What are the best museums in the US to see cool aerospace stuff?  A friend told me there is one in the middle of nowhere in Kansas once, he was quite impressed by it.

Isn't there are museum on Colorado where one can go to see a B-1B and B-52?  I seem to recall it was in the Denver area.  Sounds like a fun thing to do this weekend, now that I think of it.

Pima Air and Space Museum  www.pimaair.org

there is one down in florida near pensicola

the air and space in dc is cool

Wright-Patterson AFB Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

National Air and Space Museum in Washington and the Avation museum in Warner Robins Georgia...

The DC area has the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum downtown and the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy facility by Dulles Airport.  The downtown museum is neat and has some great stuff in it but needs a facelift / renovation due to it's volume of visitors. The place is showing some age inside. the Udvar Hazy facility is new and very nice, has the Enola Gay and the first space shuttle Enterprise in it.

Well, besides the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, one of my favorites is the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio
www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/

Also try this link for a state by state listing:
www.aerofiles.com/museums.html

B-1A, B-52, F-4, F-101, Canberra, Lowry AFB Museum.

My personal favorite is Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, FL.  It is a museum based around the Golden Age of flight, and world war 2.  All the aircraft are flyable and most are flown now and then by their owner.  They also have full motion fighter sims.  

+1 on USAF Museum @WPAFB

Also, there's one at Elmira, N.Y. that's not too bad. I got to sit in their A-10. Their 'annex' is pretty cool, too, but you have to take their tour. Once inside, you can just do what you want.

Another favorite of mine is the Glenn Curtiss Museum at Hammondsport.

Seattles Museum of Flight......they have some pretty scarse stuff in there.

http://www.museumofflight.org/Display.asp?Page=Exhibits

Many moons ago I went to the Champlain Museum in Arizona with tons of planes AND machineguns. Dont know if its still open or not.

SAC Museum west of Omaha is pretty good too.  Every plane sued by SAC is there plus a little more.

can't believe no one has mentioned the EAA museum yet.

The EAA museum in Oshkosh WI is pretty cool.  A few WW2 planes/bombers last time I was there.  No B-52's or anything like that, but you can walk thru a B-17.

Quoted: What are the best museums in the US to see cool aerospace stuff?  A friend told me there is one in the middle of nowhere in Kansas once, he was quite impressed by it. Isn't there are museum on Colorado where one can go to see a B-1B and B-52?  I seem to recall it was in the Denver area.  Sounds like a fun thing to do this weekend, now that I think of it.

There are a lot of air museums around the country. Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver has a lot of good aircraft including a B-52.
http://www.wingsmuseum.org/

This is four of them that I have visited.

The National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Pensacola Naval Air Station is a good one. It is the base the Blue Angels train from and you can watch on certain days free of charge.   http://www.aero-web.org/museums/fl/nmna.htm


Not very far away (about 20 miles if I remember correctly near Ft Walton Beach, FL) is the USAF Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base). It has a wide variety of aircraft that you can walk up to and look around. It was this base that James Doolittle and his crews trained for the famous mission to bomb Tokyo and other cities by flying the B-25’s from the deck of aircraft carriers.
http://www.aero-web.org/museums/fl/afam.htm
http://www.destin-ation.com/airforcearmamentmuseum


The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC is probably the best of them. It has many of the actual planes, not just planes of the same type. It has the Spirit of St Louis that first crossed the Atlantic non-stop, the Bell X-1 that Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier, the Apollo 11 that brought Neil Armstrong to moon, etc. While I love the other museums, it is great to see the actual aircraft from history and not just a mock-up.  
http://www.nasm.si.edu/


Another good one is the Commemorative Air Force, formerly the Confederate Air Force. They changed it to be politically correct because some complained of the “confederate”. The main CAF base is in Midland, TX although there are other chapters all over the country. If you visit the Midland museum you need to go October 7th and 8th. That is the annual air show and it has the largest display of WWII aircraft in the world. I think they will have over 100 WWII planes and almost everyone of them in flying condition. The CAF is not a static model organization but one where they keep the planes flying. Many of the ones on display will be flown during the air show. If you want to see actual flights of a B-29 Superfortress, a B-24 Liberator, a B-17 Flying Fortress and others, see this show.
http://www.airsho.org/airsho-aircraft/index.shtml

Quoted: The EASS museum in Oshkosh WI is pretty cool.  A few WW2 planes/bombers last time I was there.  No B-52's or anything like that, but you can walk thru a B-17.

The Oshkosh Museum is probably the best during AirVenture, this year July 24-30. During that time it is probably the best place ever to see aircraft of all types. There are literally thousands of planes from all over the world in one spot. Example totals for 2005 are:

more than 10,000 aircraft total

almost 3,000 show planes including 386 warbirds, 1,267 homebuilts, 924 vintage, etc.

If you really want to just see every kind of aircraft available and a butt kicking airshow, this is the one. I have tried for years to get there but have not been able to due to scheduling.

http://www.airventure.org/

Last summer I finally went down to the on at Robbins Field in Warner Robbins GA.  B52, B29, P40, P51, Mig 17, F86, AT37, F104, F4 etc

Oh, did I mention the SR 71 and the U2 !!!!!

I had just badly twisted an ankle and had to cut the visit short.  If anybody wants to do a road trip I'm game.

rj

USS Intrepid Museum- NYC

Air & Space Museum- DC

Wright-Patterson AFB Museum- Ohio




Those are my 3 favorite