The Boeing 707 that carried American presidents for nearly three decades will be among the highlights of the new exhibit building at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The 224,000-square-foot building, the museum’s fourth, will officially open June 8. The $40.8 million expansion allows more than 70 aircraft and other historic items to be displayed among four galleries: Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach, along with Learning Nodes for educational activities in science, technology, engineering and math.
The Presidential exhibit features the Boeing VC-137C that was flown as Air Force One for eight presidents. Another one-of-a-kind aircraft is the last XB-70 Valkyrie, an Air Force bomber capable of supersonic flight that was in service in the 1960s. The Global Reach exhibit will include a new display of the museum’s Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, which flew missions as the Hanoi Taxi during the Vietnam War era. Expanded spacecraft displays offer viewings of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, artifacts from past missions and a Space Shuttle replica. Along with the historical aspects of the new building, the museum now has a new series of flight simulators featuring what the museum says is North America’s first Pulseworks Virtual Reality Transporter, offering an “exclusive” spaceflight experience.
