the education of henry

Day 33: National Museum of the USAF

2023-10-16

Today our activity was going to the National Museum of the United States Air Force. First we had to drive three hours through some beautiful West Virginia and Ohio countryside with all the trees in full fall color. And then we had four hangers of historic aircraft to look at.

Breakfast.

Ready to go.

We missed the Ohio sign when we crossed the river, so this will have to do.

On the road.

The Sopwith Camel.

Reading "In Flanders Fields"

A Boeing P-26A Peashooter.

A model of a Red Tails P-51 C.

There was a display for the Memphis Belle.

And this is the real Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress Memphis Belle, one of the first bombers to complete 25 missions in WWII.

Apparently the Nazi eagle was taken from Hitler's headquarters, as was the Hitler head next to it (which also has a bullet hole in it).

This is the Bockscar, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the Fat Man plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.

If you remember, we saw the Enola Gay at the Hazy Center, so we have seen both planes that dropped the bombs on Japan.

Some artifacts from a crew member of the Bockscar.

A replica of Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

This one is Little Boy - not a replica, but an actual shell that could have been used for a bomb.

A Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero.

There was a big display for the Doolittle Raiders, who conducted the first air raid on the Japanese on April 18th, 1942. This was the story told in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

These goblets were gifted to the 80 men who flew as Doolittle's Raiders by the city of Tucson in 1959. The survivors met every year, starting in 1946. The tradition was for all the men to drink a toast at their reunion, and then turn the cups of any who had died since the last reunion upside down. Richard Cole was the last Raider to die, in 2019, at the age of 103.

Mom trying out the simulator to grab the Hubble with the Canadarm.

A toy for landing planes on a carrier. Mom and I couldn't do it, but Dad did it perfect on his first try. And his second.

Astronaut Henry.

Astronaut Brian.

Astronaut Ali.

A B-52D Stratofortress.

Under the B-52 bomb bay.

A MiG-21PF. A very popular plane for Americans to shoot down in Vietnam.

Don't remember what this one was - but it was a big cargo plane.

F-86A Sabre. This shot down a lot of MiGs.

Forgot the plane again, but the crew tunnel is really what the picture is about. It barely looks big enough for me to crawl through.

The Northrup-Grumman B-2.

There are a lot of nuclear bombs in this place....

F-16A Fighting Falcon in the Thunderbird livery.

Bell-Boeing CV-22B Osprey - this was the plane I was most excited to see.

Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt, more commonly referred to as the Warthog.

Replica sign from the Berlin Wall.

The Douglas VC-54C Sacred Cow - the plane FDR used. It had a special lift installed to get him on the plane in his wheelchair. Truman also used the plane.

Douglas VC-118 Independence, used by Truman during his presidency.

The Lockheed VC-121E Columbine III - President Eisenhower's plane.

Boeing VC-137-C SAM 26000 - used by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. This was also the plane where Johnson was sworn in as president after Kennedy was assassinated.

And of course there is a LEGO version.

Marine One, as well. Both in 1:40 scale.

Can almost get the whole plane in a panoramic shot.

Lockheed C-130E Hercules, first flown in 1962.

A flying saucer.

Mom with the Starfleet logo - I mean Space Force logo.

Had to show Mom the Osprey.

Lockheed AC-130A Spectre Gunship - a modified version of the C-130 Hercules.

Boeing C-17 Globemaster III.

We left the USAF Museum with time to spare, so we stopped by the memorial to the Wright Brothers, which was basically right next door.

The inscription.

This was our last museum and monument for the trip. We had a short drive to the hotel and plenty of time to relax. We had pizza and ice cream for supper.

We only have two days left! Thanks for reading!

A final thought as our trip comes into its final days.