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The Air Force Museum
Second Library Copy. San Diego Air and Space Museum.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 5, 2026
This book, THE AIR FORCE MUSEUM, tells about the biggest and oldest museum dedicated to flight in the world. Of course there are military planes of friend and foe there, but that is just one aspect of why a trip there would be worthwhile. Besides the actual planes there are small scale models, artifacts, dioramas, missiles, spacecraft, and a huge library and research center that is open to the public. And let's not forget about the restaurant and gift shop. This book covers it all and then some, for there is also an extensive glossary of air force jargon and an inventory of what they have on site.
The layout of the museum is such that as you walk through the history of flight is covered. The Wright brothers figure prominently in the beginning as they played such a large part in getting man into the air. In those early days they probably knew more about flight than anybody. Starting off with gliders, they made their own math tables for airfoil lift and drag based on a wind tunnel of their own design. And all this was done in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Their first flight that made history was actually done at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. Using a small gasoline engine that drove a propeller, Orville Wright was in the air for all of 12 seconds and flew 120 feet.
Returning to Dayton, they continued with their flights from Huffman Prairie, which became part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Over time the base grew and was a research facility, much like that mysterious place known as Area 51. As a matter of fact, when that 'weather balloon' crashed at Roswell it was retrieved and flown to Wright-Patterson. The base was also a transportation hub and SAC (Strategic Air Command) base.
After serving in Korea, my father got a job in the Civil Service working at Wright-Patterson, so we often spent time at the museum which was right there. I fondly remember those days. When family would come to visit most of the aircraft were still parked outside. If it started to rain while visitors were there we would all crowd under the wings of bombers or in the voluminous holds of transport planes. Back then you could climb all over them. And if my father and I were trying to watch the TV show 'Gunsmoke', and the interference became too great because of all the radio traffic caused by SAC scrambling their planes into the air, we would go down and watch the planes take off. At the time you could park along the roadway and watch the planes taking off overhead. For some reason I remember my father gesturing to some people a ways off and saying "Those are the Russians." Years later my father and brother were there watching from another spot as planes were taking off and landing, one after another during Desert Shield. I wonder if those old Russians were still there? By the way, my father worked on Operation Blue Book which was stationed there as well. Being a photographer, he analyzed the masses of photos that people were sending in sorting out the obvious fakes, such as gluing two pie pans together with a baby bottle nipple on top and tossing it into the air. Under magnification it became obvious what it was. I don't know what they did with the other photos. They probably passed them on 'upstairs.'
Anyway, this book is worth the purchase if you can't make it to the museum itself. There is a lot of interesting information in there and over 500 illustrations.
The layout of the museum is such that as you walk through the history of flight is covered. The Wright brothers figure prominently in the beginning as they played such a large part in getting man into the air. In those early days they probably knew more about flight than anybody. Starting off with gliders, they made their own math tables for airfoil lift and drag based on a wind tunnel of their own design. And all this was done in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Their first flight that made history was actually done at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. Using a small gasoline engine that drove a propeller, Orville Wright was in the air for all of 12 seconds and flew 120 feet.
Returning to Dayton, they continued with their flights from Huffman Prairie, which became part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Over time the base grew and was a research facility, much like that mysterious place known as Area 51. As a matter of fact, when that 'weather balloon' crashed at Roswell it was retrieved and flown to Wright-Patterson. The base was also a transportation hub and SAC (Strategic Air Command) base.
After serving in Korea, my father got a job in the Civil Service working at Wright-Patterson, so we often spent time at the museum which was right there. I fondly remember those days. When family would come to visit most of the aircraft were still parked outside. If it started to rain while visitors were there we would all crowd under the wings of bombers or in the voluminous holds of transport planes. Back then you could climb all over them. And if my father and I were trying to watch the TV show 'Gunsmoke', and the interference became too great because of all the radio traffic caused by SAC scrambling their planes into the air, we would go down and watch the planes take off. At the time you could park along the roadway and watch the planes taking off overhead. For some reason I remember my father gesturing to some people a ways off and saying "Those are the Russians." Years later my father and brother were there watching from another spot as planes were taking off and landing, one after another during Desert Shield. I wonder if those old Russians were still there? By the way, my father worked on Operation Blue Book which was stationed there as well. Being a photographer, he analyzed the masses of photos that people were sending in sorting out the obvious fakes, such as gluing two pie pans together with a baby bottle nipple on top and tossing it into the air. Under magnification it became obvious what it was. I don't know what they did with the other photos. They probably passed them on 'upstairs.'
Anyway, this book is worth the purchase if you can't make it to the museum itself. There is a lot of interesting information in there and over 500 illustrations.
January 17, 2013
Would love to see updated version of this one!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews