The National Museum Of The U.S. Air Force
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 09:04AM 
The excellent facilities of the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton Ohio
(11 pix)
The first ever AirPigz Air Force Museum meet-up was a great success. A total of 9 people participated on one day or the other from Friday January 28th thru Sunday the 30th. The informal format of the gathering meant that everyone was free to do as they pleased, but gathering together for lunch and even dinner in the evening made for great hangar flying conversations. More AirPigz avgeek meet-ups will definitely be planned in the future.
The following is just a quick glance at some of the aircraft seen over the weekend. A full post with more details on the meet-up will follow soon. I'll also continue to post thru the year from the extensive photos gathered during the time at the museum. The Air Force Museum is a first class facility with so many interesting, important, and historic aircraft that there's really no end to what can be shared or discussed. And of course, I highly recommend you work a trip to Dayton into your schedule as soon as you can... you won't be disappointed.
Overview map of the massive collection of aircraft at the Air Force Museum
A small portion of the Early Years exhibit area
B-29 'Bockscar' that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki ending World War II
Curtiss-Wright C-46 diorama depicting the building of a temporary runway
A small part of the excellent Doolittle Raid B-25 display
A P-38 Lightning nestled in between a P-47 Thunderbolt and a P-51 Mustang
The massive Convair B-36 in the huge Cold War collection
A beautiful Convair B-58 Hustler in the Cold war area
The iconic AF Museum North American XB-70 in the Research & Development hangar
Martin Marietta X-24A that helped bring about the design for the Space Shuttle
There will be lots more pix and details to come before long, but for anyone who hasn't been to the AF Museum yet, this gives you a nice idea of the quality and quantity of what's there. You can get more details at NationalMuseum.af.mil and you can follow the museum on twitter: @AFmuseum and on Facebook: facebook.com/AFmuseum.
Reader Comments (5)
Great time Martt, looking forward to the next outing.
seerjfly- it was great meeting you and I'm really glad you enjoyed it all. More to come for sure! Pretty sweet that you won the caption contest over the same weekend too : )
Does anyone know what the status of the Convair XC-99 is?
It use to be mentioned on the Restoration portion of the web site, but I can not find any mention to it now.
Kurt Zimmerman- Check out the wiki entry for the XC-99 (scroll down to 'recent developments')... looks like the pieces will be moved to Davis-Monthan in Arizona for storage until an actual restoration plan can be put into place. When I was on the restoration tour in January 2012, I heard something very similar to this (just can't remember exactly what they said : )
Wow...!!! Amazing information and wonderful photographs. I spend two day there and saw most of it. A trip to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is a must for any aviation enthusiast. Their aircraft, missiles, Imax are just unbelievable. They have remarkable collection of aircraft's. That was my first trip and I am just amazed at the exhibits and aircraft on display. To really see and appreciate everything there, give yourself a full time.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is probably the best place to visit.