901-1941)
Early years (1901-1917)
# Wright Brothers 1901 wind tunnel
# Wright Military Flyer . . .
World War I (1917-1918)
# SPAD VII (France - used by U.S. Lafayette Escadrille)
# Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" trainer . . .
Inter-War years (1919-1941)
# De Havilland DH-4 (U.S. built from a British design)
# Martin MB-2 (First U.S. designed bomber) . . .

World War II

Attack Aircraft
# Douglas A-20G Havoc
# Douglas A-24B Banshee . . .
Bomber Aircraft
# Boeing B-17D-BO 40-3097 "The Swoose" - under restoration
# Boeing B-17F-10BO 41-24485 "Memphis Belle" - under restoration . . .
Cargo Aircraft
# Douglas C-39 - currently in storage
# Curtiss C-46D Commando . . .
Photographic Reconnaissance Aircraft
# North American F-10D Mitchell 43-3374
Liaison Aircraft
#Taylorcraft L-2M Grasshopper
Multi-Porpose Aircraft
#Consolidated OA-10 Catalina
Rotary Aircraft
#Sikorsky R-4B Hoverfly
Pursuit Aircraft
# Seversky P-35
# Curtiss P-36A Hawk
Trainer Aircraft
# Curtiss AT-9 Jeep (advanced trainer)
# Vultee BT-13 Valiant (basic trainer)
Foreign Aircraft
# Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman (Canada)
# Bristol Beaufighter Mk Ic (Great Britain).

Korean War
# Douglas A-26C Invader
# Douglas C-124C Globemaster II.

Vietnam War
# Bell UH-1P Iroquois
# Boeing B-52D Stratofortress.

Cold War
# Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck (Canada)
# Boeing RB-47H (reconnaissance variant)

Post Cold War
# American Helicopter XH026 Jet Jeep
# Bell XV-3.

Missile and Space Gallery
# Apollo 15 Command Module
# Jupiter IRBM.

Presidential aircraft
#Douglas VC-54C Sacred Cow
#Douglas VC-118 Independence.

Research and development aircraft
# American Helicopters XH-26 Jet Jeep
# Avro Avrocar.

>City(s) = Dayton; State(s) = OH; Country = USA.
>Title = National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton, OH, US - Video.
>Keywords = National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, USAF, Wright Patterson AFB, OH, Spaatz Street, NMUSAF, military aviation museum, aircraft, missiles, Convair, Valkyrie, Bockscar, Superfortress, World, War, II, ourtripvideos, our, trip, videos, crlapindfrn, Presidential aircraft, Pioneers of flight, Wright Brothers, IMAX theater films (122)
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