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Hi guys!

 

Hope you all are doing fine. I'm planning on visiting the Air Force museum this weekend. How much time is recommended spending in the museum? Is one day enough? I'm planning on doing a little road trip from Boston to the Air Force Museum and then pass through the MAPS Air Museum when I get back to Boston. Can this be done in four days? My idea is to drive two days and spend the other two in the museums.

 

Thank you!

 

Tato

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Not sure how much time you'd want to devote to seeing the USAF Museum, but the drive from Boston to Dayton is on the order of 13+ hrs each way, not including any stops for gas/food/etc. you make and not accounting for any adverse weather you may encounter.  Doable in a day, but that's a long day's drive.  Personally, I think 4 days for both the driving and 2 museums might not be enough.

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I've been several times always spend a full day there. If it were my first (and possibly only) visit I'd recommend two days, and try to get on one of the tours of the restoration annex if they still offer those. 

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I strongly suggest looking at the National Weather Service 7 day forecast, with radar and watches/warnings, pages before traveling.

Right now the whole region is expecting snow Wednesday and Thursday, then some rain in places, but weekend seems to look reasonable.

 

Dayton/Wright Patterson

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=39.7592&lon=-84.1938#.Y873763MJPY

 

Boston/Logan International

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.3587&lon=-71.0567#.Y874Gq3MJPY

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6 hours ago, Joe Hegedus said:

Not sure how much time you'd want to devote to seeing the USAF Museum, but the drive from Boston to Dayton is on the order of 13+ hrs each way, not including any stops for gas/food/etc. you make and not accounting for any adverse weather you may encounter.  Doable in a day, but that's a long day's drive.  Personally, I think 4 days for both the driving and 2 museums might not be enough.

 

Thanks Joe. I don't mind driving long distances, in fact I quite enjoy it. My idea is to drive the whole Friday to Dayton, and then spend the weekend looking at the museums and returning on Monday to Boston. But you may be right, might have to visit only the Air Force museum this time.

 

5 hours ago, habu2 said:

I've been several times always spend a full day there. If it were my first (and possibly only) visit I'd recommend two days, and try to get on one of the tours of the restoration annex if they still offer those. 

 

Thanks habu2, that's what I thought. It seems the museum is so big that two full days are better than just rushing to see all in just one. Probably will end up sacrificing the MAPS Air Museum.

 

3 hours ago, southwestforests said:

I strongly suggest looking at the National Weather Service 7 day forecast, with radar and watches/warnings, pages before traveling.

Right now the whole region is expecting snow Wednesday and Thursday, then some rain in places, but weekend seems to look reasonable.

 

Dayton/Wright Patterson

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=39.7592&lon=-84.1938#.Y873763MJPY

 

Boston/Logan International

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.3587&lon=-71.0567#.Y874Gq3MJPY

 

Thank you for the links southwestforests. I knew the weather was going to be a little harsh this week, so I will have to wait and see if I have the opportunity. Hopefully the weather improve during the weekend.

 

Thank you all!

 

Best,

Tato

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I used to live in Dayton and I suspect I was in the museum at least once a month for several hours at a time.  This was over 20 years ago.  It has doubled in size since then.  If you have never been there before and won't be back for a while I would plan to stay for 2 days.  

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I was there in October, just passing through with my wife.  My sister used to live in Farborn, just north of the Museum.  At every visit with her I'd go at least once, usually two days.  With my wife, this last time, I was only there for around 5 hours since I had to drive the rest of the way home...not nearly as long as I would have liked.

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If you’re planning on taking photos be aware that the buildings are aircraft hangars and are not well lit. Additionally the partitions are covered with black cloth which soak up your flash. The aircraft are also mostly jammed together so depending on the aircraft you’re attempting to shoot it can be difficult to impossible to get a picture of the entire aircraft. Not trying to wave you off from going just trying to prepare you. It’s a great museum; It took me three days the first time I went.

 

Mig

 

 

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1 hour ago, Spruemeister said:

Have they totally eliminated the restoration shop tours?

 

Rick L.

 

According to their website:

 

"We are not currently offering regularly scheduled tours of the Restoration Hangar."

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If you do try to use a flash indoors at the museum, experiment with longer shutter speeds (1/30 to 1/15) in shutter priority mode and start with an ISO of 400, experiment from there. This will help fill the scene with more ambient light and the flash will essentially "freeze" the subject. 

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Thank you all! This has been great advice. Two days it is then!

 

This is my first time going, but It has been something I wanted to do since a long, long time. Let's hope the weather improves these days.

 

Tato

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3 hours ago, fasteagle12 said:

You can still get good shots...I took these photos with my cellphone without flash in October..

20221013_101727.jpg

20221013_101743.jpg

20221013_103142.jpg

That P26 was there the first time I went close to 40 years ago! Still my favorite air frame over there, Wish they'd put the Fi 156 down on the ground! Another think I loved was seeing Ike playing cards and Truman reading the newspaper

gary

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  • 1 month later...

I just found out I'm getting sent to Dayton for some work stuff, but I am going to extend my stay to be able to visit the museum - I know it's ginormous, but does it get crowded on Saturdays?

 

That will likely be the only day I can get there, but my goal is to open and close the place 🙂

 

I didn't realize how excited I was to be able to go to the museum until my wife misread the website and thought it was closed for training while were going to be there - I almost cried. Fortunately it was a mobile website formatting glitch and everything is right with the world again....

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1 hour ago, Nate said:

but does it get crowded on Saturdays?

I have no personal knowledge of that, but, I do know that Google searc has a function ...

 

Okay, plugged National Air Force Museum in to Google.

 

And ... looks like 2pm Saturday is their busiest time of the week.

 

 

337227799_USAFmuseumbusytimes.thumb.jpg.bc8fb05a9ad5bb8b142c057e7662ebd3.jpg 

 

 

 

 

Edited by southwestforests
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Oh yeah, nothing is going to stop me from going, I just didn't know how many little kids I would need to beat up to make sure I get to see the X-15, X-29, and Me-262, among other gems they have there 😉

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Way back when my Father took me to the museum when I got drafted and decided to go into the A.F.  the whole placed was completely different.  Most of the aircraft were outside and in some cases you could get into the bays, or with the B-36, they had a maint. scaffold you could walk up and see into the flight deck.

The XB-70 had other aircraft parked under it and you could just walk over and touch the wheels.  The B-24 was sitting alongside a rail car with the Goblin on it and a B-58 was parked off to the side waiting for a spot.  I didn't see the Memphis Belle there but there was a B-17G outside with bombs in its bay next to a P-61 and an A-20.   

I didn't see the X-15 there but I did see it at the 1964 World's Fair in N.Y.C.

When I was assigned to the 5th FIS in the mid 80s, I was given the assignment to hit up all the pilots and operations people for donations to build the new structures they have now.  The squadron commander told me that if anyone gave me a problem, I was to tell them that he would appreciate it if they actually did contribute to the museum building fund.  I had to use it a couple times and it did work.

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The B-10 bomber they have was found in 1973 during an air show one of our C-5s from Dover went to.  A few of the people were walking around the base and stumbled on it in a hanger when someone looked through a window.  A message was sent back and it was most likely relayed to M.A.C. HQ.  Sometime after the show another C-5 picked it up and took it to Dover for what I think was an overall evaluation and I was told some minor work before it was sent to Wright Patterson.  I was told it was the only surviving example left and they had been using it for maintenance training.

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It hasn’t been all success stories. The B-36 that was referenced was hacked to pieces in favor of the current one on display. The previously scraped model was actually the YB-36 in the beginning before rebuild. A small piece of it was saved by Walter Soplata. The YB-52 was also scraped. I believe the first B-47E the museum had was also junked. Would have been the only surviving example from the 307th BW out here in Nebraska. We would have found a place

for it. The Piper PA-48 Enforcer is now out at Pima. The F-82G is actually a B model painted black to try and fool people into thinking it’s a night fighter. 

Sometimes history has meant very little to the museum. 
 

Rick L. 

Edited by Spruemeister
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