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Comment by vel0city | Hacker News Reader

I highly recommend visiting the museum in Dayton if you're even a slight aviation nerd and happen to be in the region. Its worth the drive. Where else can you see a U2, a B2, an F22, an SR-71, and an F117 all the same hangar? Trick question, they have the only B2 on display!

They have a massive range of the history of aviation with a good mixture of foreign birds as well as US aircraft. I'm personally a fan of those classic Douglas planes, they're so incredibly iconic and have quite a showing at the museum.

EDIT: I guess I should clarify the relation to this article. The actual prototype is housed at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH along with the C-97 that carried it on display. They have a small exhibit with some example photos of its technology. Its literally right next to the B2 on display.

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Don't forget the XB-70, they also have the only one of those on display.*

* Actually it's the only XB-70 in existence.

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie

The whole museum is fantastic, but walking into the fourth hanger and seeing the Valkyrie takes it up a notch.

The planes are fantastic but the highlight for us was talking to a former F-4 pilot about techniques for dodging SA-2s. Highly recommended.

Definitely agree -- It's on par with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and very fun to explore since it's divided between four hangers. Definitely worth a visit for anyone in that area.

Haven't been in a while, but when they still had the annex on-base there was an A-12 there. Have they moved it into the museum proper? That'd be a sight to see next to the SR-71.

Tacit Blue is also worth a look. It's honestly hard to imagine anything so ungainly actually taking to the air.

ETA: Dunno if they still have it on display, but for a long time they had just the forward fuselage of Bock's Car sitting unloved in a corner. It's hard to reconcile the destruction unleashed by that single plane with the utter impotence of a piece of it sitting helplessly in a museum.

I'm not sure about an A-12 there. I last went a little over a year ago and only noticed the SR-71.

As to the Bockscar, they have it on display with its payload bay open along with replicas of Fat Man and Little Boy under its wings.

https://imgur.com/a/jSLxh9M https://imgur.com/a/jSLxh9M

We went a few years ago and loved it. We happened to be there on the day the Memphis Belle exhibit was being opened (rained out the day before), which also meant they were doing flyovers of WWII planes and bussing people out to the runway to do tours in and around the planes.

All that being said, the highlight for us was seeing the WWII planes fly overhead and then seeing one of the VC-25As flying past seconds later. Multiple times. The rumor was they were doing takeoff/landing training.

There's also a lot of history provided by the docents, including many USAF veterans who have flown, maintained, or were otherwise involved with some of the very aircraft on display. If you're a fan of aviation, the military, history, or technology, this museum is worth making a special trip to Dayton, OH. https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

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