Military Gallery

The Military Gallery can be found on two levels of the museum. The lower level contains a collection of military vehicles and weapons, as well as displays about the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and our current military conflicts.

The UH-34D Helicopter on display in the south atrium has been painted with the same markings as a particularly famous example of the aircraft—the helicopter that pulled astronaut Alan Shepherd, the first American in space, from the Atlantic Ocean after his historic flight.

Hanging from the ceiling, above the lower level of The Military Gallery, is a reproduction of the first craft to successfully perform a manned flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on Dec. 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.