← Back to topic list
Here is the Blue Angel's schedule, mentioned above: Blue Angels.
The Air Force version are the Thunderbirds.
Are you interested in seeing only currently operating Air Force aircraft, or are you also interested in historical as well as currently operating planes.
If interested in hisorical flight, there are a number of excellent museums around the country featuring military as well as commercial aircraft Wright-Patterson AFB and the Pima Air & Space museum have been mentioned. Then there is the Smithsonian Museum of Flight in Washington DC.
Also there is Boeing's Museum of Flight in Seattle featuring WW I, WW II, Korean War and spacecraft. In McMinnville Oregon is the Aviation and Space Museum featuring Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose and a variety of military and commercial alircraft and space vehicles, some of them very rare. Finally, during summer, Paul Allen's Historic Flight Foundation at Paine Field in Everett (north of Seattle) hosts monthly air shows featuring all sorts of rare vintage military aircraft from all theatres of WW II (German, Japanese, Chinese, British, American, Russian) and the small museum there features operating WW II aircraft on display, some of them one-of-a-kind. You can meet the pilots first hand and maybe win a ride in a B-24.
← Back to topic list
USAF Bases
I'll be in the US June/July and wonder if any Air Force Bases have public viewing areas where you can photograph any planes you see without having Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris and the 7th Cavalry turn up with bugles blaring and sabres slashing. I've looked at Nellis AFB, their show is too late, and cannot find an annual calendar for Air shows1
The easiest is Wright-Patterson, the home of the National Museum of the Air Force.2
Where in the US? Are you willing to travel cross country to visit one? I went to Travis Air Force Base in California a little while back. It's an active base. You'll get clearance (hopefully), then escorted onto base and you can see some (old) military planes and they have a great museum, all for free. But no public viewing area of new planes, if that's what you want.3
The best would be an air show-type performance, such as the Blue Angeles (I think their name is) that I saw flying around the skyscapers in San Francisco. Or, you can watch training flights nearby an air force base. There is no public schedule, of course.4
The Miramar Air Show (Marines) outside San Diego is great, but probably too late in the year for you. I think it's early October this year.5
I just finished watching Stephen Fry in America, and one of the places he visited was the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Arizona. It houses more than 4,400 aircraft in its storage and maintenance facility. A quote from the article: "AMARG is a controlled-access site, and is off-limits to anyone not employed there without the proper clearance. The only access for non-cleared individuals is via a bus tour which is conducted by the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum. Bus tours are Monday through Friday only." It looked pretty awesome in the program.Here is the Blue Angel's schedule, mentioned above: Blue Angels.
6
If you come to Dayon, OH to see the Air Force Museum, time you visit to coinside with the 2013 Dayton Air Show. It is held at Dayton's airport a few miles north of the museum. The Air Force Museum is at Wright Field, which no longer has aircraft operations. You can get a great view of aircraft operations at Patterson Field from the Wright Memorial, also at Wright Field. Both the museum and the memorial are open to the public. The third link also discusses other Wright Brothers sites around Dayton.7
Thanks for the replies. I've been to the storage site (Davis/Montham) and I haven't given myself enough time to go up to Travis as I'm locked into a routine between Albuquerque and LAX. Any AFB in Missouri, Kentucky, Mississippi or Tennessee would be great. Ref Wright/Dayton, great museum, but I'd like to see some F22/35's in the air.8
The best would be an air show-type performance, such as the Blue Angeles
The Blue Angels are Navy.The Air Force version are the Thunderbirds.
11
Kirtland AFB and the commercial Albuquerque Sunport share the same runways. If you are lucky you might see military planes taxi by, take off or land. There is an aircraft viewing area to the west end or go to the post office to the west of the terminal. The base has assigned C-130s, CV-22s and assorted helicopters but in transient planes sometimes include Air Force, Navy and Marine fighters.14
CAballero0,Are you interested in seeing only currently operating Air Force aircraft, or are you also interested in historical as well as currently operating planes.
If interested in hisorical flight, there are a number of excellent museums around the country featuring military as well as commercial aircraft Wright-Patterson AFB and the Pima Air & Space museum have been mentioned. Then there is the Smithsonian Museum of Flight in Washington DC.
Also there is Boeing's Museum of Flight in Seattle featuring WW I, WW II, Korean War and spacecraft. In McMinnville Oregon is the Aviation and Space Museum featuring Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose and a variety of military and commercial alircraft and space vehicles, some of them very rare. Finally, during summer, Paul Allen's Historic Flight Foundation at Paine Field in Everett (north of Seattle) hosts monthly air shows featuring all sorts of rare vintage military aircraft from all theatres of WW II (German, Japanese, Chinese, British, American, Russian) and the small museum there features operating WW II aircraft on display, some of them one-of-a-kind. You can meet the pilots first hand and maybe win a ride in a B-24.
