Tuesday, March 2, 2010

USAF Museum Series: Part 3

Today we continue the series, moving from the Early Years Gallery and the dawn of aviation into World War II and the Air Power Gallery.

You'll notice that the first couple of photos are related to the Doolittle Raid on mainland Japan and I want to mention an important related event. On the weekend of April 16th thru 18th, the USAF Museum will be hosting a Doolittle Raiders Reunion. Many events are planned, including a dinner and an attempt to fly twenty-five B-25s in to the runway behind the museum. I hope that you'll consider making the trip to Dayton to attend this amazing event.

It's quite the honor to be able to see the Doolittle Raiders' Goblets in person

This B-25B is a pristine example of what struck the heart of Japan on April 18, 1942

PT-13D Stearman Kaydet, not too unlike the PT-17 we have at Stewart

Yet another amazing piece of WWII history - a B-17G Flying Fortress, "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby"

As I mentioned when I posted the video last week, I absolutely love the P-51 Mustang!

This very B-29 Superfortress dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945

A detailed look at the Bockscar's nose art

Replicas of the Fat Man and Little Boy atomic bombs perched under the B-29's mighty wing

Look forward to modern aviation being introduced in Part 4 of the series, including many Vietnam-era aircraft.

As always, just a reminder that you can access any of the posts in this series by clicking on the USAF Museum tag in the navigation bar to the right or at the bottom of the posts.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, crazy you saw those WWII bombers that ended it all.

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  2. Nice write-up. It's been nearly 20 years since I visited...clearly they've fixed things up a bit since then. As much as I love the WWII aircraft, I'm in awe of the XB-70.

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  3. ...and they're only 5 miles away from me. Always available during a visit! ;-)

    Paul - they've moved the XB-70 to their special X-Planes / Presidential Aircraft gallery that's on the active base. It's still free to visit, but you do have to sign up and take a bus over thru security. So I won't have any photos of the Valkyrie until I get over there again. JFK's Air Force One (SAM 26000) is off display for a paint job so I'll probably wait to go back over until that's done.

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  4. Hi very nice photographs here and also i like some aviation news links in right side of this blog.

    Thanks. Very nice post.

    Aviation Program

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  5. Great pictures and museum series, thanks for posting!

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  6. I am surely going to attend this event. As I want to have a look of b-25. It's not only amazing in looks but even while working it stands out in its process system. I had learned this at my aviation program.
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    Aviation Program

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  7. I remember going through that museum many years ago with gentleman who actually built some of those planes. He would point out specific pieces that he riveted. I wish I could relieve that experience now that I have a better appreciation for it.

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