The South Dakota Air and Space Museum is located just outside Ellsworth Air Force Base, near Rapid City, South Dakota. It showcases the history of aviation and space exploration, with a strong emphasis on the role of the U.S. Air Force and Ellsworth AFB.
South Dakota Air and Space Museum
2890 Davis Drive
Ellsworth AFB
South Dakota 57706
https://www.nps.gov/places/sdaasm.htm
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
+1 (605) 385-5189
The museum is open year round (although the indoor galleries are closed until further notice) and the tours of Ellsworth AFB and the Missile Silo are permanently closed.
Wednesday – Friday 09:00 – 16:00
Saturday 10:00 – 14:00
Gift shop and gallery are closed January through February
Free admission, donations welcome
Gift shop
Aircraft collection
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57-5872 58-1520 65-7951 44-87779/R 60-0657 61-0262 67-21422 53-5827 55-0292 56-1017 64-17640 N226GB 42-72592 68-0248 52-8886 57-0590 52-1548 59-0426 43-4030 53-1302 53-1553 58-1192 74-1739/PT 52-8886 57-5839 83-0067/EL – 41-22204 – – – – | 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 |
Key Attractions at the South Dakota Air & Space Museum:
- Outdoor Aircraft Display – Over 30 historic aircraft, including:
- B-1B Lancer – A supersonic bomber still in use today.
- B-29 Superfortress – The same type of bomber that dropped atomic bombs in WWII.
- B-52 Stratofortress – A long-range strategic bomber.
- F-86 Sabre, F-100 Super Sabre, and F-101 Voodoo – Fighter jets from the Cold War era.
- Indoor Exhibits – Focus on aviation history, space exploration, and the role of Ellsworth AFB in national defense.
- Missile & ICBM Displays – Featuring the Minuteman missile, which played a crucial role in the Cold War.
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