This really is 52-1066. Chateauroux to Athens and was forced down by Yugoslavia Air Force fighters. Plane and crew were held until after some diplomatic negotiations when they were released to return to Chateauroux. 19 Sep '74: Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, for storage. 27 Aug '75: Flown to the Air Force Museum. It is displayed as 51-135 of 756th Military Airlift Squadron/909th Military Airlift Group (Andrews AFB).

The USAAS adopted the SPAD XIII, a development of the SPAD VII, as its primary fighter in WWI. By the war's end, the Air Service had accepted 893 SPAD XIIIs from the French, equipping 15 of the 16 American fighter squadrons. This example went into service with the French in October 1918 so did not see war operations but was shipped to the US in 1919 and fitted with a smaller Wright-Suiza engine to replace its Hispano-Suiza. Joined Cole Palen's flying circus in 1951, becoming N2030A and bequeathed to the USAFM in 1993 where it is now displayed in the colours of 94th PS ace Eddie Rickenbacker

Designed in 1917 as a combination fighter, light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft by Capt Georges LePere, a French aeronautical engineer working for the USAAS, LUSAC stood for LePere United States Army Combat. This is the only LUSAC 11 in existence of 28 built and went to France just before the end of the war. In 1989 the museum acquired it from the Musee de l'Air in Paris. After extensive restoration, it went on display in 1992, marked as it appeared while at the Allied test facility in Orly, France, in late 1918

Originally allocated USAAF serial 42-36446. Donated in 1971 by the CAP's Greene County Composite Squadron at Xenia, OH

Dubbed the "Tommy" by its pilots, the Thomas-Morse Scout became the favourite single-seat training airplane for US pilots during WWI with nearly 600 procured for the USAAS. Some were still being used as late as the mid-1930s for movies filmed in Hollywood. This one was donated to the museum in 1965 and went on show after a two-year restoration in 2021

Taken into service by the RAF in May 1942 as DE744 and became G-ANCN in 1953 then OO-NCN in 1955 and N39DH in 1970. It won several trophies at air shows in the States before entering the USAFM in 1998

This Invader is now painted to represent a night intruder used during the Korean War by the 34th BS. My 1973 photo here

Based on existing Cierva and Pitcairn designs, in 1931 this was the first autogiro tested by the Army Air Corps at Wright Field for a possible role as a slow flying machine to observe enemy forces and control artillery fire, but it was found to have unsuitable performance

This Cessna was retired by the Civil Air Patrol in 2024 having operated it since 1986. It was the only civilian aircraft authorised to fly in and around New York City on 12 September 2001 after the 9/11 terror attacks when the airspace was otherwise closed to civil traffic, performing aerial photography of the area surrounding the destroyed World Trade Center. In March 2024 it arrived at the NMUSAF and has been put on display in the Cold War gallery

The versatile L-1 performed a variety of missions both in the US and overseas during WWII and was well suited for operations from short fields. Its duties included towing training gliders, artillery spotting, liaison, rescue, supply transport, espionage behind Japanese lines and even dropping light bombs. This one was civilianised as N66648 after the war, later changing N63229 and N4782C. It was donated to the museum in 1973 by the widow of its owner in Alaska and placed on display in 1979

The B-29 which (in)famously dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki on 9th August 1945, three days after the first dropped by "Enola Gay" on Hiroshima. Flown to the USAFM in September 1961 after storage at Davis Monthan

In November 1942 this MC-200 was damaged while landing at Benghazi K-3 airfield in Libya and was captured by British forces during the Axis retreat after the battle of El Alamein. In early 1943 it was shipped to the USA and used for tours around the country to raise War Bonds. It became derelict postwar but in 1965 went to the Bradley Air Museum, Windsor Locks, CT. From December 1989 the Aermacchi factory at Verese in Italy restored it for the USAFM and was flown as airfreight to Wright Patterson in October 1992. It is finished in the Regia Aeronautica markings as found when captured

This is a replica built in 1966/67 by the Royal Canadian Air Forces Aircraft Maintenance and Development Unit using original parts including a 110hp Le Rhone J rotary engine. It was given the registration G-CYEI and was painted to represent one of 52 Avro 504K aerobatic trainers used at the American Expeditionary Force No. 3 Instruction Center, Issoudun, France, in 1918. The type was the first introduction to flying for many USAAS pilots and continued in use after WWI

The Valiant, known as the the "Vibrator" by the pilots who flew it, was the basic trainer most widely used by the USAAF during WWII, representing the second of the three stages of pilot training - primary, basic and advanced. In all some 10,375 P&W engined BT-13s and Wright-engined BT-15s were built. This one was registered N62645 postwar and was obtained by the museum in 1965

Built as a Bf-109G-6 in 1942, this aircraft is recorded as serving the Bulgarian AF as 610824 then the Yugoslav AF as 9964 before remanufacture as a Bf-109G-14/U4 in Vienna in 1944. Operating as 'Black 2' with II./JG52 in 1945, it was captured at Neubiberg in May and shipped to the US as FE-124 then T2-124. Moved to Freeman Filed, IN in 1946, it was used for displays. In the late 1960s restoration began in California with the wings of a Czech Avia S-199. Transferred to the UK then Evergreen at McMinnville, OR, in 1990 it was registered as N109MS and converted to Bf-109G-10 spec. Loaned in 1999

Probably built at Focke-Wulf's Bernberg plant in 1944, this long-nose Fw-190 was operated on bomber intercepts in the late stages of WWII by Udet Gerschwader, IV (Sturm)/JG 3. It was surrendered to the RAF at Flensburg and was shipped to here at Wright Field in June 1945 for testing using the serial FE-120 (FE=Foreign Evaluation) then T2-120 (T2=Office of Air Force Intelligence). In 1960 it was taken into the care of the Smithsonian/National Air Museum, Washington, DC and went on loan to the USAFM by 1975

The Hadrian was the most widely used US troop/cargo glider of WWII and featured an upward-hinged nose section through which 13 equipped troops, a jeep, a quarter-ton truck or a 75mm howitzer could be loaded

Of a total of 273 Twin Mustangs produced, 20 were F-82Bs. The example on display at the NMUSAF flew from Hawaii to New York in February 1947 over a distance of 5,051 miles, the longest non-stop flight ever made by a propeller-driven fighter. In 1950 it was transferred to the NACA Lewis Research Centre in Cleveland for use in ram-jet tests, then coming to the museum in 1957

This really is 52-1066. Chateauroux to Athens and was forced down by Yugoslavia Air Force fighters. Plane and crew were held until after some diplomatic negotiations when they were released to return to Chateauroux. 19 Sep '74: Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, for storage. 27 Aug '75: Flown to the Air Force Museum. It is displayed as 51-135 of 756th Military Airlift Squadron/909th Military Airlift Group (Andrews AFB).

This really is 52-1066. Chateauroux to Athens and was forced down by Yugoslavia Air Force fighters. Plane and crew were held until after some diplomatic negotiations when they were released to return to Chateauroux. 19 Sep '74: Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, for storage. 27 Aug '75: Flown to the Air Force Museum. It is displayed as 51-135 of 756th Military Airlift Squadron/909th Military Airlift Group (Andrews AFB).