Travel Blog - Combat Aircraft Museum - Topeka, KS

Combat Air Museum - Topeka, Kansas

If I might describe a museum in terms of personality, the Combat Air Museum in Topeka, Kansas gets high marks for being friendly and personal. Don, the volunteer in the gift shop and tickets sales, immediately struck up a conversation asking where we were from, telling us about the history of the museum, tidbits about the various aircraft, etc. I sort of felt like I could hang out here all day swapping stories. If I lived near Topeka, Kansas, I would clearly find my self spending a lot of time here as a volunteer.

Link to all the pictures
Link to museum website

The Combat Air Museum is not a huge museum and it doesn't have a big budget, but the range of modern aircraft is very interesting and you can get up close in a way that you can't at many museums. Many of the aircraft are on loan from the Air Force and Navy. Some are on loan from the individual owners. The Mig-15 for example is privately owned, but apparently the fellow that bought it flew it for a year, then dropped it off at the museum. He said he was lucky to still be alive after flying such a squirrelly high performance aircraft and would quit while he was ahead. So even though many aircraft are on loan, one gets the impression that they are here to stay. In fact, the museum has been offered more aircraft but doesn't have room.

The main hangar is the primary display hangar with nice display boards giving interesting details and back stories for the individual aircraft and most of the aircraft have stairways so that you can look in the cockpit. A real highlight here is the F9F panther. I don't remember seeing one of these up close before and this is not the most well known of fighter aircraft, but it has a unique shape and was a very important aircraft in its day. (See my video review of the F9F panther by Hobby Master). There are a few WW II aircraft, but the main focus is clearly on aircraft of the Korean and Vietnam War eras which is fine by me as these early jets are fascinating.

Another highlight is the EC-121T sitting on the ramp. It looks a bit forlorn on the outside, but it's open for walking through and inside it I feel as though I could flick a switch and it would come to life. Let's get those radar screens running, or brew a cup of coffee in the galley and sit a bit in the crew rest area while off shift. The guys and women who fly on the electronic surveillance aircraft do an unglamorous but incredibly essential and effective role.

In the second hangar you feel like you have walked into a busy maintenance facility. There are a few complete and flyable aircraft in here, like a beautifully maintained 1944 C-47, but most of the aircraft are in some state of restoration. I loved seeing the F-86 with rear half of the fuselage removed and the engine hanging out just waiting for a crew to work on it. You can see from my photos that this hangar is jam packed with wonderful aircraft. You have to be careful walking around to not hit your head on a wing tip or pitot tube, but it makes the whole experience come alive. Perhaps brushing up against the skin of these birds lets some of the history and personality rub off directly on you. In short, this place is well worth the visit.