For last week's DSL meetup, I returned to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB1 for the first time in 16 years. I've previously reviewed it based on that visit, but that was years after the fact, and I wasn't able to give the sort of detail that I like to. But, in the wake of an incredibly fun meetup (you should come to Iowa next year) I can now review it properly.
This is an incredibly good museum on several levels. First, the collection is unmatched. I don't know of anywhere else you could look at the history of land-based military aviation, from the Wrights to supersonic flight to stealth, entirely with real airplanes. Across the four big hangars, there's an example of almost everything the USAAF/USAF has flown since the 20s, along with many planes stolen from our enemies, and quite a few of the planes themselves have cool stories, ranging from a number that set important records to the Cornfield Bomber. Not to mention the unique planes, like most of the stuff in the R&D Gallery, home of the world's greatest airplane, the XB-70.
The BT-14 "crash"
But it's possible to have a good collection and deploy it badly, like they do at Pima. Fortunately, the museum's presentation is as good as the collection. Signage is plentiful, and they even had some cool braille signs for the visually impaired, which I've never seen at an air museum before. And while it's certainly big enough that I wouldn't criticize it for just having planes and an engine or two, it goes far beyond that. The planes themselves are frequently staged to tell various stories and add visual interest to the gallery beyond "just a bunch of planes". Probably the standout here is the "crashed" BT-14 in the early years gallery, a fun way of pointing to the problems of training new pilots, but there's lots of cases where a few mannequins and a piece of machinery or two subtly illustrate some aspect of aviation that would otherwise be easy to overlook. There's also a fair number of big artifacts (vehicles, radar equipment, and so on) to bring out the ground-based aspects of the Air Force's work. And almost everywhere that isn't one of these has some sort of display, be it a more in-depth explanation of the development and duties of a nearby airplane or a case showing the uniforms of someone important and relevant to the gallery.
They often have former pilots near their airplanes. This gentleman was a Wild Weasel pilot in Vietnam
So, in this case, Dayton manages to fulfill all three possible criteria for a good air museum. It's got a big collection of interesting airplanes, it displays them well, and it also has a lot of good supporting exhibits, which would be worth seeing even if they were separated from the airplanes. I have long recommended Dayton as a place to go if you like airplanes, and the best air museum in the world for geeks.2 But after this visit, I think it was even better than that. In terms of museum implementation, it’s probably not quite as good as NASM on the Mall, but it’s surprisingly close, and a much better place to go for people who aren’t into airplanes than I expected. And while it can’t match DC in the quantity of other stuff to do, Dayton also has a lot of other attractions, both aviation and otherwise.
Unfortunately, it was too difficult to destroy that stupid art display
Of course, no museum is completely perfect, and there are a few things I need to warn you about before you go. First, there's a rather hagiographic section on Billy Mitchell, which of course is full of vile lies. Second, at the time of our visit, they had a couple of cars and a motorcycle that had been built by the Air Force for recruiting purposes, sitting right in front of the B-2 and blocking access to the JDAM that I wanted to talk about. But most irritatingly, there was an art display smack in the middle of the main corridor in the R&D section, which blocked the lines of sight I wanted to use in my last section of the tour. It's not that I object to this (or the cars) being in the museum, but they should be well out of the way of anything important, and they simply weren't.
But despite those minor niggles, it's still one of the very best museums I've ever been to, exceeding even the very high expectations I had developed after months of carefully studying the site and its collection for my main tour. You should definitely go.
1 Logistical Note: The museum is outside the base's security perimeter, so even visitors who are not US citizens won't have a problem paying it a visit. ⇑
2 At this point, I will include my usual disclaimer that The Fatherly One still thinks that the Musée de l’air et de l’espace in Paris is better, despite being on this trip. He's been to several thousand air museums, and I respect his opinions a lot, but I think he's wrong here. ⇑
Comments
Did the bean vs Mitchel's bioculars phot not turn out?
....The NASM may be Olympus, but NMUSAF is Valhalla. Last time I was there was for Memphis Belle's homecoming (NMUSAF estimated they had 50K people in there, and I believe it) and hopefully I'll be able to get a day or so there next Spring.
Also, FWIW, the only thing that could make the place better would be if they ran the daily tours to the restoration and storage hangars again.
Mike
Also, don't forget there's even more in Dayton! While you're here for the NMUSAF, don't forget the restored Wright Brothers' bike shop, with a good exhibit on how designing bicycles prepared them to invent the airplane, and a small parachute museum upstairs!
(and @ike, Bean actually let you take that photo!?)
@ike
It did, but I didn't get the photo, and didn't feel like chasing it down while on the road.
@Evan
I plan to cover that in another review or two.
I thought I was in heaven visiting the B-52 at the Museum Of Flight in Seattle, but to see a Valkyrie would be beyond anything.
Why would they need those when they already have things far cooler?
You know you are at the top level of the aviation museum game when you have the resources to display an SR-71 in your Cold War gallery and also a YF-12 in your R&D gallery....
Because those things are bigger and hard to park in the middle of career day at the local high school.
That's why you arrange to have them fly overhead on career day at the local high school, loud enough to be the focus of everyone's attention for the moment.
It feels like the article should mention the balistic missel collection.
@Evan
It wasn't as hard of a sell as you would think.
"Hey, would you like to go be mad at Billy Mitchel for 10 minutes?"
I've been going to the USAF Museum since the mid-60's, when it was in the converted factory building and the outside planes were subject to the elements and vandals. Seeing crude graffiti scratched into the Ju-88's paint was depressing. After I enlisted, my wife and I often stopped in as we traveled between western assignments and our NJ family. Once I became a Weather Officer, I made several visits to Det 15, 15WS...which, of course, left me some evenings free to visit the museum. Having an AF ID and line pass let me visit the Restoration area without being bothered, which let me have some quiet time with some great airplanes. For example, the F-106s painted in 49th FIS colors...as an Airman, my first assignment was Griffiss AFB, where the weather observation site was across the runway from the 49th's hangars. Saw many launches and recoveries of those beautiful 106's from the obs site. Somewhere, I have silent 8mm film of some night launches. Finally, in 2016, my wife and I did a review of the AFM for a Brit model magazine (right before the magazine went tango uniform, although I doubt it was because of her photography and her writing :-) ). Haven't been back since 2016, but we will, someday.
Thinking back, about the 'cornfield bomber', my first day at Griffiss AFB was in late July, 1975. When I walked through the hangar door, an F-106 vertical stab was hanging on a big meathook on the far left of the hangar. Wasn't the Cornfield Bomber, but it was the result of a 106 pilot who spun in. He punched out, but the plane was a total loss. Six years later, I was a 2LT at Elmendorf AFB, AK. Not long after I arrived, the F-4 squadron at EDF was replaced by an F-15 squadron. Didn't take long before a 15 was lost in a spin, with the pilot punching out, safely. I was the weather support guy for the local C-130 group (616 MAG, 17 TAS) and my office-mate was the fighter support guy.
He told me the guy who spun in the F-15 had also lost a T-33, due to fuel starvation. Before that, he'd spun in an F-106. From Griffiss AFB, NY. As far as I've ever been able to tell, it was the same guy. 3 'kills' to his credit...Ooops!
Have to correct my first post!
My wife takes excellent photos, I'm the one doing the writing!
I'm the one who identified the museum's C-124 as a C-133...despite the plane's identifier being very visible in the image! :-(.
Bock’s Car is I think one of the most interesting exhibits in any museum I’ve been to. Not so much for the presentation (which is great, as is the rest of the museum), but rather how close you can be to the aluminum, steel, and rubber that became the instrument of death. It’s also remarkable, I think, in that it’s so ordinary, whereas most of the other examples in that vein have a more monumental aspect.