• Aircraft

  • National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

This museum used to be called the "Air Force Museum." I have been to this museum about 80 times since 1969 and have taken photos on about half those trips. This week I decided to move all my AFM shots to one folder, and a sub-folder in that one includes aircraft that used to be at the AFM but are now else where.

One thing about taking photos over the years is you can see the different locations of some, different paint schemes, and even restorations over the years.

Anyway, one of the reasons I made the new folder is so if anyone is interested in a "virtual tour" of the museum (besides going to their web site), you can do so in that folder. Also, for those who have been to the museum and are interested in getting proper IDs for all their planes, mine are 99.99% accurate so you can copy mine (I found one this past week that I had as PA 908 when it should have been PA908).

One last thing: If you have been to the museum in the past, don't assume the shots you have are of the same plane as the newer one. They've exchanged some over the years (e.g. B-18, F-106, T-38, B-1). Feel free to check with me.

Glenn, Thank you, that was very good of you to segregate the museum aircraft into a folder of types. We had only part of a day there last August after EAA AirVenture 2008 at OSH , and took in the IMAX Theater there too, but I will spend some time with your photos as I didn't take many on that visit.

My last two times were separated by over a year (Dec 2006 and May 2008), which is way too long for me! That 9 hour drive isn't as easy as when we lived an hour away. Anyway, these were my first two with a digital camera, so I've been experimenting with it indoors. Some shots I'm not happy with and am looking forward to re-shooting them possibly this summer. I'm also looking forward to a time when I can spend the day there, since the last couple times were really rushed and I only got about 4 hours each time; we were visiting family.

If you get the chance to get down to the museum, you need to plan at least a whole day. If you want to see everything, give yourself two days, but if you just want to look at the planes and go, one day is good. Also, in order to see the planes in the hangar across the way (the "Annex"), which are the presidential planes and the X-planes (and a few others), get there when the museum opens and get signed up right away for the bus trip. Seats go fast as the day wears on.