First Ever AirPigz / Air Force Museum Meet-Up Coming Soon

(7 pix: Air Force Museum)

Let's meet up at the Air Force Museum in Dayton... details below: 
UPDATE: meet-up is scheduled for Saturday January 29 and Sunday January 30

 When I did a little research before I posted the CoolPix of the sweet Curtiss-Wright AT-9 twin engine trainer from WWII, I learned that the only complete airframe is on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Hmm, I haven't been to the museum there in over 5 years... I should plan a trip there! That's when the idea for an AirPigz 'meet-up' at the Air Force Museum was born.

 So here's you official invite: sometime in late January or early February there will be a fun little AirPigz avgeek meet-up at the museum. Museum admission and parking are FREE(!), and operating hours are 9am to 5pm EST. If you're even slightly interested in knowing more about when this will take place, please send an email to me via this link Email For Meet-Up - the email will already have the subject line filled in, and we can get some dialog going to find the best weekend. (all the details will be finalized by Friday, December 31st) 

 Regardless of which weekend works best for the most people interested, I'm planning to be there for both Saturday and Sunday. That'll give a little more overall flexibility to pick the day that works best for you. Or, if you're really into the museum like me, you might wanna plan for both days. I may also have a connection to a house with room for a few people to stay overnight as well. My advance promo thru twitter on this has already found about 5 people seriously interested in making the trip, one already with plans to fly down from Canada using up some up some frequent flyer miles. The Air Force Museum is simply spectacular... maybe this little meet-up will be a great catalyst for getting you to Dayton to experience it! 

 I'm thinking we should plan to have lunch together for at least an hour in the Valkyrie Cafe as our official 'meet-up' time for visiting together at the museum, otherwise you'd be free to do whatever you want during your time there. We may also be able to do an evening dinner meet-up on Saturday for anyone who would be available. Regardless, send me an email via the link above and let's see if we can stir up some interest in getting together and talking airplanes! And if you don't know much about the Air Force Museum (with its 400 or so aircraft and well over 1 million visitors each year), check out the following pix for a little idea of how awesome it is!

 The collection of WWII era aircraft is amazing. To mention a few: B-29, B-17, B-24, F-82, P-61, AT-9, Me-262, Me-163... and on and on. If you're anything like me, you could spend a whole day just wandering around in the space pictured above soaking up what these aircraft represent. As it turns out, this is just a small fraction of the aircraft on display at the Air Force Museum.

 I've seen this B-36 several times of the years on trips to the museum, but as an older guy now I could look this thing over for hours. I'm definitely planning to get a boatload of pictures this time around! You can also see a B-1, B-2, B-47, C-133 and lots of other amazing airplanes in the pic above.

 It's easy to miss that the nose of the airplane in the center of this picture is the most awesome XB-70. That's another airplane that's gonna burn itself deeper into my brain on this trip than it ever has before! Other stunning airraft in this X-Plane area are a YF-12A, XC-142A (Tilt Wing), X-36, F-107A, X-3... and if you look on the back wall to the right, the crazy cool Ryan X-13 Vertijet! If you don't know about it, watch this X-13 video I posted a while back - it would be fantastic to see this thing in person. (I'm not sure, but I think the YF-22 in this picture is no longer at the museum)

 Here's a close up of the X-13 Vertijet. I can't wait to see this thing : )

 Here's another huge display area with a B-52 towering over more cool aviation artifacts. The orange tipped aircraft under the left wing of the B-52 is the Bell XV-3 tiltrotor from the 50's, and my research indicates that it's not in this location now but it is at the museum. This thing is amazing and a trip to the museum would be completely worth it just to see it!

 Here's one last amazing aircraft to consider seeing at the Air force Museum... it's the XF-84H, a testbed for a radical prop idea. The highly modified F-84 airframe had a turboprop engine driving the tips of the propeller beyond Mach 1, normally a bad idea. interesting, just about everything about the XF-84H was a bad idea, including the fact that it was so loud that it was sometimes called the Thunderscreech! Like, so loud it could be heard up to 25 miles away! I'll have lots more on this crazy airplane later.

 The list of reasons that make the Air Force Museum worth your time is pretty much never-ending. If there's any way you can work in a trip to Dayton, Ohio for the AirPigz meet-up coming up in either late January or early February, then go ahead and send me that email to help us pick a date for the event. I know I can hardly wait to get there!

 Email For Meet-Up