USAF Museum Series: Part 8

As I mentioned in a post last month, I was able to spend a couple more days at the museum in mid-April. I finally made it to the Presidential and R&D Galleries that are situated on an active part of the Air Force base. In addition, I took some new shots in the other galleries that I'll add to the series in the future. This post has photos from the R&D Gallery and the next one will contain Presidential Gallery aircraft - including SAM 26000, the airplane that carried JFK back from Dallas in 1963.

The XB-70 Valkyrie just barely fits inside the hangar at WPAFB Area B

This F-16 (AFTI) was used to test hundreds of new ideas from 1978 to 2000

The Fisher P-75A was unique in having twin counter-rotating propellers

Northrop's X-4 was used to study flight characteristics at near-supersonic speeds

The YF-23A was the losing design in the program that produced the F-22 Raptor

Tacit Blue was used to test stealth technology during the development of the B-2

The Boeing YQM-94A was a remotely piloted recon prototype built in the 1970s

The Boeing X-40A was part of a USAF space vehicle program in the 1990s

One of the most recognizable experimental aircraft ever built, the Ryan X-13 Vertijet

The North American F-107A was designed as a fighter-bomber

The Douglas X-3 Stilletto tested new materials like titanium

Republic XF-91, an interceptor that incorporated both jet and rocket engines

The Lockheed YF-12A was developed into the SR-71

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.