I am a 40-year-old woman,and I took my 73-year-old father(an Air Force vet)and 10-year-old nephew to the Wright-Patterson Museum on Father's Day weekend. For all 3 generations, this was a great experience! There are 3 huge hangars full of planes on the museum grounds, and 2 smaller ones next door at the Air Force base. The Early Years and WW11 exhibits were especially well set up, with mannequins and props adding a "you are there" feeling. There are also lots of memorabilia from servicemen, and plenty of facts and stories (with pictures)along the walls. The Cold War and South Asian(??) hangars were not as elaborately set up....mostly just planes wih placards explaining their history. There was also a small Space Age area...not much there, but did have a neat little display about the "food" astronauts had to eat...all 3 of us had a chuckle over that! The Presidential and experimental planes at the smaller hangars were also nice to see, but beware...you have to sign up early for the bus to get to these, and you have to walk through a 17" wide plexiglass "hallway" in the Presidential planes. We were there on a Sun. and Mon., and the bus sign-up was full by 2pm on Sun., but we easily got on the 11 am bus on Mon. Be advised, you only have about 45 min.at these hangars-it looked like there was only 1 bus so they had to keep it moving. One last note...we ate at the on-site cafeteria both days, and thought it had a lot of decent choices for not too much money (just under $17 for the three of us each day)

This museum is a flight and history buff's dream. Huge hangars packed (literally) with planes, missiles, rockets, bombs, and land vehicles in addition to information covering every imaginable angle of the history of flight and the US air force (all the obvious plus esoterica such as USO tours, flight jackets, women, even dogs in parachutes). My husband and I had visited once before and thoroughly enjoyed the museum and were returning with our 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter. Our son is a major space buff whose passion has taken us to the marvelous US Space and Rocket museum in Huntsville, Alabama in addition to Florida's Cape Kennedy. We were not able to visit every exhibit due to limited time (3 1/2 hours) so perhaps we missed more interactive exhibits aimed toward children, but his take on the museum was "This is boring." Both kids did enjoy getting up close to and walking through the Presidential plans (though the mannekins inside were a bit creepy!), but otherwise there wasn't a lot for younger children to experience. He wanted to climb in things, like a space capsule or rocket, and pull levers, manipulate steering devices, and feel things move. Even though we pointed out aircraft and items that Nicholas had seen in multiple movies (The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, There Goes a Plane/Helicopter/Space Shuttle), just looking wasn't horribly interesting after the 50th plane, no matter how great the historical importance or oddly shaped! Very little interested our daughter despite our best efforts to talk about planes and helicopters grandpa or Uncle Jeff flew. If you have young kids I'd recommend doing the museum in small doses or waiting until they're old enough to recognize (which my son did in many cases) AND understand the historical significance of many items, for example, "little boy and fat man" replicas. Don't have kids? Then put on your most comfortable shoes and plan for an incredibly dense day of history where you'll marvel at how far aviation has come over the past century and what risks pioneers have taken over and over again to advance our knowledge while pushing out the boundaries of space.

I can't believe I waited so long to go to the USAF Museum. I guess I thought this would be a place more suited to men but I'm glad that I didn't let that stop me from making the trip.

The museum features several hangars filled with air crafts from pre-WWI to present day. There is also an outdoor airpark. Some of the highlights of the museum include a Zero, the Memphis Belle, a Super fortress, stealth bomber and fighter, an F-15....

In addition to what is available for viewing on the museum grounds, visitors can also take a shuttle to Wright Patterson to view even more. These hangars are broken up in Presidential (including the Air Force One that brought President Kennedy's body home from Dallas) and experimental (really interesting looking stuff here).

You are allowed to walk through several of the Presidental planes. It is amazing to stand near the spot where LBJ was sworn in.

There is a lot of ground to cover so wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to do a lot of walking. Have a big breakfast because the on-site cafe is over-priced and the food is not very good. Of course it is hard to complain about the price of the food when the museum itself is easily worth $10-15 per person but admission is free.

took 2 days to see it all, including a tour of the presidental planes on the base. very big and some excellent exibits. highly recommend a visit.