Dayton and Springfield, Ohio

On the road again.

Me in my spot 

Freddy in his

and Cathy taking pictures of lots of windmills.

A must see in Dayton, OH, The USAF Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum

So much to see that I had a hard time deciding which pictures to use.
So here is a sampling.

First thing inside, The Bob Hope tribute. Continuous showings of shows he
did for the troops. I was lucky enough to go to three of them.

Bob's flight suits and other memories.

P-59, the USAF''s first jet fighter

Very sleek looking but not enough engine.
Note the exhaust on the AC behind it.

The exhaust is from the XB-70 Valkyrie High Altitude, High Speed (Mach 3)
Bomber. Only 2 built because of advanced missiles. This is the first.

I had to use a picture of a picture because the aircraft was too large to get a
good picture of it

XF-85 Goblin, built to be carried in a B-36 bomb bay and launched whenever
enemy fighters appeared then recovered back in the bomb bay after the fight
 was over.

It worked well at launching but recovery not so well, too much turbulence
to hook back up.

YF-12A Interceptor built to intercept high altitude bombers
It was the fore runner of the SR-71 high altitude, high speed spy plane.

It set altitude and speed records.  It worked as planned but high costs and the
Vietnam war ended the program. This was the second one built and only one
left.

The Canadian VZ-9AV Flying Saucer

It actually flew but was dumped because of cost.

I wonder how many phone calls this generated to report flying saucers

The NC-131 H in-flight simulator

Built in 1970, they could simulate the flights charactists of B-1 Bombers,
X-40, Space Shuttle, B-2 Bomber, SST and more all in flight and landings
It also create crosswind landings. Many Astronauts and Pilots were trained
with this AC.

Lots of Air Force One aircraft

President Kennedy's Boeing VC-137C

First jet Presidential  aircraft

This Beechcraft VC-6A was bought to transport the president from
Bergstrom AFB and the Johnson  ranch in Texas

This one was small enough to hang from the ceiling

Lockheed VC-121E used by President Eisenhower

After Eisenhower left office, it was used to transport VIPs until 1966

President Truman had the Douglas VC-118

Almost all of the presidential planes are open to walk through

Back to war birds
The SR-71, fastest (2193.167 MPH) and highest flying (85068.997 Ft) aircraft
in the world. It set the record in July 1976 and it still stands

AC-130A Spectre gun ship

Fires several different types of high speed weapons. This one was
used in Desert Storm

F-117 A first flew in 1981

During Desert Storm it could sneak in on targets unseen and
used smart bombs to destroy their target.

A-10 Thunderbolt !! tank killer.

Built around a 7 barrel 30 MM Gatling gun that fired 4,200 rounds
per minute

This gun fires rounds that can penetrate a tanks armor

Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagaski

Given to the USAF Museum in 1946, it was flown there in 1961

The bomb dropped by the Bochscar was the Fat Man

The shell of a Fat Man painted in the same way as the one dropped

The first bomb, dropped by the Enola Gay, was called Little Boy

Replica of Little Boy

The section for WW1 had such planes as
The Spad VII

F-1 Sopwith Camel
built in 1917

and the Fokker D.VII from 1918
the type flown by the Red Baron

On April 18 1942. 16 B-25B Mitchel Bombers took off from the USS
Hornet on a suicide mission  to bomb Tokyo. After the war, the remaining
crew members of the original 80 met for a toast. Later the city of Tuscon
gave them silver goblets for that toast

Each goblet had the mans name engraved twice so the name can be read
when the goblet is turned upside down. The next year,when they met
the goblet was turned upside if the crewman had passed away. One of the
two remaining crew members passed away so on the anniversary
one of these goblets will be the only remaining one upright.

I tried to keep this Blog short enough to remain interesting but  this museum
is great. Anyone with an interest with aviation should go there.