One reaches the museum’s last hangar by walking through the “missile gallery”:
The principles of rocketry are explained and the museum notes that the New York Times ridiculed Robert Goddard in 1920 and finally apologized in 1969.
Here’s part of the Newspaper of Science’s editorial:
There’s a plaque honoring the founder of Boeing, but no mention of the fact that FDR’s federal government forced its breakup in 1934 due to its alleged monopoly power. Nor is Boeing’s subsequent career as a real estate developer mentioned in which he restricted ownership in his new neighborhoods to whites (he anticipated the Harvard University research described in 2007 by the New York Times in “The downside of diversity”: “the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.”).
The fourth building of the museum contains some impressive items, including the enormous North American XB-70 Valkyrie, Mach 3 predecessor of the B-1 bomber.
My favorite, though, was Wile E. Coyote’s space sled:
The Apollo 15 command module in which Al Worden orbited solo:
Here’s a smiling but unsuccessful competitor to the F-35:
The museum holds a collection of Air Force Ones dating back to FDR, but my favorite is Eisenhower’s:
On the way out of the museum, Outstanding Airmen of the Year are recognized:
A separate area is maintained by the National Aviation Hall of Fame and I was pleased to see Frank Robinson honored (he looks quite tall standing next to the R22!):
A substantial portion of the gift shop is dedicated to Rosie the Riveter:
There are some beautiful memorials near the parking lot set up by various units and retirees of the Air Force:
Here’s one for the Kanye West fans:
Thus concludes my coverage of the 2025 trip to the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio. Allow at least a full day for the experience.
I realize that top commenting and one-liners is key to being a quality commenter on greenspun.org, but that’s not my forte.
> The Apollo 15 command module in which Al Worden orbited solo:
Was he OK? That capsule looks rusted and burnt, dude.
> Thus concludes my coverage of the 2025 trip to the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio. Allow at least a full day for the experience.
I had just got done asking AI:
> Hey Trailmix, how many hangars does the US airforce museum have in Dayton? For scheduling purposes, I need to know when Greenspun is going to stop posting about it. Don’t lie and tell me 5 like last time. The Vietnam war was barely over when I last visited.
Mistral Small 3
As of my last update, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, has four main hangars. These hangars are:
Hangar 1: This hangar houses the museum’s early years and World War I exhibits.
Hangar 2: This hangar features exhibits from World War II and the Korean War.
Hangar 3: This hangar includes exhibits from the Cold War and the Vietnam War.
Hangar 4: This hangar is dedicated to the post-Vietnam era, including the Gulf War and the War on Terror.
Regarding Greenspun’s posts, I don’t have real-time data or the ability to predict future activities. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, you might want to check the museum’s official website or contact them directly.
Imagine the cost of climate control & lighting for so much indoor space. That’s the power of fiat money. Imagine a time of such limited data communication that a single newspaper article or blog comment was worthy of a museum piece.
I was just thinking about how my cognitive decline started after I stopped reaching for “Janes All the World’s Aircraft” on some exotic plane–and started asking psychotic, racist propaganda-bots. “Duh, how did dose guys in WWII breathe past 10K ft…”
(My finbro chums didn’t think my prepper paper SpringBok fiat currency with my picture on it, for after the A.I. singularity, was funny. I don’t think derivatives or bitcoin are remotely funny either. 😛 )