Warbird Information Exchange

Friend of mine took a trip up to the Air Force Museum in his RV-6 and posted some pics on his web site. Looks like they have rearranged alittle since the new building opened.

http://www.vansairforce.com/images/WPUSAFM/index.html

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Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Dan, Just about every aircraft in the collection was moved around in 2003 prior to the new building opening up. Some of the planes moved just a few feet while many others took short hops to the new building. They did a very nice job except for the lighting situation in the new building. Its incredibly dark in there! For sure one of the most interesting places in the museum now in my opinion is the missle gallery. There are now 4 missles in place with 6 more scheduled to be installed. The museum is already planning on another round of expansion. The next building they construct in a few years will house their space realted items and the presidential aircraft.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

When I was volunteering at the museum at about the time the new gallery opened, I relayed several comments to the "higher ups" regarding how dark it is in there. I never got any responses on these comments. In fact, all I DID hear was the possibility of scaling back the lighting in the Modern Flight gallery. Thank goodness that hasn't happened......yet.

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Historical Aircraft Squadron

Can he post a picture of the Black Widow, the Marauder, and the Lighning?

(The Widow is nearly invisible in the pictures I've taken of it)

How does one get pictures like that--shutter speed?

I was at the museum on Saturday, I'll try and get some shots of those aircraft posted tonight.

The lighting in the new gallery certainly makes photography challenging. I sure hope nothing ever comes of the disscussions to turn down the lighting in the modern flight gallery, its the best lit place in the whole museum.

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Dan Johnson

I got a lot of decent pics by using my night option on my digital camera
if I can get some, advice on how to download them from my cd I put them on I'd post them
I was there right after thunder over michigan
( I put them on a walmart cd to keep them from being erased---I d also post my thunder pics if I can figure out how to download them and put them on here----I'm alittle dumb on figuring this out---I have a great shot of the p-61

Very nice pictures- thanks for the link.

Do all the aircraft have those short railings around them, now? The last time I was there (1981) you could walk around and under the wings of almost everything.

All there was were signs asking visitors not to touch or climb.

Here's something of the P-38, B-26, P-61. Not necessarily in the best positions for photography.

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Tony Andrews

The short railings ar around pretty much everything in the main museum except the B-52, which is up on some stands so you can look into the open bomb bay. Over at the R&D and Presidentail hangars there are no railings or ropes to be found.

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Dan Johnson

Here are some different angles on the P-38, P-61, and B-26 than Tony provided.

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Dan Johnson

The problem with the "lighting" in the new buildings at the NMUSAF is first, and foremost, that the bloody walls/ceiling are painted BLACK.

If I remember correctly, the Museum Director commented favorably during the design phase that he thought the black paint would be "dramatic" and approved the design, which also uses several hundred theatrical type spotlights. Well, it might be "dramatic", but it sure is d-a-r-k!

I defy most people to find the U2 hanging over the B36 in the new building. Let's see...a very dark aircraft hung up near a very dark ceiling..dramatic, eh?

The other brighter gallery you speak of is not really any brighter, or not much brighter, than the new buildings. But, it is painted white and everything is more visible as a result.

Photo tip - if you still use 35mm film, use only 800 ASA (or better yet 1000 ASA) film anywhere in the museum, or have a real good flash. Those who use most digital cameras can usually only increase the simulated ASA on their digital camera to about 400 ASA...not really fast enough for all but close-up photos in the NMUSAF.

Don't get me wrong, I really like to visit the NMUSAF and have been a member of their "Friends" for about 2 decades...but, I try to look at the aircraft and try not to think about the lighting and visibility problems when I visit. One of my all-time favorite photo's is of the nose of Sacred Cow (in the annex) with the windows in the hangar doors reflected in the polished aluminum. It's nice what you can do with available light...when there is some.

There is another reasonable technique that works well in dark museums. It was expounded upon by some of our Brit friends (Robbo or Von Perthes I believe) in this or the Flypast forum. If you use a tripod and take long exposures, the effect is similar to turning up the the lights. The pictures shown here were taken at Dayton on August 12 this year. The film was 64 ASA Kodak tungsten slide film. Some of the exposures were 20-30 seconds long. Obviously these pictures are only possible early or late in the day when there aren't many people present. For the sake of photo honesty, a slight blue cast was edited out of the "cold war gallery" slides after they were scanned. The light in the "interwar gallery" must be relatively cool tungsten since no color correction was necessary for the P-12.

F-86D


F-94C


B-36


WB-50


RB-47


A-10


P-12E


Finally, although the focus isn't perfect our Canadian friends might appreciate these CF-100 pics

Great pictures!!!
I went there twenty years ago and took about two hundred shots with my trusty Pentax ME with a flash. I still have three boxes of blank slides in the loft somewhere!!
It's nice to see a B-50 inside as well, another favorite of mine.
Now, how can I con the wife into a trip there?

Rgds Cking

The B-36 really drawfs everything on display!

Awesome stuff.

Thanks for sharing.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB