Shipbucket

Because we got in early (we were waiting for them to let us in past the new metal detectors), I was able to get a shot of the B-52 with now people in front of it, a rare thing:




The following are of the Red Bull Stratos Capsule, Felix Baumgartner's suit, and the rest of the temporary display they have. It will be there until at least the end of the month.






















Again, so early in the morning, I was able to get a shot of the Bird of Prey over the F-22:




And Global Hawk!



For the Canadians, here is the CF-100 Canuk fighter:




HU-16 Albatross:




The boxes for the Stratos display were behind the WB-50:




Cowtown Hustler:




LR-87 Titan engines:




Inside the missile silo, looking up:




The Kittinger display, showing off the Project Excelsior jump:




View of the Cold War hanger from the observation deck:





KH-9 Hexagon:




Here we start to see the as of yet unopened Shuttle Cockpit Crew Trainer display:












I think I found my new avatar (trimmed of course):




It turns out that Strawberry Bitch's ball turret was sitting in a B-17 at Dover AFB for decades. In it's place was a B-17 turret. Oops:




V-2. When it was restored they found original graffiti inside from the slave-labor production:




The currently displayed B-17G. She's going to be replaced on the floor display with both Memphis Belle and Swoose when they are finished, with the plans to eventually get another B-17G.




Bock's Car, again with no one around:




Now we start the Behind the Scenes Tour. This is offered once a week, and has limited slots.

Here is the museum's newly delivered CV-22. They sare still stripping her down for usable parts to return to the active fleet:




A sample of a B-17 flight control surface. The layers of tape, muslin, & adhesive were cured to produce a fiberglass like material:




A corroded structural member from the tail of Memphis Belle:




And you can see where they are replacing the sheet metal where needed:




Memphis Belle in her current state:




Looking in her tail, you can see weights that were added after the engines were installed:




Field-repaired battle damage will be left in place for display:




The original instrument panel was modified after she was brought home for her War Bond tour (and conversion to a trainer). They had rebuilt the original section of the instrument panel only to have recently discovered that the original one was still around, and will be brought back:




Cleaning the metal after a panel removal:




The nose:




The props:




Looking up into her dorsal turret:




Our tour guide was the 'Turret guy' for the restoration team:




The ball turret for the B-17F:




The tail turret assembly:




There were many names scratched into the metal, some with 1944 and 1943 dates. They have been trying to contact Anyone who did so to see if they can get the story of why and how this happened to an active duty plane:




Swoose (B-17D). She's not in good shape:






This is the wood frame they use to make bubble canopies that they need:




More Swoose:






Aft end of the CV-22:




Business end of a Titan IV booster:




The fairings of said booster. Also visible is the engine of the X-32 and the tails of both the XF-90 and an Iraqi MiG-25:




The X-32:




Wasserfall, Q-6 supersonic target, and T-46 Eaglet:




XB-42 Mixmaster Nose:




XB-43 Jetmaster Nose:






At least the sisters get to sit next to each other these days:




One of the two Atlas rockets in storage:




Boeing Stearman torn down for repairs:




From there my friend and I took the Presidential & R&D Tour (offered four days a week):

First up, we see an F-100 in Thunderbirds livery:




YF-12, D-21, & XB-70:




XB-70 & Tacit Blue:




XB-70, X-4, and the cockpit of the YF-23 can be seen over the back of the X-4:




XF-92 and XB-70 nose:




Injured Kestrel makes TJ sad.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Yeah, tires are a bitch to preserve.

Most of the tires in the museum are filled with rubber, but yeah, this time they were in worse shape than I've seen before.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Awesome Pictures. What was the most impressive exhibit or display in the museum?
I've been to the USS Miday, the USS Intrepid, the Smithsonian, and the San Diego aerospace museum myself and I'd love to see how they stacked up against Dayton one day.

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Projects:
Zealandia AU
John Company AU
References and feedback is always welcome!

I'm a horrible person to ask that question of, for I've been to the museum on average every 6 months for most of my life. The collection of one-offs (and almost one-offs) in the R&D hanger (YF-12, XB-70, X-1B, X-3, X-4, X-5, X-10, X-15, X-24B, SV-5J (made up as X-24A), X-29, D-21, XV-3, YF-23, ect.) is spectacular, as is the restoration tour. Both are limited access (as they are on-base). In the main part of the museum Bock's Car is imposing (although small relative to her successors in the B-36, B-47, B-52, B-1 and B-2), and the SR-71 is sleek. They had to close up the C-124 because someone tried to deface the inside, but she's pretty to look at.
I've not been to Udvar Hazy, and my last visit to The Smithsonian was two decades ago, so I can't comment on those, but the NMUSAF is a much better aviation museum than the one in San Diego (I was there back around Christmas 2011). Really, the only competitors for quality (in the US) are Udvar Hazy, and maybe The Museum of Flight in Seattle. It's really a world class museum (not just a world class aviation museum, but a museum in general). If you ever do come to Dayton, do set aside time to hit the other aviation sites nearby, and of all things - the Dayton Art Institute. It's not a world class facility, but it is very much a very strong regional/low end national art museum - mostly because it's one of the old WPA art schools.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

Wow! Awesome photos!

Interesting, well I'm definitely putting Dayton on my bucket list. I've been to Washington Dulles twice before so I can't believe I've missed it Udvar Hazy, hopefully I'll get to do back and check it out.
From my personal experience, the the Midway has been my favorite.

_________________
Projects:
Zealandia AU
John Company AU
References and feedback is always welcome!

An impressive collection of photos.

Also, kudos for getting the B-52 into one shot! In the American hangar at Duxford you get a piece in every photo you take of something else, but never much of the entire thing!

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

So I went earlier today with my friend because the Crew Compartment Trainer is now open to the public:

May the Spirit of Freedom be upon you.




First real view of the now-open Crew Compartment Trainer








Here we see TEAL RUBY, what was to be the first payload launched on a shuttle out of Vandenburg in July 1986, but the Challenger Disaster resulted in the cancellation of the mission












The Flight Deck of CCT-1:






Looking out over the cargo bay area, you can get a feel for the size and the accessibility of the exhibit.




The Mid Deck:










Looking in the mid-deck through the crew hatch:




The Nighthawk was hiding behind the Spectre:




The tail of the mock-up.




More of the Mockup:




I just liked the lines from this angle:




Lines so far for the next one:
"In Soviet Russia, MiG-29 OMFG THAT'S A SPACE SHUTTLE!"

"The CCT-1 Shuttle mock-up: probably more reliable in the air than any MiG-29."

"What a cute fighter jet, Russia! HERE IS OUR SPACESHIP!"




An old favorite:




The missile silo:
















DSP Satellite




Still tweaking settings on the camera to get the best shots in the darkness of the museum. This didn't come out as well as I had hoped :/




Photobomb!

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Fantastic photos!