The National Air Force Museum

Last March we went to the National Air Force Museum.
To say that place is huge is an understatement. It's expansive.

There are four large galleries that house the airplanes (and helicopters and rockets and everything else). Each of the galleries has a theme to their exhibit and is further subdivided. Walking through it is like walking through the history of aviation. There is also a cafeteria between galleries two and three.

Part of the Berlin Wall

The galleries are all connected by a tunnel in a linear design which requires you to pass through each one. There is a lot of good to be said about the Museum: it's free, parking is free, Hulk loved it, it's informative and interesting, has a wide selection and variety. They also offer free strollers for the kids.

But it is BIG. And you have to walk through each gallery to get to the end and then walk back to exit. And you can't take food or drinks. Which I didn't know about ahead of time so I had a diaper bag full of snacks for the kids. Fortunately, the guard at the entrance took pity on me and said that I could take the food in but the kids couldn't eat anything outside of the cafeteria.

Flying saucer prototype

We spent five hours there and only saw half of the museum. Hulk was exhausted by the time we left. He also took approximately 120,948,109,284,192 photos because he wanted a picture of each plane. And they're all still on my phone...

Future astronaut

We really liked the museum but it's not something you should try to accomplish all in one day. With small kids I would recommend a gallery or two per day that you are there. There are a lot of informative plaques (which hold no interest to kids) but several of the planes you can walk through (like the retired presidential Air Force Ones) or sit in. I think there are two virtual reality machines you could do but we didn't want to pay for them. 'Cus we're cheap.

Testing out the flight landing simulator

There are two types of maps offered by the museum: a complementary one and one that you can get for a "suggested donation" of $6. I suggest the $6 map as it is much more informative and detailed.

Standing next to a model of a rocket while standing next to a life sized model of a rocket #meta

It's on our bucket list to go back but with the hour drive to Dayton from Cincinnati finding time is difficult.

Until then - here are more pictures of my kids with the planes:

Maverick and Goose

Air Force One (one of them)