Going Back In Time..Old USAF Museum Location - Wright Patt

[Rauhbatz]

Thanks to Wixers who provided the location of the old USAF Museum when it was located on base at Wright Patt.

Last Friday I was backseating it in the P-51 for the Tattoo and spent some time before the event walking over to the old museum location. It was a real journey back in time for me as I had not been back to that location in almost 50 years.

As I stood in the parking lot behind the old museum I thought back of being there looking up at the the B-36, Goblin, ME-262 and other aircraft standing out in the open air. As a little kid it all seemed so big back then.

The trip to the USAF Museum with my father was always the highlight of my summers. He is gone now, the museum is moved to a new location and there is a lot of road between that parking lot and today.

I remember the last time I took my dad to the current USAF museum before he passed away several months later. As we were walking out he said "...you know, this new location is impressive but I sometimes miss just walking around that parking lot at the old museum location..."

As I zoomed away in the backseat of the P-51 I glanced back at the old museum location and smiled that I did get to take another walk around that parking lot...

[jotomp]

Some photos I took back in the early 70's.

[Rauhbatz]

Jotomp...thanks much for the great pics. These really bring out the informal walk-around nature of the open air display area. I can see the Atlas in front of the museum building which I think is now gone.

Your pics jogged a few other fun memories:

+ I do recollect the F-107 sitting there and wondering why such a modern aircraft was in a parking lot.

+ I remember my dad showing me a newspaper article where the horizontal stab of a B-29 fell off after a storm and almost hit some people...guess they scrapped that bird.

+ The XB-70 was one of my favorite all-time airplanes...I remember seeing it for the first time. Wish the USA would get back into the business of building products like that and not video games.

+ For some odd reason I really liked the Goblin sitting under the B-36...guess it was a plane that I thought would fit me as a little kid

+ I have a pic from 1962 when I was 4 in front of the YH-5A Dragonfly helo...my dad took a pick of me many years later in front of that bird just before they hauled it up to the ceiling in the current museum; sort of a neat before and after

+ The Kettering flying bomb display had a switch that you press and the propeller would spin at some ungodly rate appearing it would fly off the display harness into the crowd...probably won't see a display like that at any museum today!

+ The gift shop had the best supply of model aircraft in the world...just about everything you were looking for was there.

+ Here's a laffer that came from my wife; when she first saw the B-24 she blurted out "Daddy...I like that Strawberry B*itch!". Im guessing fathers of all ages have to explain the nose art on the B-24 for years to come...

Thanks again for the great pics...I invite others my age (those that are willing to admit it!) to post any bits here...

[JimH]

I've got tons of slides my dad and grandfather took of the USAFM from the late 60's. My dad and mom went to the "new" museum when she was still pregnant with me . Politics aside, I will always be sentimental towards that museum as it educated me on WWII aviation. The first trip I remember taking was in '74. My dad had contracts with the Air Force which required 3-4 trips a year. My mom and I or my Grandfather and I would go on most of these trips and spend the day at the Museum. We used to eat at the Pizza Hut in Fairborn right by the old museum entrance. That lasted til about the mid 80's. Someday...if I ever go home again I will start scanning all the slides. On a personal note the last trip my dad and I took was the USAFM right before he passed in '07.

jim

[John Kerr]

Jim, thanks for thinking bout scanning old AF Museum slides. Looking forward to them, as some of those aircraft from back in that time period are long gone.

[coldflyer]

Thanks guys for bring back some great memories. Grew up in Dayton and with Dad being an aero-engineer we spent a lot of time on base. A stop at the museum was always a must. After walking around the birds the trip home always seemed to take forever, keeping me from going into my books and looking up which ever aircraft fascinated me the most that trip. The size of some of the birds was just unbelievable then. But as I grew up their size for some reason didn't seem to be so impressive except for the B-36 of course. Fondest memory is standing at the end of the runway at the fence line when they brought the B-70 in for her last flight. Two passes right over our heads and was she LOW. Dad had spent a lot of time working on the design and development of some of the various valves on her. Dad died recently and the B-70 sits at the museum with her engines silent forever.