The $40.8 million, 224,000-square-foot fourth building, which was privately financed by the Air Force Museum Foundation, opened in June 2016, and houses four galleries – Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach, along with three science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Learning Nodes.
Included among the stories found inside the fourth building are the VC-137C Air Force One (SAM 26000), which was used by eight presidents - Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton; the only remaining XB-70 Valkyrie; the C-141C Hanoi Taxi, which airlifted the first American prisoners of war out of North Vietnam in February 1973; the Space Shuttle Exhibit featuring NASA’s first Crew Compartment Trainer; and a massive Titan IVB space launch vehicle that weighs 96 tons.
More information about the fourth building galleries is available at www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Expansion.aspx.
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