National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

Deep dives · Montgomery County, Greene County

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

The Air Force museum began in 1923 in a McCook Field hangar corner and opened to the public in 1955. It now holds more than 360 aircraft and missiles near Dayton.

At a glance

Fact	Value
Type	Museum
County	Montgomery, Greene
Established	1923
Coordinates	39.7814 N, 84.1106 W
Aerospace vehicles and missiles in the collection	more than 360 (2024)
Visitors in the first public year	41,662 (1955)
Annual visitors	more than 1 million (2024)
Size and cost of the fourth building	224,000 sq ft; $40.8 million (2016)
Museum grounds at Wright Field	400 acres (1971)
SAM 26000 flying hours at retirement	more than 13,000 (1998)
Wright-Patterson permanent-party workforce	7,139 military and 15,642 civilian (2024-09-30)
Wartime employment at the Dayton-area Army airfields	about 3,700 (Dec. 1939) to over 50,000 (peak) (1939-1945)

Overview

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the Air Force's official museum, on the old Wright Field portion of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, and calls itself the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum. It began in 1923 as an informal showing of World War I planes and equipment in the corner of a hangar at McCook Field near downtown Dayton, followed the Army's engineers to Wright Field in 1927, spent World War II in storage, and opened to the public in April 1955 in a converted engine-overhaul hangar at Patterson Field. Public donations raised through the Air Force Museum Foundation paid the entire cost of its 1971 building, dedicated by President Nixon that September; the foundation and the federal government jointly funded a second building in 1988, and third and fourth buildings followed in 2003 and 2016. The base around it grew from Wilbur Wright Field (1917), the Fairfield air depot and some 4,000-plus acres bought by Dayton citizens in the 1920s, and was named Wright-Patterson in 1948. The collection now counts more than 360 aircraft and missiles, among them the presidential jet SAM 26000, the B-17F Memphis Belle and the only surviving XB-70 Valkyrie.

The name

Named for the United States Air Force; it was the United States Air Force Museum until October 2004, when it was redesignated the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The base is named for Wilbur and Orville Wright (Wright Field) and for Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, son of National Cash Register co-founder Frank J. Patterson, who was killed with his observer at Wright Field in 1918 when the wings of his DH-4 collapsed in a dive; the east part of Wright Field was renamed Patterson Field in his honor on July 1, 1931, and in 1948 the merged Air Force Technical Base was redesignated Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (source)

Native American history

The base holds prehistoric burial mounds. A single mound designated 33GR31, on a bluff about 0.6 mile south of the Wright Brothers Memorial and overlooking Huffman Prairie, is 86 feet across and a little more than 8 feet high; it is attributed to the Adena culture (roughly 500 BC to AD 400), has never been excavated, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. A geophysical survey in 1996 using ground-penetrating radar found layering and unexplained buried features. A hilltop group of mounds also stands at the Wright Brothers Memorial. No historic-era Native village, trail or named treaty is recorded in these sources for the base land itself.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Mound (33GR31): mound, Bluff along P Street, about 0.6 mile south of the Wright Brothers Memorial, Greene County, Adena, c. 500 BC - AD 400
Wright Brothers Memorial hilltop mound group: mound, Wright Brothers Hill, at the Wright Brothers Memorial above Huffman Prairie, Adena (as stated by the source)

Stories

A hangar corner that became a national museum

The museum's own history starts in 1923 in the corner of an aircraft hangar at McCook Field, with an informal showing of World War I planes and equipment, American and foreign. It followed the engineers to Wright Field in 1927 and squeezed into 8,100 square feet of a laboratory building. In 1935 the Works Progress Administration paid $203,000 for a building designed for it, but in 1941 that building was taken for war work and the 3,000-item collection went into crates. After the war the Air Technical Service Command gathered aircraft for the Smithsonian's new National Air Museum, and in 1947 the Air Force decided to reopen its own museum with aircraft the Smithsonian did not need, open by appointment in Building 89, a wartime engine-overhaul hangar at Patterson Field. It opened to the public in April 1955; 41,662 people came that year. The old hangar had posts every 16 feet one way and every 50 feet the other, was not fireproof and had no air conditioning, which is why the Air Force Museum Foundation, formed in 1960, raised the money for the 1971 building. (source)

Dayton buys the Army a new field

McCook Field opened in October 1917 as the nerve center of Army aviation research and for ten years contributed to nearly every flying record the Air Service set. But it was too small, with no room to grow. Dayton's citizens raised $400,673 to buy 4,000 acres east of the city, including Wilbur Wright Field, which the Air Service was then renting. Wright Field was formally dedicated on October 12, 1927, as the Air Corps' new test site, and McCook Field passed into history. Other accounts give different totals for the purchase (see gaps). (source)

SAM 26000 and November 22, 1963

Boeing delivered serial number 62-6000 to the Air Force on October 10, 1962, as the first jet built specifically to carry the president; its blue-and-white scheme was worked out by Jacqueline Kennedy and designer Raymond Loewy. It flew President Kennedy to West Berlin in June 1963. On November 22, 1963, hours after Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard it, and it carried Kennedy's body and the new president back to Washington. It later took Richard Nixon to China in February 1972 and to the Soviet Union three months later, and carried former presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter to Anwar Sadat's funeral in 1981. It flew eight presidents in all before the Air Force retired it to the museum in May 1998. (source)

The Memphis Belle comes to Dayton

The B-17F Memphis Belle became the first heavy bomber to return to the United States after flying 25 missions over Europe in World War II. The Air Force had lent it to the city of Memphis, and in 2005 it was relocated to the museum in Dayton. After years of restoration it went on public display in the World War II Gallery in May 2018. (source)

The last Valkyrie

The XB-70 was designed in the 1950s as a Mach 3 nuclear bomber, but surface-to-air missiles and cheaper intercontinental missiles made it obsolete, and the bomber program was canceled in 1961 before any were finished. The Air Force still bought two XB-70As as test aircraft, and between 1964 and 1969 they made 129 flights. The museum's airplane, the first built, first flew in September 1964 and reached Mach 3 in October 1965. The second was destroyed in June 1966 when an F-104 collided with it, killing NASA pilot Joe Walker and Air Force copilot Maj. Carl Cross. The surviving Valkyrie kept flying test missions until it came to the museum in 1969; it is now shown in the Research and Development Gallery. (source)

Timeline

1904: Wilbur and Orville Wright begin flying on Dayton banker Torrence Huffman's pasture eight miles northeast of Dayton, ground that is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (source)
1917: Wilbur Wright Field is established on May 22 on land along the Mad River leased from the Miami Conservancy District, including Huffman Prairie. (source)
1917: McCook Field is established at Dayton on October 18 as the Army's aviation research and development center. (source)
1918: Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson and observer Lt. LeRoy Swan are killed at Wright Field when their DH-4's wings collapse during a gunnery dive; Patterson Field will later carry his name. (source)
1923: The museum begins in the corner of a hangar at McCook Field with an informal showing of World War I American and foreign planes and equipment. (source)
1924: The Dayton Air Service Committee, organized by the Patterson family, presents the deeds to the land it bought northeast of Dayton to President Calvin Coolidge for a new aviation engineering center. (source)
1927: Wright Field is formally dedicated on October 12 as the Air Corps' new test site, and McCook Field passes into history. (source)
1927: The museum moves to Wright Field, where until 1935 it occupies 8,100 square feet in a laboratory building. (source)
1931: The part of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam, including the Fairfield Air Depot and Huffman Prairie, is renamed Patterson Field on July 1. (source)
1935: The museum gets its first purpose-built home, a $203,000 Works Progress Administration building at Wright Field; its collection now tops 3,000 items. (source)
1941: The museum building is converted to wartime use and the collection goes into storage. (source)
1945: Wright Field, Patterson Field and two other fields are merged on December 15 as the Army Air Forces Technical Base, after wartime employment in the area climbed from about 3,700 to more than 50,000. (source)
1948: The Air Force Technical Base is redesignated Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on January 13. (source)
1955: The Air Force Museum, open by appointment only in Building 89 since the Air Force decided in 1947 to reopen it at Patterson Field, opens to the public in April and draws 41,662 visitors that year. (source)
1960: The Air Force Museum Foundation, a private nonprofit, is founded to raise money for a permanent museum building. (source)
1969: The first XB-70A Valkyrie, the first of the type to reach Mach 3, is flown to the museum at the end of its test program. (source)
1971: The new 800-by-240-foot museum building on a 400-acre site at Wright Field opens, paid for entirely by public contributions; President Richard Nixon attends the dedication in September. (source)
1977: Twin storage hangars on the old Wright Field flight line open to hold about 30 aircraft, including the presidential planes. (source)
1988: A second, parallel museum building opens in April for the Korean War and Southeast Asia War galleries, funded jointly by the foundation and the federal government at $10.8 million. (source)
1991: A 500-seat IMAX theater under an 80-foot glass atrium opens in May at the front of the museum. (source)
1995: The presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords at Wright-Patterson in November; the agreement is signed in Paris on December 14. (source)
1998: SAM 26000, the Boeing VC-137C that flew eight presidents, makes its final flight to the museum on May 20 after 36 years and more than 13,000 flying hours. (source)
2003: The $22.3 million, 200,000-square-foot third building, the Eugene W. Kettering Cold War Gallery, opens. (source)
2004: The Missile and Space Gallery opens, and in October the United States Air Force Museum is renamed the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (source)
2005: The B-17F Memphis Belle, on loan from the Air Force to the city of Memphis, is moved to the museum for restoration. (source)
2016: The $40.8 million, 224,000-square-foot fourth building opens on June 8 with the Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach galleries. (source)
2018: The restored Memphis Belle goes on public display in the World War II Gallery in May. (source)
2024: An early-morning tornado on February 28 damages the museum's restoration hangar, an F-104 and a T-33 on the south side of Area B; the public museum is not damaged. (source)

Sources

Towns and ZIP codes

Water, health, jobs and history for the places on the shores and just downstream.

Towns

ZIP codes

45431 Beavercreek and Dayton

Questions

How old is the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force?

The National Museum of the United States Air Force dates to 1923, when it began as an informal showing of World War I planes and equipment in the corner of a hangar at McCook Field in Dayton. It moved to Wright Field in 1927, spent World War II in storage, and opened to the public in April 1955, drawing 41,662 visitors that year. It calls itself the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum.

Who paid for the Air Force Museum building?

Public donations raised through the Air Force Museum Foundation, a private nonprofit founded in 1960, paid the entire cost of the museum's 1971 building. The 800-by-240-foot building on a 400-acre site at Wright Field was dedicated with President Richard Nixon attending in September 1971. The foundation and the federal government jointly funded a second building in 1988 at $10.8 million, and the fourth building, opened in 2016, cost $40.8 million.

Is the Air Force One that carried JFK at the Air Force Museum?

Yes, SAM 26000, the jet that carried President Kennedy's body back to Washington, is at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. On November 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard it. Delivered on October 10, 1962, as the first jet built to carry the president, it flew eight presidents and made its final flight to the museum on May 20, 1998, after more than 13,000 flying hours.

Where is the Memphis Belle bomber now?

The B-17F Memphis Belle is on display in the World War II Gallery of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, where it went on public view in May 2018. It was the first heavy bomber to return to the United States after flying 25 missions over Europe. The Air Force had lent it to the city of Memphis, and it was moved to the museum for restoration in 2005.

How did Wright-Patterson Air Force Base get its name?

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is named for Wilbur and Orville Wright and for Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, son of National Cash Register co-founder Frank J. Patterson. Lt. Patterson was killed at Wright Field in 1918 when the wings of his DH-4 collapsed in a dive. The east part of Wright Field was renamed Patterson Field on July 1, 1931, and the base took the name Wright-Patterson on January 13, 1948.

What is the XB-70 Valkyrie at the Air Force Museum?

The XB-70 Valkyrie at the museum is the only survivor of two test aircraft built from a Mach 3 nuclear bomber design of the 1950s. The bomber program was canceled in 1961, but the Air Force bought two XB-70As, which made 129 flights between 1964 and 1969. The museum's airplane first flew in September 1964 and reached Mach 3 in October 1965; it came to the museum in 1969.

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