Now in its ninth decade, the world’s premier militaryaviation museum continues to grow.

The United States Air Force Museum11

With a 230-foot wingspan, this B-36J is the museum’s largest display aircraft. Thehuge B-36 now resides inside the new Eugene W. Kettering Gallery, as does an F-94C (right foreground), as well as the Cessna U-3A (left background) andDeHavilland U-6A Beaver (right background).

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AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2004AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2004

Now in its ninth decade, the world’s premier militaryaviation museum continues to grow.

The United States Air Force Museum11

With a 230-foot wingspan, this B-36J is the museum’s largest display aircraft. Thehuge B-36 now resides inside the new Eugene W. Kettering Gallery, as does an F-94C (right foreground), as well as the Cessna U-3A (left background) andDeHavilland U-6A Beaver (right background).

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AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2004AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2004

AIR FORCE Magazine / January 200448

The opening of the third hangar—theEugene W. Kettering Gallery—addedsome 200,000 square feet of exhibitspace. The new hangar houses manyof the Cold War-era aircraft, such asthe B-36, providing room to displaythe aircraft and artifacts in a chrono-logical order.

At right is an A-10 Thunderbolt II—affectionately known as the Warthog.It was flown by Capt. Paul Johnsonduring Operation Desert Storm.USAF awarded Johnson an Air ForceCross for his part in an eight-hourrescue mission on Jan. 21, 1991.

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Above, two of the many museumvolunteers work on a new exhibit. Atleft, the museum’s B-58A Hustler istowed to the new facility.

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Established in 1923 in a corner ofa hangar at McCook Field in

Dayton, Ohio, the US Air ForceMuseum is the oldest and largestmilitary aviation museum in theworld. It was moved several timesover the years, finally finding apermanent home in 1971 on whatwas the Wright Field portion ofWright–Patterson Air Force Baseoutside Dayton. It was housed in ahuge Quonset-hut-type hangar, that,even then, was too small for itscollection. Some aircraft had to beexhibited outdoors, exposed to theweather. A second hangar was addedin 1988. It would be another 15 yearsbefore the museum could add a thirdhangar, enabling it to move moreaircraft indoors. At right, the mu-seum entrance as it looks today.

AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2004 49

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The museum expansion plans alsoinclude galleries devoted to ballisticmissiles and space. Once completed,the new vertical and cylindrical Hallof Missiles will house 15 missilesindoors. The Space Gallery willinclude other types of artifacts.Above, a mannequin in a 1960sexperimental space suit rides theMarquardt space sled, designed to

One of the latest additions to themuseum’s collection is the B-1Bbomber (above). The 16-year veteranwas the first B-1B to reach 2,000flying hours and flew primarily as atraining aircraft for bomber crews atDyess AFB, Tex.

The museum is not just a collectionof aircraft. Pictured below is a pair ofaircrew headphones. Many of theseindividual elements are used to helpcreate the museum’s new-styleexhibits featuring dynamic represen-tations of actual events. Lifelikemannequins are essential pieces inmany of the new dioramas.

allow individual spacefarers tomaneuver outside a spacecraft. Itwas never used.

AIR FORCE Magazine / January 200450

Shown above is part of the KoreanWar section in the Kettering Gallery.It contains a diorama (left) of a scenefrom the war that is reminiscent ofthe well-known photo of two 4thFighter–Interceptor Wing pilotswalking through the torii-stylegateway at Kimpo AB, South Korea,on their way to combat in MiG Alley.The gateway featured the sign “MiGAlley 200 Miles.” In the museumdisplay, full-size mannequins depicta pilot and a maintenance crew chiefwalking through the historic portal.

Above is one of the many leatherflight jackets in the new gallery’sCold War collection. Painting onleather jackets was an art form thatcarried over from World War II to theKorean War. This Korean War-erajacket sports an F-86 Sabre attackinga MiG-15.

The Kettering Gallery is named afterthe man the museum credits with“jump-starting” the museum back inthe 1970s. Eugene W. Kettering wasan engineer, industrialist, andphilanthropist, as well as Air Forceadvocate for more than 40 years.Museum officials expect to bemoving and shifting aircraft andexhibits in the gallery over the nextfew years but plan to keep the newfacility open during the process.

The museum would not be what it iswithout the professional and volun-teer members of its restorationdivision. Not all aircraft arrive in thecondition of this World War IIJapanese fighter (at left), but manydo require extensive work to getthem into prime display shape. Theaircraft shown here is a KawanishiNIK2 Shiden Kai, known by Americanforces as “George 21.”

Restoration work includes fabricat-ing parts that are no longer availableor hard to get, such as parts for aSoviet-built MiG-23. To restore theMiG, the museum had to fashionmissing panels and the verticalstabilizer—all with an eye towardauthenticity.

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One of the first of the museum’snew-style exhibits was the depiction(above) of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittleand members of his Raiders aboardUSS Hornet. The display requirednearly 5,000 hours of work.

At right is an F-117 stealth fighter.USAF flew the F-117 in combat forthe first time during Operation JustCause in December 1989. The stealthfighter was also key to OperationsDesert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.This F-117 is the second built andwas specially modified for testing.

The Air Force Museum now also hasthe only B-2 stealth bomber ondisplay. The museum rolled out itsrestored ground-test airframe B-2 ina special ceremony last month.Restorers spent nearly three yearsworking on the bomber, which hadbeen intentionally subjected toextreme tests to determine the limitsof structural tolerance. The B-2 cameto the museum disassembled, so therestoration crew had to rebuild the

aircraft, some sections of whichweighed 70,000 pounds.

The addition of the B-2 and other keyartifacts ensures that the Air ForceMuseum will remain the world’spremier military aviation museum. ■