United States Air Force Museum

On Tuesday I went to the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio with Trevor's school on a field trip. The USAF Museum is dimly lit to preserve the aircraft and artifacts from light damage. This of course makes it difficult to photograph. Fortunately the museum is tripod friendly. This allowed me to get several good shots of a few aircraft. Due to the time constraints of the trip I was not able to spend a lot of time photographing, but I was happy with what I left with.

The first photo is from the early years of flight and is the Curtiss Jenny.



We visited the World War II Gallery and spent the most time there. The first aircraft is the Curtiss P-36A Hawk.



I also had was able to photograph the nose of the B-17G Flying Fortress Shoo Shoo Baby. Another outstanding aircraft.



We had the opportunity to go to the hangers that housed the Presidential aircraft and experimental aircraft. This is the Bell X-1B. The X-1B was hung underneath another aircraft and carried aloft to test rocket engines and supersonic flight.



Another aircraft in the hanger was the YF-12 which was the precursor to the SR-71 spy plane. The YF-12's powerful Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines were amazing.



As the day wrapped up I shot a quick panorama of the Cold War Hanger. This hanger houses the largest aircraft in the museum. Be sure to click the images to see them larger.



Enjoy,
Chris