Posted this under news, but it vanished, so I am trying here.

[Jesters-Ink]

Hi guys, if you are a frequent visitor or native to the United States, we need your help.

My question is this, if you have six weeks to spend in the USA and are a keen aviation enthusiast, where would you visit and why?

Same question but for historic and natural wonders, like for example "The Grand Canyon"/"Niagara Falls".

[Clint Mitchell]

Who needs the Grand Canyon when you have the:

• Planes of Fame Museum, Chino, CA
  
• N.A.S.M

To name but a few.

[inkworm]

I'd go to the bone yard and spend six weeks with all the Harriers we sold for 50p each.

Take it you're off and good to see you drop in here

[Logan Hartke]

To be honest, the USAF Museum in Dayton, OH would be #1 on my list. NASM (esp Udvar Hazy) would be way up there, as well. Planes of Fame is a fantastic museum as well as San Diego ASM.

Near my neck of the woods in FL, I do think that the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola is fantastic and well worth the trip. If you got to Pensacola, there are a few other museums nearby that you can hit, as well, Ft Rucker's Army Aviation museum probably being the best.

Seattle's got a number of great museums in the area and then there's the Evergreen museum in Oregon, too.

Others that are definitely worth it (in no particular order):

Pima, Tucson, AZ
SASM, Ashland, NE
Warner Robbins, Macon, GA
USS Intrepid, NYC, NY
Air Zoo, Kalamazoo, MI
EAA AirVenture, Oshkosh, WI
MAAM, Reading, PA
Fantasy of Flight, Polk City, FL

Cheers,

Logan

[GrubbyFingers]

USS Midway in San Diego is worth a look. There are also two or three other air museums in the area. Not too far from Chino etc etc too.

[Jesters-Ink]

Wow that's quite a list with some I'd missed or not even thought about.

The trip has gotten pretty tight already with 16 cities/places shortlisted.

Pensacola is our starting point, with Florida shortly after.
Wife was hoping to see the Angels fly at their opening show, but it may well be cancelled due to cutbacks.

I must also say I am going out of my way to see the USS Constitution and USS Constellation, as well as Iowa and New Jersey. We saw Intrepid last April and will definitely see it again, it blew our minds. Midway is definitely on the list as is Paine Field's set of 4 museums, home of the Dora 13 and the Boeing factory.
Evergreen has got to be done, we have to see the goose
The point is to see as many rare or one off specimens as possible, so things like A6M's, FW190's, SB2U, George, stuff we cant see in the UK are being shortlisted. I probably won't even bother with Spitfires and Hurricanes

This is the shortlisted locations:-

Pensacola
Florida<----large area I know and there are some great museums there.
Buffalo/Niagara
Boston
New York
Philadelphia
Baltimore
Washington DC
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon North/South
Deer Valley/Phoenix
Seattle
Everett
Portland Oregon
San Francisco
Los Angeles
San Diego

We'll be booking soonish, so any extra help will go a long way to narrowing things down.

We have ruled out the boneyard for the single reason, you are limited to a bus ride and can not leave it to take photo's. We like to get up close and personal, which the boneyard restricts.

Sadly Dayton is smack in the middle of where we can't get to, so we might have to do that another time.

The rest listed there are all up for consideration so far, but please keep suggestions coming as we'd hate to be on the doorstep of a great museum and not visit it due to not knowing it even exists.

Many thanks guys, all the info here definitely helps

[Logan Hartke]

I'll talk about the areas I have the most familiarity with. You may want to consider getting yourself over to New Orleans because the new WWII Museum there is really getting fantastic. They just opened the Boeing Center there and have a PT Boat under restoration you can see.

Heading east, you come to Mobile, AL and the USS Alabama, USS Drum, and may other pieces of military equipment, including aircraft. Continuing east you get to Pensacola and the fabulous Naval Air Museum. When it comes to unique exhibits in the US, that has to be near the top of the list. They also just opened a new hangar.



Now, from there, I strongly recommend you head east along Highway 98 to Hurlburt Field and the Eglin Armaments Museum. There's a good deal of unique displays there, as well. Keep driving east along Highway 98 (it's gorgeous, you won't regret it) and go to Tyndall AFB along 98. Now, you can't get on base, but you can see the tarmac, hangars, and some runway from the road. Ever time I've gone out there I've either seen F-22s on the ramp or flying around the area. Heck, driving along Highway 98 I've been buzzed by AFSOC MC-130s and seen Mi-17s, PZL M28s, T-38 Talons, PC-21s, and F-15s flying around with some regularity. Everything from Pensacola to Tyndall is pretty active, so you're almost sure to see something.

After Panama City/Tyndall, head north to the Army Aviation Museum at Ft Rucker. Many of the exhibits there are of US Army prototype aircraft and helicopters and you're unlikely to see them anywhere else.

There's really not much else east of that until you get to the Orlando area of Florida or the Macon area of Georgia, but both of those have a good deal. Savannah, GA is a beautiful city in its own right, but the Mighty Eighth AF Museum is worth a visit if you're driving through. Warner-Robins AF Museum in Macon is also great if you're heading up 75 or near Atlanta. It's one of the larger collections of historic aircraft in the US and worth stopping at, especially if you can't make it to Macon.

Don't miss the Fantasy of Flight Museum if you're anywhere near Orlando, though. Seriously. The atmosphere is a plane-lover's dream. It's not the largest collection on earth, but you wish every collection was displayed that way. You can tell a true enthusiast owns all those aircraft.

I have to say, it's really a tragedy that you can't make it to Dayton. If there was just one aviation museum that I'd recommend in the US, it would be the USAF Museum at Wright-Patt. I usually give it two days to visit, there's so much there. See my galleries from my visit last year at the Doolittle Raider's 70th.



Doolittle Raiders Reunion - Day 1 Photos by loganov | Photobucket
Doolittle Raiders Reunion - Day 2 Photos by loganov | Photobucket
Doolittle Raiders Reunion - Day 3 Photos by loganov | Photobucket

It's also not that terribly far from the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, which would certainly make the trip to that part of the central US worth it. XP-55s are always nice.



By the way, when you go to DC, don't miss the Udvar Hazy part of the NASM. I like it more than the main museum, to be honest. Quite nice.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the museums! There are some other really great gems that most people don't know about (like Chanute AFB), but they're kind of out of the way in most cases, I think.

Cheers,

Logan

[VectoredThrust]

In my backyard (4 miles distant):

Planes of Fame in Chino (California) is a good one to visit, but they are heavy on US aircraft and light on Japanese and German specimens. The "109" they are currently restoring is a Hispano painted to look like a German aircraft. I have heard that they have a nice Gustav at their Arizona facility, though.

Also located at Chino Airport is Yanks Air Museum ( https://yanksair.com/ ). They have a nice collection that can be viewed online or in person.

Miramar Naval Air Station (San Diego) puts on an awesome air show every year (October'ish), but the focus is on modern aircraft. They feature WWII, Korean, and Vietnam era pieces, but they are not the focus.

[Clint Mitchell]

Is the Bf109E-7, WNr.3523 recovered in Russia by Jim Pearce not at the Planes of Fame no more then? I think I'd need 20 camera batteries and a terabyte SD card for that one.

[Jesters-Ink]

I really wish we were going to be there for airshow season, but sadly most of the American shows take place outside of our window. You'd have thought we'd have hit some good ones over six week spell
Chino and Fantasy of Flight has now been added to the list along with USS Alabama, she's too damn close to miss out on.

Those pics posted are already making my mouth water lolol.
Looking forward to photoshooting the shista outa those rare birds.