Trip to the National Museum of the US Air Force

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XC-99

This one is rather amazing. It was a transport version of the B-36 bomber with a double deck fuselage. Only the prototype was made but the Air Force still made use of it for years until it was pushed off to the side at Kelly Air Force Base where it sat for years and years until it was dismantled and the pieces flown to the museum in a C-5 Galaxy.

At the time I took this tour I did not know it has been moved from Kelly and was totally amassed to see the horizontal stabilizer in the storage hanger. The thing was so huge my first guess was that it was a DC-3 wing until I read the sign. The pictures of the pieces from above is a satellite picture as even though I saw it as we left the hanger we were not allowed to take pictures out side as it was on Wight Paterson AFB.

 
XB-42 Mixmaster

This is one of my favorite mid to late 40's what if prototypes. Thin Allison engines imbedded in the fuselage driving contra-rotating propellers in the tail via drive shafts. Kind of our version of the Do-335, but good looking. I fell in love with this one after seeing it in Lloyd S. Jones's US Bombers and could not believe it when I came across it and its brother the jet powered XB-43 sitting in the storage hanger with the wings sawn off. Wish I could have taken it home with me.

 
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T,
That MIG had a hangar mate at one time. They had them both in front of the Museum next to an A-10 and an F-15. They moved one inside. I wondered what happened to the second one.

I haven't gotten out to the restoration hangar since they moved the Presidential collection. Thanks for the pics.
Tim
 
The Douglas A-1 Skyraider

Designed during World War II for the U.S. Navy and used my them in the during the Korean War. The Airforce used the A-1 extensivally during the Vietnam War where its ability to carry an immense amount of weapons and stay over the battlefield for extended periods made it a very useful weapon.

This is one they were working on at the time. The last couple of pictures is of what is essentially a giant vacu-form machine which they were using to form a new bubble canopy for the Skyraider.

 
One of my favourite exhibits at Dayton is the A-1E flown by Bernie Fisher when he won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. It's the only surviving MoH airframe in the world. TBolt's pics at post #375 show a different, single-seat, A-1 than Bernie Fisher's airframe...but still very cool!
 
The Boeing X-32

I always thought this one looked like a pelican with its mouth open.
It was a multi-purpose jet fighter in the Joint Strike Fighter contest and lost out to the Lockheed Martin X-35 which was further developed into the F-35

 

Lockheed XF-90

Ever wonder what a jet aircraft would look like after being in 3 nuclear explosions? Well here it is.

The XF-90 was a bit too far ahead of its time for the power plants available so was not produced and sent to a nuclear test range and suffered through 3 nuclear tests before the hulk was hauled to the museum. It actually looks worse than it was when removed from the test site as the rivets were found to be radioavtive and all had to be removed.

 
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