Our Longer Visit to the Air Force Museum
Our first visit to the Air Force Museum with Lukey and Kenzie was a rather short visit to see the Memorial Park (see this blog entry here) and the Wall of Honor (see this blog entry here) which are both outdoors. On this second visit we planned to spend the entire day inside the museum. The forecast was calling for heavy thunderstorms in the afternoon so we chose this day for this museum knowing we could easily spend the entire day inside where it was dry and safe from lightning.
This museum is huge spanning through four immense hangars so there is a lot to see here. Actually, one could easily spend a few days at this museum not mere hours. I've been here countless times before so I knew the spots to visit with the kids. We did pick up our pace significantly in some areas that I knew would not interest the kids so we could get through the museum in a single day.
Although it made our schedule even tighter on this day, we chose to see an IMAX movie in the museum theatre with Lukey and Kenzie. There were a few different movies to choose from but we purposely chose a movie that was related to my career. It was an immersive IMAX movie shot mostly from the view of a fighter cockpit. (On a sidenote, during my career, I had given quite a few mass briefings in this theatre.) This movie was only about 50 minutes long so it was fairly easy to fit into our day. This was Lukey and Kenzie's first experience in an IMAX theatre and, now that I'm thinking about it, I think we forgot to ask them what they thought of the huge, curved, immersive IMAX screen and hundreds of speakers surrounding us.
After the movie, we walked across to the museum cafe to have a surprisingly good lunch. I had a pulled pork sandwich which was delicious!
In this first photo, below, we are walking from the car, past the Memorial Park, and toward the museum which can be seen in the distance...
In 1927, McCook Field was closed and all research and development moved to Wright Field (location of the museum) where I would eventually work during the early part of my career. Just a couple of months after all the buildings on the airfield were leveled, a C-2 transport aircraft landed there with two Lieutenants flying it. These two lieutenants, flying this C-2 aircraft, had just recently become the first airmen to complete the first trans-Pacific flight in this same aircraft. They stopped at McCook Airfield after it had recently closed simply because this is the airfield where this project began in 1919. It was a symbolic and honorary stop-over.
In 1948, shortly after the creation of the US Air Force as an equal and separate branch of the armed forces, Wright Field was combined with Patterson Field (formerly known as Huffman Prairie) to become Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Today, part of what had been known as McCook Field is home to 16 baseball fields and a football stadium. The rest of what used to be McCook Field is an industrial/commercial park.
I'm also a fan of fine woodworking so this is another reason this is one of my favorite wind tunnels... it is like a finely-crafted boat!
Lukey was all smiles throughout this whole museum visit so he was an easy target for good photos...
I was extremely happy to see that our current administration's racist, misogynistic and criminal attempts at their ignorant rewriting of history and changing of inclusivity had not yet corrupted this museum nor the everyday life I experienced with my Air Force family for decades. In fact, my professional experiences with both genders, all races, and all religions were far, far better than I have experienced in the civilian world. Professionalism and effectiveness was always first and foremost regardless of gender, race or religion.
Kenzie also was an easy model throughout this entire museum visit! Without a bit of prompting from me, she kept striking poses making photography easy...
I would speak other languages with airmen from different nationalities. I would discuss religious beliefs, civilly and respectfully, with genuine interest by all involved. We would train together. We would live together. We would grow together. We would effectively complete our missions together. It was good to see, regardless of what backwards nonsense this current US administration spouts, that the Air Force Museum still reflects these civil and respectful beliefs.
Airman Mackenzie...
The Memphis Belle...
Here is a stained glass window from the Chapel that used to be at Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya...
There were plenty of interactive displays and simulators throughout the museum which kept Lukey and Kenzie busy...
We were able to board a good number of aircraft throughout the museum...
Below is an early B-52D model cockpit from the Vietnam era. The current B-52H models have updated computers with avionics and better displays than seen on this older model but all the analog instruments look very much the same.
This is the same B-52D model shown from a side window...
Below, we have Lukey shooting a photo of a F-105 Thud fighter bomber. This aircraft had a terrible glide ratio (virtually none) so was named "thud" by ground crews due to the sound this heavy hunk of metal made when it hit the ground.
By the way, this museum is quite dark with mostly only task lighting so some of the photos may appear to be too dark. In reality, this is actually how the museum looked in person.
That red horse on the bull dozer in the photo, below, represents Air Force Red Horse which are the rapid deployable civil engineers of the Air Force. There are 13 Red Horse squadrons around the globe providing rapid engineering support for air bases as well as for foreign nations in need (which is most often... on a sidenote, contrary to popular belief, the Air Force spends most of their time and effort in humanitarian missions). I was accepted into this special unit back in the 1980s but my commander at the time would not release me. He had some very blunt yet very kind and flattering words for me when we discussed his decision but this isn't the place to write about this private discussion.
Thinking about this discussion with this commander at the time reminds me of another incident.
One night, early in my career, I was abruptly awoken in the barracks and called into work in the middle of the night for a classified mission. Through the night, I had my commander and two officers standing around me looking over my shoulders as I did my thing. During a lull in a night full of flurries of activity, the officer who was second in command nudged my shoulder and said something along the lines of, "Pat... take note of what is happening here... you don't see this everyday... you'll probably never again see three senior officers standing around following an airman especially during a classified mission... thanks for your support tonight!" In reality, I saw this many times again throughout my career but these officers were among the few who were thoughtful enough leaders to thank me.
Of note here, this particular aircraft is named "The Memphis Belle II" as seen in the second photo below. This aircraft was assigned to Takhli Air Base in Thailand.
The kids were able to sit in the cockpits of three fighter aircraft and I gave them each a very quick orientation while they were sitting in each cockpit. If I remember correctly, this first aircraft is a T-38 trainer...
Below we have a Wright B Flyer hanging from the rafters...
Below, we have the kids sitting in F-4 fighter cockpits... you can just barely make out Lukey's white shirt on the left in the pilot's cockpit while Kenzie is in the weapons/nav officer's cockpit in back.
Here is Lukey in the F-4 fighter cockpit...
F-4 Phantom fighter aircraft...
Below, we see Kenzie in the cockpit of an early F-16A aircraft...
Between the third and fourth hangars of the museum is a towering silo housing various Air Force rockets and missiles. Of particular note in this photo is the Atlas Mercury-Redstone rocket with the red structure on its nose. Directly underneath this red structure is the relatively tiny Mercury capsule which the kids would get a close look at later. The red structure on the nose of this rocket is the Launch Escape Tower which had a solid fuel rocket motor built into it to launch the capsule and astronaut away from the huge rocket under their butt in case of emergency during liftoff.
This Redstone rocket was a small part of my extensive aerospace curriculum as an aerospace officer...
Below, we have Gee taking a selfie with Kenzie in front of the towering rockets. Hmmm... I'm not sure I ever saw that photo though...
Here we are looking down upon the fourth hangar which houses the most recent Air Force programs and assets. Fortunately, there is still some room here for growth. Eventually, I'm sure there will be a fifth hangar built.
The museum has a full Minuteman II training simulator on display. Of note here in this photo... there are always two controllers on duty at all times (other career fields, such as one of mine, had specialized solo controllers)... the rails visible in the floor provided a very fast way for the controller to accurately roll down to another piece of equipment in emergencies.
The seat in this photo, below, was on the rails pictured in the photo above. The controller was secured in the seat with a seat belt harness. The controller needed to be secured by this harness in his or her seat due to the vibration forces of incoming and outgoing missiles.
Below, we are looking toward the flight deck of a space shuttle...
This is the crew access airlock hatch to the cargo bay and space...
Below, we have Lukey and Kenzie in a Space Shuttle simulator for practicing landing the shuttle back on Earth. I already wrote about this here, if interested...
There are quite a few of the early presidential Air Force One aircraft at the museum and you can walk through these aircraft!
To preserve the interiors of these aircraft, you can only walk down the aisle. Each of the separate areas are behind glass. These aisles get narrow and there is very little ventilation in here so it gets hot too! This is not the place for someone who is claustrophobic because it does get quite narrow! I happen to be a bit claustrophobic but I don't have any problems touring these aircraft as long as I don't get trapped by a crowd in front of us... Sheila, on the other hand...
Before you climb the stairs to board any of the Air Force One aircraft, you go through a narrow gate. This gate represents just how narrow the aisle gets inside the aircraft. Every time we visit the museum, Sheila looks at this gate from a distance and says, "Hmmm... maybe I can do it this time...", then steps into the gate and says, "NOPE!" and turns around and heads to the exit where she can meet the rest of us when we deboard the aircraft.
Lukey and Kenzie are peering into one of the small space capsules. This one happens to be for two astronauts and is a rather early model so it is probably a Gemini capsule...
Here is a model of the monstrous Saturn V rocket and launch tower...
We had a really good time!
We had a really good time!
We suspected that Kenzie would dread this day at this particular museum but, looking at the photos again, I have a feeling that Kenzie enjoyed it more than she'll admit. This place is so large, however, that we really had to rush through it to get through all four hangars, eat a meal, watch a movie and visit the gift shop in only one day. This is one of the reasons why we chose to visit the outside of the museum previously on another day. This is another one of those places where I wish we had a bit more time but rushing through it probably made it more appealing for Kenzie.
Oh... one more thing... the staff at the museum was very respectful and helpful at all times and it's worth noting. In fact, after our IMAX movie, we had to wander through the security area at the entrance again and two of the people specifically remembered us before we had a chance to explain why we were passing through again and trying to avoid all the stuff we had done when we first arrived at the museum. They laughed and, with a smile, said, "Yes, we remember you guys!" and waved us through. Hmmm... maybe we looked goofy enough that we were very memorable?
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