South Dakota Air and Space Museum
2890 Davis Drive
Ellsworth AFB
South Dakota 57706
+1 (605) 385-5189
Day after Labor Day – May 31st
- Daily 08:30 – 16:30
June 1st – Labor Day
- Daily 08:30 – 18:00
Outdoor Airpark Only
- January 1st – March 1st Daily 08:30 – 16:30
Base Tours
- Mid-May through mid-September
Gift shop and gallery are closed January through February
Free admission, donations welcome
Gift shop
Aircraft collection
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Beech C-45H Expeditor
Beech U-8D Seminole Bell OH-13H Sioux Bell UH-1F Iroquois Boeing B-29A Superfortress Boeing B-52D Stratofortress Boeing EC-135A Stratotanker Cessna O-2A Super Skymaster Cessna U-3A Blue Canoe Convair C-131D Samaritan Convair F-102A Delta Dagger Douglas B-26K Invader Douglas C-47H Skytrain Douglas C-54S Skymaster General Dynamics FB-111A Aardvark General Motors F-84F Thunderstreak Lockheed T-33A Martin EB-57B Canberra McDonnell F-101B Voodoo North American VB-25J Mitchell North American F-86H Sabre North American F-100A Super Sabre Northrop YT-38A Talon LTV A-7D Corsair II Republic F-84F Thunderstreak Republic F-105B Thunderchief Rockwell B-1B Lancer Stinson L-5G Sentinel Vultee BT-13A Valiant Nike Ajax Missile Minuteman II Missile Hound Dog Missile Titan II Missile |
The bus tour of Ellsworth Air Force Base includes a visit into the base Minuteman II missile silo, where you will be able to see the power of this defensive system that protected the U.S. during the Cold War. This tour is a unique offering in the Black Hills, as it’s the only Minuteman II silo in the nation that allows the public to go inside the installation.
How the making of a commercial for the Honda CRX Si Kept the United States Air Force busy
After we spotted the pictures above on the internet we started to send some emails around to find out the story behind the plane in the background of the Honda.
Rob Vogelaar, (member of the zap16.com team) remembered photographing the mockup as shown on the photo, but did not exactly know what the story behind the wooden stealth was. after some time he got a reply email from Bill Bennet, director of photography of the firm that shot the commercial for the Honda CRX Si:
Rob.
This aircraft mockup was built to approximately 3/4 full scale. It was designed and built by John Ward, a mechanical special effects technician, based at that time in Agua Dulce, CA, just north of Los Angeles.
The thing that made the commercial unique was the fact that he built the plane in California, transported it on 5 trucks to Florida where the commercial was shot, and the commercial was released all before the Air force and Northrop revealed this very secret aircraft to the public.
At the time of design and construction, there existed only a very vague “artists conception” drawing of the B-2 that had appeared in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. It showed the shape of the cockpit, the shape of the engine intakes, and the unique shape of the trailing edge of the wing. John made a guess at that point that Northrop, having built the YB-49 many years earlier, would not throw away all that design work, but would rather simply build upon that design. And as it turns out, that is exactly what they did: the sweep angle of the wings is exactly the same between the B-2 and the YB-49, the wing span is the same, etc. Thus, the airplane we built and photographed was almost exactly the same as the actual B-2, though ours was 3/4 scale.
Word has it that when the commercial was first run, about 2 weeks before the official Air force rollout, the phone literally exploded off the walls at both the Pentagon and Northrop headquarters, with all these top brass military and politicians demanding how some Japanese car company got the design of the plane before it was even released.
When we were shooting on this airfield out in the middle of the Everglades, 60 miles west of Miami, Florida, the Stealth mockup was spotted by the US surveillance satellites. We got a visit for a couple of Air Force fighters one afternoon. They landed, taxied over, opened the cockpit and yelled down, “What the hell is that?” We responded that it was a non-flying prop for a commercial, and they smiled, waved laughing and departed.
After the commercial was released, the museum in SD bought the mockup, disassembled it , and transported it to their facility, where it is was on display. (as seen on pictures below)
Bill Bennett
Director of Photography
Los Angeles
The Honda Stealth was rusted and was destroyed, it was made mostly of aluminum and didn’t hold up to the weather. It has been replaced by the B-1B Lancer.
Pictures Rob Vogelaar