National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force
Aircraft, mission planning, POW testimony, archival film, artifacts, and a memorial garden interpret the Eighth Air Force’s European war.
Artwork inspired by Benny Andrews
The restored B-17 City of Savannah anchors the museum, but the deeper subject is the vast human and industrial system that placed aircraft in combat. Mission planning, navigation, production, crew coordination, resistance, captivity, civilian bombing, and postwar remembrance complicate any reading centered only on engineering or military spectacle.
Begin with the briefing room before examining the B-17’s cramped stations and defensive positions, then continue into the POW and resistance galleries. That progression carries a mission from preparation through vulnerability, loss, imprisonment, survival, and memory. Archival film, testimony, and graphic wartime material warrant an unrushed visit with enough time to pause rather than treating the museum as a quick airport-area stop.
- B-17 City of Savannah
- Restored combat aircraft
- mission briefing room
- Crew-level mission context
- POW and resistance galleries
- Captivity and resistance
Quick guide
- Essential order
- Briefing room, B-17, then captivity galleries—the sequence restores people to the machine.
- Question to carry
- What industrial and civilian systems made each mission possible, costly, and memorable?
Follow one mission from briefing to aftermath
- Begin in briefing
- Establish target, weather, formation, crew roles, and uncertainty before approaching the restored B-17.
- Read the aircraft
- Use cramped stations and defensive positions to understand vulnerability, coordination, and physical strain.
- Continue past combat
- POW and resistance galleries extend the story through capture, survival, civilian help, and memory.
- Prepare emotionally
- Graphic wartime material and testimony deserve an unrushed two-to-three-hour visit with breaks.
Good to know
Follow one mission from briefing through aircraft, combat loss, and prisoner testimony.
Notice these
- B-17 City of Savannah
- mission briefing room
- POW and resistance galleries