Seriously, this is going to be the hardest part of this three part Blog entry. We spent our second day of our two day weekend at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. It is located at Wright-Patterson AFB. The building space includes a lobby with an IMAX theater to the left and, to the right, a gift shop in the huge hallway that goes into the first of three hanger shaped building ending with a circular building. There are also a couple of things outside that, due to the ridiculously cold weather, we opted not to tour. When I say 'hanger shaped' you must also picture hanger sized. These are not small buildings.
The first hanger had the 'Early Years Gallery' on the right and the 'World War II Gallery' on the left. The passageway to the second hanger is separated by the National Aviation Hall of Fame Gallery. The second hanger has the 'Korean War Gallery' on the right and the 'Southeast Asia War Gallery' on the left. In the Korean War Gallery are two simulator rides you must pay for called the Morphis MovieRide. We did not ride these. A passageway between the second and third hangers has the 'Berlin Airlift Exhibit'. The third hanger hanger has the 'Eugene W. Kettering Cold War Gallery'. The 'Missile & Space Gallery' is located in the circular building at the very end.
Why is this particular Blog entry difficult?
1st, I only kept 312 of the pictures I took at this location. That infers there were many, many, many more pictures and these are just the only ones I kept. I will definitely not be posting 312 pictures in this Blog. However, I must peruse all 312 pictures to find this ones I want to post in this Blog entry. Yike!!
2nd, I firmly believe my dear hubby bought me a digital camera because he knew I enjoy taking picture. But underneath that is the knowledge it will keep me amused while he really learns about the ins and outs of things. As a consequence, I wander around and take pictures while he reads and listens. Between the two of us we leave places we visit with a pretty good combined knowledge of what we saw. However, I clearly don't have a clue as to the planes I saw this time. Three huge hangers is a lot to ingest. So I determined when I entered this mammoth museum I would enjoy the colors, designs, angles and paintings on the planes and fore go trying to catalog so I could label pictures later. Hence, I have a lot of pictures with no names on them.
3rd, I found a fascination with propellers. The 'Early Years Gallery' had lots of propellers. The 'World War II Gallery' also had lots of propellers. Not so many in the 'Cold Ward Gallery'. So I pick a few of the propellers I found fun to look at.
We did walk the entire museum. The IMAX theater was closed as they renovate. It was 'Family Day' at the museum. They do this once a month and have special activities for kids of all ages. The museum was full of families and scout troops. The cost for touring the museum is $0.00. That's right. Nada, zero, zip. You would need to be prepared to pay extra for the IMAX and the flight simulators. You also need to be prepared to spend a lot of time on your feet on concrete floors.
So, here are a few pictures of a wonderful day spent in the company of aircraft.
Our visited started with a quick walk by this park to the side of the parking and the hangers. It actually looks like it might be some type of cemetery. But closer inspections lets you know it is a Memorial Park to many Air Force units through the years. Claude is in the bright yellow coat.
The first had to do with the official song for the Air Force. It was originally written in 1938 by Robert Crawford as an entry in a contest sponsored by Liberty Magazine for a song for the Army Air Corp. Army Air Corp wives picked his entry out of the 757 scores submitted. The Army Air Corp version had two verses and between the verses there were the words 'Clear, Clear, Contact, Grr, and Zoom'. In 1947 the Air Force split from the Army and the song was tweeked a bit. The score on exhibit now had three verses and the Batman like verbage was eliminated. The song actually changed names three times with the Army Air Corp version and was changed finally to The U.S. Air Force" for the 1947 version.
The first page submitted to the judging committe was carried to the surface of the moon in the Apollo 15 'Falcon' lunar module by Colonel David R. Scott and Lieutenant Colonel James B. Irwin on July 30, 1971 (my 21st birthday). At the moment the Falcon blasted off the surface of the moon, Major Alfred M. Warden, Jr., who was in the 'Endeavor' command module orbiting the moon, played on a tape recorder a rendition of 'Air Force Song' for the world to hear. This was the only 'All-Air Force' Apollo crew. Here is a picture of the original pencil score by Robert Crawford from May 1939.
We walked the entire middle hanger next. This hanger had the 'Korean War Gallery' and the 'Southeast Asia War Gallery'. We found aircraft that appeared to be flying whales. We walked through a B-29. I found this beautiful black airplane that I was trying to take pictures at different angles. When I got to the very front I realized it was two planes connected by a wing-like piece. It looked like an aircraft version of a Siamese-twin. I was bemused. I told Claude there was truly no way that could have flown. Each pilot would have had to be exactly doing what the other did. I further postulated that if this proposed aircraft had been given to me to approve payment for the making of it, I would have laughed out loud. Nonetheless, here it sat in this museum for us all to see and I had to get closer to the front to realize it was actually two separate cockpits in two separate bodies connected by this wing-like piece. Claude really laughed at me when we got to another part of this museum and there was another one in a different color. I just looked at Claude and said, "What do you know? They made two of them!"
This plane is just HUGE!!! As you walk this museum you must remember to look up and under and around to see all the aircraft. After we looked at this plane from this angle, we would have walked around the museum and looked at all these other planes in, over and around it. I'm pretty sure...that when we got to the back side of this plane the two picture I have posted next were of the interior where the bombs would have been located. They had that open for us to look in and on the floor below the opening was the painting of the bombs flying through the sky. I found this a well done exhibit to help you understand what it might be like.
The next picture is what I think of as a fighter pilot. Not sure what kind of plane the particular one is but it represents to me a fighter plane. The last for these galleries was just an interesting view of a carrier of some kind.
The hallway to the third and final hanger had the 'Berlin Airlift Exhibit'. Let me just say there was a lot that tore at my mothering heart-strings. All this military might so we can have peace was overwhelming. Then this little display in the Berlin Exhibit of children really filled me with emotion.
The final hanger contained the 'Cold War Gallery'.
This panorama picture was taken from a walk-out balcony area on the second floor of the 'Missile & Space Gallery'. It just gives you a sense of the size of this one hanger. Not all of the hanger is even visible in this picture. We are talking HUGE!
Claude and I were married during the Vietnam War. He served in the Air Force during this time. His job was totally secret. We couldn't ever discuss his work. He was locked in a vault when at work. All I knew was from the open house they would have every year. We would go and they would let us tour a carefully cleared out version of their office. I knew it had to do with mapping.
As we toured the 'Cold War Gallery', I came across this interesting piece of equipment.
I must assume, since it was sitting right there for the entire world to see, that it is not as secret anymore. It was in the early 70's when Claude worked for the Reconnaissance Technical Squadron. However, even after all these years, I felt concern in voicing anything about this object in front of me. I quietly called Claude over and whispered, "It this what you worked with all those years ago." Claude, in typical Claude fashion, said, "If I told you, I would have to kill you." I am gullible but I'm also very curious. Continuing to whisper, I pointed out to him what was written on the sign describing this exhibit and told him I just thought it might have to do with his work many years ago. I asked him how long he would have to keep all that secret. He wasn't sure about the detail that he knew but he did lean over to me and said something about 'if I went behind that green door I might see something like this'. I felt satisfied with that answer. Clearly the table to read those maps was on display for everyone to see. No particulars were shared so Claude did not compromise any of his ancient knowledge. I believe we were safe and I feel safe enough to include this so our kids will have that bit of their father's history. Oh, this is a table and those microscope things move up and down so they magnify the objects on pictures that were placed under the glass table. The pictures they used for this exhibit were of the Cuban missile crisis.
We went into the circular building that is the 'Missile & Space Gallery'. There were space capsules which make one wonder at the type of person that could be in that tiny space for any period of time at all. There were rockets. I walked up the stairs to the second floor were there is a display of different types of gondolas that would have been used with a hot air balloons to study various things. As we exited this gallery, I saw the framework of a rocket in scaled down form. I glanced briefly at it and then did a double-take and went back to look more closely. Yep, there were two monkeys in this replica of the rocket that would have taken them into space.
Now we walked back through the second and third galleries to see the other half of the first gallery which was the 'World War II Gallery.
At one point I looked up. I saw this lumbering thing that could not possibly have flown because it truly didn't look like it could get off the ground. I called Claude to look at it with me and see if he could figure it out.
On further checking we found this airplane under it.
This airplane had hooks coming out from under the front. Again, these didn't make any since to me. Claude came over to check them out also.
Then we say the picture explaining all these pieces of our puzzle. The clunky plane that couldn't fly on its own was a glider. The plane with the hooks would fly over the glider and catch it with the hooks and carry that glider into the air and let go of it at just the right spot. Where, I am sure, it would plummet to the earth. I know, I know, I absolutely do not understand the mechanics of flight.
That was our tour. By the time we finished we were quite exhausted and ready to bundle up to get to our car in that balmy 20 degree weather. We stopped at Bob Evans for a nice warm meal on our way home.
We had a good time in Dayton. I can say we will now carry good memories of the city of Dayton, Ohio. We will still probably complain about I-75 through Dayton but we'll know that beyond the borders of the Interstate lie a nice city with some great places for tourist to visit.
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