The United States Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio, has deployed a new name -- it's now the National Museum of the US Air Force. Some might argue the money spent to change all the signage and business cards could have gone into perfecting a better bunker-busting bomb. Or that it's like a little state college suddenly deciding to call itself a university.

Not us, though.

The USAF Museum is great, and getting better all the time. If a name change is part of the forward momentum, then Go! Go! Go! Recent additions to the museum include the 200,000 square-foot Eugene W. Kettering Building housing a Cold War gallery, and a 12,500 square-foot missile and space gallery.

And where else can you pose the family next to a replica nuclear payload? Or a haunted bomber? In 2003, the museum had over 1.4 million visitors. And admission is free. [10/17/2004]

February 10, 2012