Photos: South Dakota Air and Space Museum

On Sunday as part of a road trip across the United States, I ended up visiting the South Dakota Air and Space Museum as we were passing by Rapid City. Honestly, I didn’t even know about it before we entered the Rapid City area. For those of you who don’t know, Ellsworth Air Force Base is in Rapid City, and is home to the U2, the famous spy plane primarily used to spy on the Soviets in the Cold war, although it is still in active military use. Right next to Ellsworth AFB is the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. I personally am not a huge Military Aviation enthusiast, but with so many aircraft at the museum, and for it being right along the highway we were traveling on, skipping it was not an option. I ended up actually really enjoying seeing the aircraft. There is a large outside part to the museum with aircraft such as the B1, B52, DC3, and the B29. While this is no DC Air and Space Museum, the South Dakota Air and Space Museum surpassed my expectations on quite a few levels. Please enjoy the pictures I took below!

Cold War Missile

F 111 Aardvark

A B1B Lancer (a bomber still in use)

A B29 (the type of aircraft that ended WWII)

An EC-135 (modified 707)

A B-52 Stratofortress

A C-54 Skymaster (cargo plane from WWII, modified DC-4)

A C-45

An F-100 Super Saber

A B-25 Mitchell

An F-101

An A-7 Corsair

A T-38

A UH-1F Helicopter

C-131

C-47

A B-57

Unfortunately, there weren’t many airplanes or exhibits that interested me inside, so the exterior was much more interesting to me.

An H-13

Model Planes Inside

An L-5 Sentinel

Conclusion:

I am not much of a military aviation enthusiast, so while it was interesting to me, it was not the most exciting aviation museum that I have ever been to. However, it was completely worth my time due to the extremely large amount of historic aircraft there. If you are in at least one way interested in military aviation and are passing by Rapid City, I wholeheartedly recommend visiting the South Dakota Air and Space Museum.