Behind the Scenes at the National Museum of the USAF part 2

The CV-22B Osprey is a recent arrival at the museum and will be going in the new building once it is completed.


This C-82A Packet has been prepped and painted.


Many restorations are things other than aircraft, like this M151 Jeep.


These are "bombs" being prepared for exhibit in the museum's B-52 bomb bay. Even if you remove the explosives, real bombs are too heavy to keep permanently mounted to the aircraft, so exact replicas are made in fiberglass.  


This place is pretty much the ultimate fabrication shop.












This is a T-6 Texan II being assembled from wrecked aircraft.


One of the three hangars is used as a storage area, but has some of the most interesting aircraft, like the XB-42 Mixmaster and XB-43 Jetmaster. The XB-42 used a piston engine with a rear mounted contra-rotating propeller , while the XB-43 used a jet engine. Neither made it to production, but the XB-43 served as a jet engine testbed.




When the plexiglass nose on the XB-43 cracked during testing, a simple wooden one was made to take it's place.


The Atlas was the first ICBM deployed by the US. Note the air line running to the missile.


Without being full of fuel, there isn't enough structural support, so it has to be kept slightly pressurized or it will collapse in on itself.


This is a MiG-23MLD Flogger K.


This incomplete MiG-25RB Foxbat was found buried in the sand near Al Taqaddum Airbase in Iraq.




One of the aircraft I found most interesting was the Lockheed XF-90. Two prototypes were built, this being the only surviving one. Developed right after WWII, it was very advanced in many ways, but like many early jets it was overweight and underpowered. This one ended up being used for above ground nuclear testing, going through three blasts. They would place the aircraft and other objects at different distances from the tests to study the damage done. At one of the tests involving the XF-90, a B-17 was one of the other aircraft used, and it was repaired and flown out afterward. The XF-90 wasn't so lucky. Decades later the aircraft was found still sitting in the desert, and was decontaminated and delivered to the museum. Something like this will likely never be restored, but preserved in it's current state.










This is the X-32A, Boeing's losing entry in the Joint Strike Fighter competition.