Aviation Museums

[Huggyu2]

Well, y'all hit all my favorites, and then some. Since it only got a brief mention, I'll throw in a big vote for the RAF Museum in Hendon (near London). It's about a 10 minute walk from one of the Underground stations. It's very good.
If you plan on seeing Duxford, do it during their airshow. Some unique stuff comes out to fly.
Also, the Shuttleworth Collection in the UK is fabulous. You can track it down through Google.

 

[fokkers&beer]

When in Oregon, don't forget the Tillamook air museum, just a short hop from MMV.

 

[C172gal05]

Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Titusville FL...TIX...A great little group of Warbirds...a personal favorite of mine!

 

[rvsm410]

I was just about to write about the Valiant Air Command Warbird in TIX...nice place close to the Kenndy Space Center Enterance..costs $9 for adults, but all proceeds go to restoration projects in the hangar next door, where you can stop a gaze at the latest rebuilding..

 

[belchfire]

The small museum in CLT has one of the
Douglass Skyrockets on display (contemorary
of the X-1, but jet powered).

There is a nice one just north of Dallas (don't
remember the name) but has a great WWII
collection.

The Confederate (sorry guys, I know that the
good reverend jessy got them to change it-but
I don't have to) Air Force rocks...

Boeing Museum of Flight at BFI in Seattle...

The Spruce Goose...(Oregon)

Tillimok Oregon now has a nice museum.

Owl's Head transportation museum in the
Rockland ME area is pretty good and has
some very rare aviation and automotive
displays.

Flying Tigers Museum in Florida...

I have heard of one in the Spokane area
but never got there...

Alaska Aviation Musuem at Lake Hood (ANC)...

Pettycord Foundation for Aircraft Preservation
(Big name, small museum) in Asheboro, NC. Has
some nice stuff, great for kids and disinterested
spouses because it isn't an all day affair...and has
a nice gift shop. (B-25 and TBF Avenger among
others). If fact for the ambitious, this one and the
one in CLT could be done in one day and it is
a nice drive or flight!

 

[Flightjock30]

Chicago Air & Space Museum is very neat. The first 727 retired by United is on display there.

 

[pilotyip]

I could tell about the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run but it was destroyed in a fire last fall. But all of the flyable airplanes were saved. The Yankee Air Museum is putting on a Air show in August called "Thunder Over Michigan 05". It will feature the largest collection of flying B-17 since WWII. There will be 7 B-17s in the sky together flying over the air show. It will be a one in a lifetime sight to see. Plus there is a seminar on Saturday night featuring WWII bomber crewmembers talking about thier expereincess over Europe suring WWII. For further information go to the museum's web site http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/

 

[Rick1128]

The Evergreen Museum is in the process of building an Imax theater which should be a real thrill when completed.

And don't forget the Eight Air Force Museum in Savannah.

The Afghan Military Museum is still a little weak. They have an interesting collection of military equipment from the toy IEDs that the Russians used there to scud missles. With some aircraft.

The weakest aviation museum I have seen so far is the museum at the Teipi airport in Taiwan.

 

[FastCargo]

I've been to a lot of avaition muesums. Most of my favorites have already been named: NASM, Wright Patterson AFB, Naval Air Museum, etc.

However, when you can, check out the smaller ones, you'd be surprised at what you can find.

We were driving on I-10 back from Florida to Texas, when we decided to stop at the USS Alabama battleship muesum. Surprise! It has a small air muesum as well. They had a VERY nice looking F4U they had recently restored. But, they also had one of the very rare SR-71 2 seater models. And an extremely rare (only 2 ever built) YF-17 Cobra. For those who don't know, it competed against the F-16 for the Lightweight Fighter contract. Though it didn't win, Northrop and McD teamed up and used the YF-17 as the baseline for the F-18.

Many years ago, I did the last airshow at Castle AFB, CA before the base was shut down. I happened to stop by their outdoor air muesum, and they had, wonders of wonder, a Northrop (?) A-9! The A-9 competed against the A-10 for that contract but lost. I think only 2 were ever built as well. It's an interesting looking aircraft, kind of like a supersized T-37. Makes you wonder where the Russians got their inspiration for the Su-25 Frogfoot. I hope someone (maybe even the USAF) will have picked it up and restored it to display somewhere inside.

Fly Safe!
FastCargo

 

[sqwkvfr]

PIMA is excellent, but my favorite was the Champlain Fighter Museum at Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ. It is a one-of-a-kind collection of WWI and WWII --and various other-- era aircraft. Several of the aircraft are the only flyable versions that exist.

They closed it and moved the collection to Seattle (Boeing).

I don't know whether they have it set up there yet, but if/when they do, it's well worth your time.

 

[Huggyu2]

Hey FastCargo!
Good tip! But I believe the only surviving two-seat Sled is somewhere else. It's the one with the stepped-up rear cockpit. The one you saw was probably an A-12 (I don't know the differences between that and an SR-71A).
Anyways, I'm putting USS Alabama on my list!