• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

World's 14 Best Aviation Museums

smittyrunr

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
I'm surprised Future of Flight/Boeing factory tour was on there, but not Boeing's Museum of Flight. The tour is cool, but the Museum of Flight has a lot more.

Another good one- the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, OR. It has the Spruce Goose AND they now have a waterpark- there is a 747 sitting on top of the building with waterslides coming out of it. http://evergreenmuseum.org/
 

A7Dave

Well-Known Member
pilot
Pima, AZ is worth it if only for the B-58 Hustler! One of the coolest planes ever made. Also has a lot of "one off" missing links from the early jet age.
 

MIDNJAC

is clara ship
pilot
I didn't read the OP, and I haven't been to all of the cool ones, but I grew up going to the Boeing and Evergreen museums. Both great places, but they didn't have an XB-70. Stayed a night at wright pratt when driving from the RAG on the west coast to Oceana several years back, and we unfortunately got in too late and left too early to go see it. That jet will continue to elude me, but I promise myself that I won't die before I see it in person.
 

OscarMyers

Well-Known Member
None
I visited the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach today, and was impressed. Its no NNAM by any means but it still had some pretty cool exhibits. Id say the best part is that most of the airplanes are restored to a flying condition. It feels more like an operational hanger with oil puddles and drip pans on the floor then it does a museum. They even fired up the P-51 today. Its definitely worth the ride out to pungo for what I feel like is a very rare experience. I'm looking foward to there airshow in May.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I didn't read the OP, and I haven't been to all of the cool ones, but I grew up going to the Boeing and Evergreen museums. Both great places, but they didn't have an XB-70. Stayed a night at wright pratt when driving from the RAG on the west coast to Oceana several years back, and we unfortunately got in too late and left too early to go see it. That jet will continue to elude me, but I promise myself that I won't die before I see it in person.
Went twice as a kid growing up in NE OH. That jet is enormous. It's like the Spruce Goose; you don't get a sense of the sheer scale until you see the thing up close. The cockpit is ridiculously high up and I'm sure that delta wing didn't lend itself to a slow approach speed. Learning to flare properly must have been fun.

I'd say the best part is that most of the airplanes are restored to a flying condition. It feels more like an operational hanger with oil puddles and drip pans on the floor then it does a museum.
The CAF in Midland is the same way.
 

jmcquate

Well-Known Member
Contributor
The XB-70 in impressive in an exotic way..........but for sheer size, the NMAF B-36 is crazy. I can't imagine having ten throttles. Six turning and 4 burning.
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
Closest thing to a thread that matches...
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/26/6235...ign-for-new-native-american-veterans-memorial

Very cool concept for a new Native American Veterans Memorial. While I’m not usually one for parsing veterans by race/gender/national origin like this, I think the fact that a people of an internally sovereign nation willing to die for the freedom of the very people who oppressed them and their very way of living deserves special recognition.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Hadn't seen this thread before.
The two journalists that wrote this have zero aviation background, other than sitting in seat 21F while writing their travel blogs.

Palm Spring Air Museum is an little-known gem. Glad to see it on the list.

BTW, worst air museum I've ever visited: USS Intrepid in New York. Their Concorde and A-12 need to be sent to somewhere worthy.
 

andrewt

Well-Known Member
That sonuva^@#$% Kermit has a working P-38 and he didnt tell me? Lucky for him I got to see one at Sun n Fun this year. Its a sin I havent seen a flying Jug yet.

I havent been myself, but The Canadian Warbird Museum has a working Lancaster and a decent collection of WWII brits without having hop continents. Probably worthy of the list.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Its a sin I havent seen a flying Jug yet.
You should have been to the Chino Airshow the first week of May this year. They had two in the air.
Plus, 3 of the 7 flying Lightnings in the world flew.

At least watch the first 60" of this video, on how to start a P-26. BTW, that's Steve-o in the cockpit.

If you like warbirds, this is THE show to attend each year. See you there in 2019.
 

andrewt

Well-Known Member
You should have been to the Chino Airshow the first week of May this year. They had two in the air.
Plus, 3 of the 7 flying Lightnings in the world flew.

At least watch the first 60" of this video, on how to start a P-26. BTW, that's Steve-o in the cockpit.

If you like warbirds, this is THE show to attend each year. See you there in 2019.
Strange sudden urge to get a tail-dragger endorsement...

If youre a fan of start up videos, here's Kermit in his P51. He takes off from a grass trip maybe 100 yds from the hangar, a damn treat that.

 
Top