In support of an official event 

The Museum will be closed Sunday, May 25
In addition, the Fourth Hangar will be closed Saturday, May 24

Access to the Presidential Gallery will be limited from May 15 to June 5
 

Fact Sheet Alphabetical List

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  • Dr. Robert H. Goddard

     "The Father of Modern Rocketry""It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."- Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) Physicist and inventor Dr. Robert H. Goddard is considered the father of practical modern rocketry and space

  • Dyna-Soar X-20A

    As the Aerobee and other programs, including the X-15, were testing the edges of the atmosphere, the Air Force was at work on a vehicle to realize the reusable spacecraft concept. Titled Dyna-Soar for "Dynamic Soaring," the new program (actually an amalgamation of several earlier programs)

  • Discoverer XIV

    The Discoverer XIV is the first satellite to be ejected from an orbiting space vehicle and to be recovered in midair. Discoverer XIV was launched into a polar (north-south) orbit by a Thor booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Aug. 18, 1960. After the Thor exhausted its fuel, the Agena

  • Douglas SM-75/PGM-17A Thor

    The SM-75/PGM-17A Thor intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) was the product of the early Cold War race to deploy nuclear armed missiles before the Soviets. Thor was designed to be an interim nuclear deterrent while the U.S. Air Force developed long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles

  • Dangerously Close! USAF Close Air Support in the Southeast Asia War

    Close air support (CAS) -- sometimes called tactical air support -- gave American and South Vietnamese ground forces a tremendous military advantage. However, the U.S. Air Force had to relearn CAS tactics used during World War II and the Korean War. Because the USAF's high-speed combat jets flew too

  • Down in the Weeds: Ranch Hand

    The dense jungle in Southeast Asia allowed the enemy to ambush vehicles and boats on transportation routes, creep close to stage attacks on bases, move men and materiel and hide their own camps. Ranch Hand crews denied the enemy this cover by spraying herbicides in key areas. To accomplish the

  • Dirty Thirty

    In April 1962, 30 U.S. Air Force pilots were sent to fly as advisors in the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) 43rd Air Transport Group. Their arrival permitted the VNAF to release some of its own experienced pilots to form new units for its rapidly-expanding air arm.This small group of Americans

  • DShK-1938/46 Heavy Machine Gun

    A Deadly "Sweetie" Used by communist forces in Southeast Asia, the Degtyarov-Shpagin Krupnokaliberny (DShK) machine gun presented a deadly threat to low-flying aircraft-like the Forward Air Controllers (FACs). Sometimes called Dushka (meaning "Sweetie"), they could be mounted on armored vehicles or

  • De Havilland C-7A Caribou

    The C-7A was a twin-engine, short takeoff and landing (STOL) utility transport built by De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd. It was used primarily for tactical airlift missions from short, unimproved airstrips in forward battle areas. It could carry either 26 fully equipped paratroops, 20 litter

  • Douglas RB-66B Destroyer

    The B-66 was developed from the U.S. Navy A3D Skywarrior as a tactical light bomber and photo reconnaissance aircraft. The RB-66B photo reconnaissance version became the first production series and totaled 145 of the 294 B-66s built. The USAF also developed a weather reconnaissance version, and