Road Trip Chronicles Vol. 3: USAF Museum

The USAF Museum is big. Really, Really Big. Almost too big.

This is how big one of the hangars is...

Aaaand there are three of them.

But they have virtually EVERYTHING the USAF and USAAF has ever flown, over 300 aircraft and missiles. In addition to that, there are cases of artifacts everywhere. I got to see alot of aircraft I have never seen before and have always wanted to see, including...

Douglas A-20 Havoc


Douglas B-18 Bolo

Martin B-26G Marauder

Bockscar (The B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki)
Fairchild C-82 Packet (the type of airplane used in the original Flight Of The Phoenix)
Northrop F-89 Scorpion (I've seen these before, but I just love 'em!)
I finally got to see a "razorback" Republic P-47D Thunderbolt
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
Bell P-39 Airacobra (it was in a sweet Alaskan diorama, hence the fake snow)
McDonnell RF-101 Voodoo (I really like Voodoo's, especially the RF versions)
Supermarine Spitfire Mark Vc (I think the tropical chin filter looks sweet)
Northrop YC-125 Raider (In the late 1940's, the USAF needed a rugged short field cargo plane, and Northrop came up with the Raider. Only 10 were built, only two are left)
Douglas A-26 Invader (I've seen Invaders before, I just like the nose art on this one)
Fw-190D-9. This is an airplane that actually made me a little sad to see, because my dad couldn't come on my trip with me, and he absoloutely loves long nose Fw-190's
North American A-36, ground-attack version of the P-51 Mustang
Curtiss AT-9 Jeep (one of two left)
North American F-82 Twin-Mustang "Betty Jo" (flew from Hawaii to New York nonstop without re-fueling)
Boeing EC-135
Cutaway North American F-86 Sabre
North American RF-86 Sabre (these F-86's were used on classified reconaissance flights over North Korea during the Korean war. It has painted on gun ports, to attempt to scare off any enemy fighters the pilot may have run into)
Lockheed F-94 Starfire
CASA 352L (Spanish Junkers Ju-52)
Junkers Ju-88
Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet
Seversky P-35
Curtiss P-36 Hawk (Depicted as Lt. Rasmussen's airplane. Rasmussen took off during the attack at Pearl Harbor in his pajamas, shot down one Zero, then fled, with his hydraulics shot out and his rudder cable severed, he landed his plane with over 500 bullet holes)
Bell P-63 Kingcobra
Consolidated PBY Catalina
Panavia Tornado (Gulf War Veteran)
It's really hard to see, but this is one of four surviving Northrop P-61 Black Widow's, three of which I saw on my trip (the fourth is in Beijing, China)
Boeing B-17G (this B-17 flew combat missions over europe during WWII)
This is another one of my favortie pictures from my trip that I took, Consolidated B-24D "Strawberry Bitch". This B-24 actually flew combat missions during WWII.
This is one of the engines off of the infamous B-24 "Lady Be Good"
Boeing B-52 nose art

These are the Doolittle Raider goblets. After the Doolittle Raid, goblets were made up and a bottle of 1896 (the year Doolittle was born) V.O. Henessey for the gatherings that the raiders would have. Each goblet has the name of one of the raiders who flew on the missions. When they get together every year, the goblets of the raiders that died over the previous year are turned upside down. When there are only two surviving raiders, they will get to gether and drink the bottle. As a humorous side note, the bottle of V.O. Henessey isn't the original bottle they had. The goblets and bottle were on display at the Air Force academy, and the bottle was stolen one night. However, Doolittle himself wasn't angry, and wrote in a letter that if he was a student, he would have done the same thing.

This is a piece of a wall from a hangar in England

So yeah, the USAF Museum is aviation overload. But if you have any sort of interest in aviation, you have to go there sometime.