OH Museum Soars High

We're currently on a "southern" U.S. road trip from NH to FL and posting about sites seen & foods sampled along the way. This post is about a stop in Dayton, OH.

The oldest and largest museum devoted to military aviation is the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, OH. It's also the largest such facility in the world attracting thousands of visitors annually.

Not only is this one of the most-visited tourist attractions in OH, but also the largest free attraction in the Dayton area. (We always like to see free attractions on our road trips, who wouldn't?)

Photo credit: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wright-Patterson Base, OH

Last week we added to the visitor count as we explored this vast exhibit space totaling nearly 17 acres, all indoors. There's so much to see and it's impossible to cover everything in a single visit. The museum is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m; we spent 4 hours on our visit. It was our last day in OH and we also were also going to the Packard Automobile Museum open noon to 5 p.m. (That museum is highlighted in an upcoming post).

The USAF museum’s very extensive collection includes more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display for historical, rare, and technological significance covering the history and development of aviation (no, we didn't count them all). There's a lot of (indoor) walking and exhibits were everywhere, on the museum floor, walls, and overhead. Despite its size and number of exhibits, the museum is easy to navigate with signage and well-defined pathways throughout interconnected hangers; no need to go outdoors. 

While you might expect to see every U.S. plane here bearing with a USAF insignia, that's not the case. Instead, some of these military planes bear the insignia of the U.S. Army. That's because the Air Force started as the Army Air Corps in 1907 until being established as a separate Armed Forces branch in 1947. Today, the USAF is considered the world’s largest and most technologically advanced air force.

The museum had its unofficial start in 1923, when the Engineering Division at McCook Field, an airfield and aviation experimentation station in Dayton started collecting aviation items for preservation. The growing collection moved to Wilber Wright Field an airfield and military installation by 1927 and in1932 was named the Army Aeronautical Museum. It was renamed as the Air Force Technical Museum in 1948, but was private. In 1954, the museum was housed in its first permanent facility, a former engine hangar and opened to the public. There wasn’t enough room inside for all the collected artifacts. Aircraft were parked outside exposing them to the elements. Efforts began for a larger indoor exhibit space.

Eugene Kettering

Through the 1960s, Eugene Kettering, son of American inventor Charles F. Kettering, campaigned for a permanent structure and became the first chairman of the board of the Air Force Museum Foundation. After his 1969 death, his widow continued his work. That led to the museum's relocation and opening of the current facility in 1971 which has since quadrupled in size with the addition of three more hangers. 

The collections span over a century of flight from the Wright brothers to the space age. The most recent hanger (224,000 sq. ft.) opened in 2016 bringing the museum’s total size up over a million square feet. 

The first exhibit space after entering the museum is dedicated to Dayton natives Orville and Wilber Wright, pioneers of flight, who conducted experiments at nearby Huffman Prairie Flying Field now part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

Wright brothers exhibit

A replica of their 1909 Military Flyer and other artifacts of early flight are here. This building also houses the National Aviation Hall of Fame and related educational exhibits.

One of the most popular exhibits is also one of the newest ones — it's the Boeing B17F Memphis Belle. This heavy bomber flew 25 successful combat missions over Europe during World War II. It was placed on display in 2018 after years of restoration.

Another reminder of the grim reality of war is also on display — the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Bockscar,dropped the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the last days of World War II. A replica of that bomb (not visible here) is also on display near the plane.

Nose art is a decorative painting or design usually on the front fuselage of an aircraft. It began for practical reasons of recognizing friendly units and quickly became a way to evoke memories of loved ones, many bore women’s names. This type of artwork is largely a military tradition that reached its pinnacle in World War II, now considered to be the golden age of the genre. At the height of WW II, nose-artists were in high demand in the U.S. Air Force. 

The hall of missiles hanger holds a collection of post-Cold War era planes such as the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber (test aircraft), the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth ground attack aircraft and others. Also displayed is a XB-70A Valkyrie, the supersonic nuclear bomber that developed in the 1960s, but never produced. 

Most aircraft could only be looked at, but a few exceptions, like the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II cargo plane (above and below) could be entered. It featured "clamshell" loading doors to handle bulky cargo like tanks, field guns, bulldozers and trucks and could be converted into a transport capable of carrying 200 fully-equipped soldiers or 127 litter patients and attendants in a double-decked cabin. 

In the photo above, Grenville is walking in to explore this huge aircraft. It was produced from 1950 to 1955 and the USAF purchased 448 during that timeframe.
At first glance, figures shown near some exhibits may appear to be "real." These setups added realism and I had to do a double-take a couple of times.

The newest hanger, completed in 2016, houses the museum's space collection and presidential aircraft, ones used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The centerpiece of this collection is a modified Boeing 707 used by Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. While we saw many aircraft, we didn't make it to this hanger in the time available, perhaps on  future visit.



Today is Memorial Day, a U.S. federal holiday to remember and honor all men and women who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. We salute them all.

Update May 28, since this posted, we've learned that a tornado hit parts of Dayton, OH, sadly with a loss of life.  Early reports indicate there may have been some damage to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near the museum. It's a very sobering thought to realize we were recently visiting that area.