For the past 14 or so years I have been wanting to make a stop at this place when traveling from PA to Indiana and back. Right off Interstate 70 in Dayton Ohio, this museum houses an amazing collection of aircraft spanning the entirety of flight history in several galleries. Perhaps most amazing is that admission to this incredible musuem is free, but I just had to make a donation given what I was treated to. It being a weekday, the galleries were nearly empty, which made for some pretty decent photo opportunities. A tripod was an absolute must given the low light in the hangars, and because I forgot my expodisc I had to manually set wb temp. I ran around that place for 6 hours straight with no breaks to try to grab as many airplanes as possible. I had a 12-24mm lens and 55-200mm lens on me and stopped down to f/8 they pretty much covered all my needs. Most of the indoor exposures were 1-2 seconds long.
We start with the Early Years gallery
Moving along to WWII
They had 'Bock's Car', the B-29 that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki
The Presidential Transport and R&D galleries are located on a controlled access part of Wright Patterson AFB. You show your ID in order to be able to board the shuttle bus, and get driven through a checkpoint staffed by MP's armed with full-auto rifles. No photography is allowed while in transit. These galleries house some very exotic aircraft, such as SAM26000 and the only XB-70 in the world. They only give you 45 minutes in both galleries, and believe me when I say that was barely enough time to get most of it in. Also, they crammed in as many airplanes into these hangers they could, so even at 12mm most shots were partial airframes with parts of other planes visible. Looks cool though
SAM 26000 flightdeck, handheld and through glass. The plane that flew Kennedy's body home to Washington, you are able to go inside and view the area where his casket was placed. Very eerie.
I couldn't believe how enormous the Valkyrie was in person. What a damned fine looking airplane that was, there's just something about that nose with the canards that it and the Tu-144 Charger take the cake for sexiest 'beak'
I just love the bit about the encapsulated ejection seat
Next is a Hercules that was converted by Convair to a simulator test-bed for new aircraft designs. I don't know how they did it, but apparently it can be programmed to emulate the flight control characteristics of many different aircraft, including the Space Shuttle
We then returned to the museum grounds. While everyone else walked back inside I walked over to their outdoor static displays.
Some interesting editing on this Starlifter
EC-135E ARIA, used to support the space program in the 1960's
nose art
While walking back to the building I noticed a strange 707 on the Wright Patterson ramp. They never said 'no pictures from the museum grounds' so here it is:
Moose I'm thinking you know what this is. A Cobra Ball maybe?
Then it was off to the SE Asia/Cold War gallery
This is the Phantom piloted by fighter ace Robin Olds
And finally, there was the Rocket & Missile gallery, complete with a Minuteman I and III
5pm came just as I got through the last gallery. I didn't have time to browse the gift shop but that's OK, I don't need any more trinkets. Staff there were incredibly nice and helpful. I highly recommend visiting this museum if you happen to find yourself in the Dayton area.
Have a great weekend,
William
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