Museum Price: FREE!
Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Travel Time from Lexington, Ky: 3 hours

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The museum is roughly 3 hours from Lexington, KY. It is easily found from the interstate (follow the signs). I would recommend picking up a brochure from any rest stop on the way. The directions on the brochure are easier to follow than what is given in Google Maps.

The museum spans the history of flight from the early years of the Wright Brothers to the Stealth bomber. To see all of the 400+ aerospace vehicles and the 1000’s of exhibits, you will need two days (at least).

The museum is very large, be prepared to walk. For those with mobility problems, they have scooters for rent. If you are unable to walk long distances, I recommend renting one. For those who will be walking, there are plenty of benches to rest as you tour the museum.

The museum had something of interest for each member our group. Our group for this trip consisted of two adults (30ish & 50ish), one senior (60ish), one child (8) and one teen (12).

Day 1:

IMAX: Magic of Flight:

Our tour of the museum started with the IMAX Theater and the showing of “Magic of Flight”. I’ve always loved IMAX movies and this one does not disappoint. They had several movies to choose from (at the time of our visit they were playing “Magic of Flight”, “Deep Sea”, “Space Station”, “Fighter Pilot”, “Straight Up! Helicopters in Action”). Ticket cost: $8.00 for Adults, $4.75 for children and $5.75 for students and seniors.

Valkyrie Café:

The IMAX Theater exits to the Valkyrie Café. This was a nice, clean café with a friendly staff. The food was decent and reasonably priced. The menu consisted of chicken fingers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, fries, tater totes and nachos. The nachos were a big hit with our group. Also, they had a surprisingly delicious cherry drink.

Gift Shop:

The gift shop had a large collection of aviation books, clothes, models, toys and DVD’s. I was pleasantly surprised that the prices (besides the bomber jackets) were reasonable. Two books I would recommend are the “National Museum of the United States Air Force: Aircraft Brochure” and the “National Museum of the United States Air Force: A Pictorial Tour of the Museum”. Both have a wealth of information about the exhibits and a fun souvenir to take home.

Early Years Gallery (Early Military Flight to the Beginning of World War II):

Within this gallery we were able to walk through the history of early military flight. There was an exact replica of the Wright 1909 Military Flyer with mannequins of Lieutenants Benjamin Foulois and Frederick Humphries. There were many other exhibits including a women’s bicycle purchased from the Wright Brothers and a wind tunnel used by Orville Wright to test different aerodynamics.

Next were the World War I exhibits. This was a small part of the gallery, but still very interesting. The gallery included:

Finally the gallery ended with exhibits pertaining to the prelude of World War II including a diorama of the Eagle Squadron and a “crashed” BT-9.

Crashed BT-9

Air Power Gallery (World War II)

This gallery had an impressive amount of World War II exhibits. There are a number of early WWII combat aircrafts including:

P-36

P-40 “Warhawk” (painted like a “Flying Tiger”)

N1-K2-JA (Japanese)

Messerschmitt Me 262 (German)

The bombers included:

B-18A

B-17

There was also a V2 (German) rocket engineered by the famous Wernher von Braun. The gallery ended with a remarkable display of the Boeing B-29 “Superfortress” Bockscar and its infamous cargo “Fat Man” (nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945). Next to the very large “Fat Man” was a surprisingly smaller bomb called “Little Boy” (nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945).

Boeing B-29 “Superfortress” Bockscar

Fat Man

Little Boy

More Photos can be found here: Jason Delph’s Flickr