Belleville, Michigan: Yankee Air Museum

The admission fee is $5. Check out Rosie the Riveter and sit in the cockpit of an F-484f Thunderstreak.

The spirit and integrity of the volunteers of Yankee Air Museum has allowed them to carry on after its devastating fire. The museum reopened with many displays dedicated to those who have served our nation, with an emphasis on aviation and war birds. The museum welcomes the public to come and visit the museum displays along with the static airfield -- and the annual summer air show, "Thunder Over Michigan," is a great way to spend a summer day and to take in the sights and sounds of historic and modern aircraft. Yankee has acquired the former B-24 bomber plant in Ypsilanti, used to build bombers at the rate of one per hour during World War II. The renovations of this piece of history is hoped to begin soon (However, it will take a while to complete). It will have approximately 175,000 square feet of displays and artifacts.

The wooden hangar housing the museum was burned right to the ground by a fire. The building was a total loss, although some planes were rescued by crew members of a B-25 that'd just returned from a Fall Colors tour. There is talk of rebuilding and reopening the museum in the future, but nothing concrete yet although there is lots of local support.

Off I-94 and Belleville Road is the greatest aviation museum that you will see in your lifetime. It is headquarters for 6 other divisions from New Jersey to Wisconsin. Housed in a 1941 hangar that the B-24's came through, is a display of aircraft that consists of over 20 static aircraft on display (including a B-52 Stratofortress bomber), and the flyable wing consists of the flagship C-47 "Gooney Bird," a North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, and the last purchase was a B-17 bomber (only one of 9 flying in the world!). The Gift Shop is the largest in the Great Lakes states. Museum rooms are filled with artifacts, as is the Women in Aviation Room, and the Hall of Uniforms.