Pirep request

I've always had the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH on my
list of places to fly. We'd probably fly into KDAY and grab a crew car if
available.

Can any members of the group that are familiar with the museum give me a
pirep? We'll only have one day to visit and would like to hit all the
highlights, skip any lowlights, and leave our kids with a yearning to
return.

Jim

Jim Burns wrote:
I've always had the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH on my
list of places to fly. We'd probably fly into KDAY and grab a crew car if
available.

Can any members of the group that are familiar with the museum give me a
pirep? We'll only have one day to visit and would like to hit all the
highlights, skip any lowlights, and leave our kids with a yearning to
return.

The Museum is a lot to see. Three large buildings if I recall. I was
also interested in the "Presidents' Planes" and the "Test Facility"
displays. These are on C Street on WP AFB. The Museum guys can
direct you and give you a pass.

Are you kidding? WPAFBM is pretty much the biggest and best aviation
museum anywhere! No, seriously, I have no idea what else might be out
there, but it is gigantic, and has a large collection or military
aviation stuff, from aircraft to icbms.

As a twelve year old boy, I remember walking around the XB-70 they had
parked out front in total awe. For some reason that aircraft made a
huge impression on me. It's one of the reasons I'm a pilot today.

If you are an aviation enthusiast, you can easily spend more than one
day there.

-- dave j
-- jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com

Jim Burns wrote:
I've always had the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH
on my
list of places to fly. We'd probably fly into KDAY and grab a crew
car if
available.

Can any members of the group that are familiar with the museum give
me a
pirep? We'll only have one day to visit and would like to hit all
the
highlights, skip any lowlights, and leave our kids with a yearning to
return.

Jim

Well, I haven't been down to the museum since I graduated from Ohio State in
1990, but my fellow AFROTC cadets and I used to make an annual pilgrimage
down there.

Depends on what era you like, because it's all there. The WW2 section was
always my favorite because it had some pretty good dioramas set up around
the place and the selection of aircraft was superb. Back in the late 80s
they opened up the "new" hangar in which they put the B-52 on 5 foot wheel
stands so they could get the XB-70 and SR-71 in under it. That hangar, I
believe, was given over to the jet era mostly and had some pretty recent
stuff in it back then. Steve Ritchie's 5-kill F-4 was in there, for
instance. I think they've since opened up another hangar, but don't know
for sure.

I also liked to look at the spacesuit designs just for kicks, and the X-3
Stilletto is still one of the coolest looking designs, in my book.

You can spend days reading all the stuff on the walls as they really do try
to cover the whole of the USAF experience from day one to present. If
you've only got one day, you can do one of two things: 1. Sweep through the
whole thing to get a flavor of it all or 2. Focus on seeing a couple of
particular areas in detail. Either way, you'll have a great time and, even
if you miss seeing some things, most of what you see you probably won't have
seen before anyway.

Enjoy and let us know what you thought when you get back.

Shawn
"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
I've always had the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH on my
list of places to fly. We'd probably fly into KDAY and grab a crew car if
available.

Can any members of the group that are familiar with the museum give me a
pirep? We'll only have one day to visit and would like to hit all the
highlights, skip any lowlights, and leave our kids with a yearning to
return.

Jim

The National Museum of the United States Air Force

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/

Read all about it.
The closest airport to fly into via GA is Springfield (KSGH).
They have a shuttle or crew car available (I don't recall which).
Don't miss Hoffman's Prairie.

http://www.nps.gov/daav/home.htm

Jim Burns wrote:
I've always had the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH on my
list of places to fly. We'd probably fly into KDAY and grab a crew car if
available.

Can any members of the group that are familiar with the museum give me a
pirep? We'll only have one day to visit and would like to hit all the
highlights, skip any lowlights, and leave our kids with a yearning to
return.

I went out there to see the B-36, a very impressive airplane. As I
recall it had the original B-36A or XB-36 tire beside it, which as you
can imagine was a very big tire indeed (Convair then switched to
bogies). And I think a mockup of the bomb was there, as well as the
camera used to photograph the earth from 30,000 feet (whatever). I
think there's a picture of a golf ball on the Burning Tree course in
Washington taken from a high-flying 36.

Another thing that entranced me was the Goblin fighter that was
supposed to be launched from (and return to) the big bombers to defend
them from Russian or Chinese fighter interceptors.

New since I was there is the XC-99 cargo / transport plane that
Convair adapted from the B-36. I'm sure it's not completed yet, but
perhaps they have a system whereby you can see works in progress.

I think you can go to the museum website and get a preview of the
planes on display. That could help you narrow it down.


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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the blog: www.danford.net
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john smith wrote:

The closest airport to fly into via GA is Springfield (KSGH).



DAY is just fine for GA. I flew into there a few years back.. there were
two FBO's there at the time.

I went to the museum post 9/11 and since some parts of the museum were
at that time "inside" the gates of the AFB it was a little difficult to
see the Presidential Hangar, etc.. The main part of the Museum is still
easy access and a LOT to take in. Check out the website regarding any
special issues regarding access.

Dave