 1 Today, Thursday 5 November, the dream comes true and I have three full days to spend at the museum. The museum is located on what was once the (Wilbur) Wright Field flight Line which, for many years, is where the US army flew and tested captured enemy aircraft - the German Me262 jet fighter of WWII being such an example. |
 2 Today, Thursday 5 November, the dream comes true and I have three full days to spend at the museum. The museum is located on what was once the (Wilbur) Wright Field flight Line which, for many years, is where the US army flew and tested captured enemy aircraft - the German Me262 jet fighter of WWII being such an example. |
 3 The base itself is named after the Wright brothers and Frank Stuart Patterson who was the son and nephew of the co-founders of National Cash Register. Patterson was killed on 19 June, 1918 in the crash of his Airco DH4 at Wilbur Wright Field. |
 4 I've just finished looking at the Early Years Gallery and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. As I look out the window, I see many planes parked on the runway. The weather is a perfect 22° so I decide to go and investigate. |
 5 This is the runway of the old Wright Field flight line. It is now a parking lot for museum staff and volunteers. The area beyond is called the Air Park. |
 6 The LOCKHEED C-141C STARLIFTER was built between 1963 and 1967 and was the USAF's first jet aircraft designed to meet military standards as a troop and cargo carrier. For more than 40 years the C-141 Starlifter performed numerous airlift missions for the US Air Force. Its range and high speed enabled the Starlifter to transport personnel and materiel rapidly across the globe. |
 7 A significant mission was that flown by the Hanoi Taxi, the aircraft on display. This C-141 airlifted the first American prisoners of war to freedom from Hanoi, North Vietnam, on Feb. 12, 1973. The Hanoi Taxi flew two missions into Hanoi carrying out 78 POWs and two civilian returnees to the Philippines, and four missions from the Philippines to the United States carrying 76 ex-POWs. |
 8 In May 2004 the Hanoi Taxi again tapped the timelines of history when Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier, himself a POW repatriated from Vietnam, flew it back to Vietnam to repatriate the remains of two American service members killed in action. The Hanoi Taxi was retired to the museum in May 2006. |
 9 LOCKHEED C-60A LODESTAR is a twin-engine transport based on the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar. During World War II, the Army Air Forces used the aircraft for training and for transporting personnel and freight. |
 10 The Army began ordering military versions of the Lodestar in May 1941. Lockheed built more C-60As for the AAF (325) than any other version of the military Lodestar. The C-60A on display was flown to the museum in 1981. |
 11 The NORTHROP YC-125B RAIDER was the military version of a Northrop commercial cargo aircraft. The YC-125 series was intended to satisfy two types of missions for the Air Force: troop & equipment transport to forward combat areas and Arctic rescue. The YC-125 was designed to operate from rough, short airfields and to be easily maintained. |
 12 The aircraft on display is painted to represent the YC-125B used for cold weather testing based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1950. It was placed on display in 1995. |
 13 The FAIRCHILD C-119J FLYING BOXCAR was designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients and mechanized equipment, and to drop cargo and troops by parachute. The first C-119 made its initial flight in November 1947, and by the time production ceased in 1955, more than 1,100 C-119s had been built. |
 14 The C-119J on display was specially modified for the mid-air retrieval of space capsules re-entering the atmosphere from orbit. On August 19, 1960, this aircraft made the world's first mid-air recovery of a capsule returning from orbit when it "snagged" the parachute lowering the Discoverer XIV satellite at 8,000 feet altitude, 360 miles southwest of Honolulu. A winch operator then hauled it on board. |
 15 The LOCKHEED AC-130A HERCULES was originally designed as an assault transport capable of operating from unpaved, hastily prepared airstrips. The Hercules made its first flight in 1954 and by 1976 more than 1,200 C-130s had been ordered. The C-130 could transport up to 92 combat troops and their gear or 45,000 pounds of cargo. Where facilities were inadequate, the Hercules could deliver its cargo by parachute or by low altitude ground-cable extraction. |
 16 Twenty-eight C-130s were converted to side-firing gunships, primarily for night attacks against ground targets. This AC-130A was modified at Wright-Patterson AFB as the prototype for the gunship version and was initially equipped with four 20mm and four 7.62mm multi-barrel guns, a searchlight and target sensors. |
 17 The JUNKERS JU 52 trimotor was first built in the 1930s and remained in service for more than a quarter century. The heavy bomber version formed the nucleus of the Luftwaffe's infant bomber force in the mid-1930s and it was used during the Spanish Civil War. |
 18 The Ju 52 was obsolete as a bomber by 1939, but because of its durability, simplicity of design and handling characteristics, it continued to serve throughout World War II as a versatile workhorse of the German transport fleet. For a period, Adolf Hitler used a Ju 52 as his private transport. |
 19 Approximately 30 different countries have flown Ju 52s. The aircraft on display was donated to the museum by the Spanish government in 1971. |
 20 The BOEING NKC-135A STRATOTANKER (AIRBORNE LASER LAB) on display is one of 14 KC-135As permanently converted for special testing. It was extensively modified by the Air Force weapons Laboratory and used in an 11-year experiment to prove a high-energy laser could be operated in an aircraft and employed against airborne targets. During the experiment, the Airborne Laser Lab destroyed five AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and a Navy BQM-34A target drone. |
 21 BOEING EC-135E ARIA. During the early 1960s, NASA and the Department of Defense needed a mobile tracking and telemetry platform to support the Apollo space program and other unmanned space flight operations. Eight Boeing C-135 Stratolifter cargo aircraft were modified as Apollo/Range Instrumentation Aircraft (A/RIA). The A/RIA remained in service until the end of the Apollo program in 1972. |
 22 The hangar on the right carries the National insignia for the period 1919-1942. The centre hangar is for 1942-1943 while the remaining hangar carries the insignia from 1947 when the US Air Force was formed as a separate branch of the military. |
 23 A fourth hangar is planned to be built and it will possibly carry the national insignia for the period 1943-1947 (which is like the middle one but with white bars added). Visible at the far right is the IMAX Theatre (actually spelled that way) |
 24 It's now Friday 6 November and, after my second full day at the museum, I walk to my motel which can be seen in the distance. The flag is at half mast because a US Army Officer stationed at Fort Bragg in Texas went berserk and killed 13 people. |
 25 I walk out the entrance gate as the only pedestrian to be seen for many Kms. My behaviour was so unusual that I actually thought someone in a uniform with a gun might rush up and want to know what I was doing. |
 26 The museum is huge and states without any exaggeration that it is the largest such museum in the world. |
 27 The museum from the driveway of my hotel. |
 28 The room was large, had a very nice bed and was reasonably priced at $A130. |
 29 The next morning, Saturday 7 November, I walk back to the museum for my final glorious day there. By now I have seen all the main exhibits and plan to spend today going back over things but this time with a high-powered flash attached to my camera. |
 30 The third day pictures were terrible. They can be identified in the following sections as being too dark and very grainy. They were so bad that Photoshop could do nothing with them. The best pictures are those I took at slow speed with a tripod on my chest that supported the camera to stop it from shaking. |
 31 12 April 2020 It's now nearly 11 years later and the fourth hangar has been open since June 18, 2016. The Presidential Hangar and the Research area are now housed in the fourth hangar ALONG WITH A RETIRED SPACE SHUTTLE! Wow! Also the mystery of the fourth building's logo has been resolved - it's the new US Air Force logo introduced in 2000 and designated as the official logo in 2004. |
 32 12 April 2020 The United States Air Force Symbol is the symbol of the United States Air Force (I didn't write that! It's from Wikipedia). The new Air Force symbol is based on the familiar World War II "Hap" Arnold wings and represents the service's heritage. The symbol’s modern design represents the Air Force’s present and future leading edge capabilities defending the United States. |
