Hello All. I'm back from a 2-day trip to the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton. What a fantastic place. Didn't even come close to seeing everything. I spent a lot of time photographing the B-36J. It turns out it was originally an RB-36J and the museum converted it back to just a B-36J -- well almost. They left in a belly camera window and some ECM antennae at the back. There may be a few other nits too. I took a LOT of photos (I think 700-800). I shoot in RAW, so my RAW and JPEG images are all large (about 26MB each). I'll upload files to my Flickr account soon and post links, probably by the weekend.
What I shot is listed below and includes photo requests from the some of the Group Build folks. The museum uses low lighting, so I tried tripod shots or flash. I shot at very high ISOs (3200, 6400) to capture everything. Some pictures may be grainy because of that. Also, because some areas were so dark, I had to use manual focus, but that was even challenging. Thus, some photos might be out of focus, but hopefully will still show the detail needed.
B-36J
Virtually everything I could see. Top views were very limited, even from the balcony, plus they didn't show any walkway stripes, etc., so the top views were a bust. John, I shot the tail gun, but no nose gunner due to the J configuration. Lots of main landing gear bay photos, but could see into the nose gear.
Lockheed AC-130A Spectre gunship
This was the only gunship in the collection and it was roped off due to some work going on in the Space Shuttle mock up. I took a lot of photos from the port side and a bit of the rear. Only place I could shoot anything.
McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom II
It served in Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Cuba, and the Middle East during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. It was sent to the museum in 1994. I got every angle I could see (front, port, aft plus some starboard).
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II sit-in cockpit
Was originally an F-4B forward fuselage section used in the ABC series "Call to Glory." Was then refurbished and marked as an F-4D. I tried to get about every angle of both seats in this cockpit, plus the canopy.
Boeing B-52D
I shot everything I could see, which was just about everything but a top view. Unfortunately, the black gloss underside paint and low lighting made it difficult to pick out all the BUFF's bumps and holes .
McDonnel Douglas F-4C Phantom II
This one is in Vietnam camo colors. Lots of details shots. I also took a lot of photos of the different armaments it could handle including AGM-12C, GBU--8, AGM-62 and BOLT-117.