New WW II Museum Exhibits

We had family in town over Easter weekend so we made a trip to the National WW II Museum to see the new exhibits. They have added The Boeing Center building where they now keep their static displays of aircraft and vehicles. The aircraft include a B-17, B-25, SBD Dauntless, TBM Avenger, F4U Corsair, P51 Mustang and a B-24. They are all hanging from the ceiling and can be seen from catwalks. The floor is open for vehicles.

Off to the side, they have the 4D interactive experience "Final Mission", a reenactment of the last hours of the USS Tang. The room is set up to resemble the interior of a submarine, although much more spacious. When you enter, you are given a card with a crew member and his duty position. You will take his position and respond to commands during the 12 minute show. The show compresses the last 5 hour battle of the Tang into 12 minutes and is fairly realistic with vibrations, noises and lights. If you know your history, you know the Tang was sunk by a circular running torpedo. I expected to get a spray of water in the face when the torpedo struck but all they did was theatrical smoke. It will be good fun for the kids and is not as scary as it sounds.

I was told by one of the volunteers that the new GI Joe movie used several vehicles from the museum. Their ME 109 reproduction is supposed to be in the film.

The museum is growing. If you plan to visit, you will now need almost an entire day to see it all.