Strategic Air and Space Museum

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SR-71A Blackbird on display at the museum.

The Strategic Air and Space Museum is a museum focusing on United States Air Force militiary aircraft and nuclear missiles located near Ashland, Nebraska, along Interstate 80 south of Omaha, Nebraska. The objective of the museum is to preserve and display historic aircraft, missile, and space vehicles and provide educational resources. The museum is regarded as having one of the top collections of strategic aircraft.^[1]

1 History
2 Collection
3 Traveling exhibits
4 References
- 4.1 External links

[edit] History

The museum began with its first airplane in 1959 as the Strategic Aerospace Museum at Offutt Air Force Base. General Curtis LeMay's vision of a Museum that preserved historic aircraft had become a reality. Over the following years, the museum's name changed to the Strategic Air Command Museum or SAC Museum.

On May 16, 1998, after a 33 million-dollar grass roots capital campaign, the Museum moved to a location more accessible to the public.

On June 15, 2001 the name of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) Museum was changed to the Strategic Air & Space Museum. This change incorporated the Museum's rich past while reaching out to a growing audience through dynamic programming and exciting educational programs that captivate the interests and imaginations of everyone.

The Museum is a $29.5 million, 300,000 square foot building that features a glass atrium, two aircraft display hangars, a traveling exhibit area, a children's interactive gallery, a 200-seat theater, a Museum store, an aircraft restoration gallery, and a snack bar. The glass atrium is constructed of 525 glass panels that encase a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. The two aircraft display hangars protect the aircraft collection and exhibits from harsh outdoor elements. The museum participates in an exhibit exchange program with other national museums and displays them in the traveling exhibit area.^[1] Three large missiles are displayed vertically outdoors in front of the museum.

[edit] Collection

The museum's collection includes examples of most aircraft operated by the Strategic Air Command, including^[1]:

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress
Boeing B-29TB Superfortress
Boeing KC-97G Stratofreighter
Convair B-36J Peacemaker, one of only four surviving
McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, one of only two ever produced
Boeing B-47 Stratojet
Boeing B-52B Stratofortress
Convair B-58 Hustler
Lockheed U-2C Dragon Lady
Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird
Boeing EC-135 Looking Glass
North American B-25N Mitchell
North American B-25N Mitchell (sectioned fuselage) 44-28738
Apollo Block I Command Module, flown on AS-201
Rockwell B-1A Lancer, one of only two surviving
Avro Hawker Vulcan, one of three on display in the United States
General Dynamics FB-111A S/N 68-0267

[edit] Traveling exhibits

The current traveling exhibit is SPACE: A JOURNEY TO OUR FUTURE which includes a walk-through mock-up of a possible Martian base, displays on space exploration, and slices of metorites from Mars and the Moon.