National Museum of the United States Air Force

By Michael Benolkin

In June of 2016, the National Museum of the United States Air Force opened Building 4, their latest exhibit hall which houses a terrific aviation history collection. If you've visited this museum located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, you'll recall that Building 1 houses two collections covering the early years of flight through World War 2. Building 2 houses another two collections covering the Korean War through Southeast Asia. Building 3 is the largest single collection covering the period of the Cold War.

Up until June, two other collections were housed in hangars across the field and required visitors to get to the museum early enough to reserve a bus seat over to that facility. Even so, those collections were crammed into those hangars waiting for the day that a new building would be available to house them. That day has come. Building 4 houses the Research and Development (flight test) and Presidential Aircraft collections as well as some space flight displays. You'll also notice that a number of aircraft that were previously in the Air Park outdoors are either inside or have moved on.

Here are photo galleries of each of the buildings and the current (June 2016) air park. These are by no means complete, but will give you an idea of what you'll be seeing on your next visit. Enjoy!