[4] The museum draws about a million visitors each year, making it one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Ohio.

[5] The museum dates to 1923, when the Engineering Division at Dayton's McCook Field first collected technical artifacts for preservation.

[6] In 1954, the Air Force Museum became public and was housed in its first permanent facility, Building 89 of the former Patterson Field in Fairborn, which had been an engine overhaul hangar.

[8] Not including its annex on Wright Field proper, the museum has more than tripled in square footage since 1971, with the addition of a second hangar in 1988, a third in 2003, and a fourth in 2016.

The museum's collection contains many rare aircraft of historical or technological importance, and various memorabilia and artifacts from the history and development of aviation.

Among them is the Apollo 15 Command Module Endeavour which orbited the Moon 74 times in 1971, one of four surviving Convair B-36 Peacemakers, the only surviving North American XB-70 Valkyrie and Bockscar—the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki during the last days of World War II.

The centerpiece of the presidential aircraft collection is SAM 26000, a modified Boeing 707 known as a VC-137C, used regularly by presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon.

[27] A large section of the museum is dedicated to pioneers of flight, especially the Wright Brothers, who conducted some of their experiments at nearby Huffman Prairie.

At any time, more than 50 World War II-vintage A-2 leather flying jackets are on display, many of which belonged to famous figures in Air Force history.

Also in the fourth building is an enlarged educational outreach area with three science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Learning Nodes.

Previously these collections were housed in an annex facility on Area B of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (the former Wright Field).

For an additional fee, guests can view aviation- and space-oriented films in a large format theater interspersed primarily with other documentaries.