City: Omaha, NE

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (402) 944-3100

Description: Located between Omaha and Lincoln, the Strategic Air and Space museum cuts a futuristic swath in the skyline of the eastern Nebraska plains. The vast building holds a variety of items chronicling the history of the Strategic Air Command, a joint military command that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons.A giant SR-71 Blackbird—still considered the world’s fastest aircraft—is suspended from the ceiling just steps from the museum’s entrance and delights aviation fans, old and young. The plane has an intriguing history: its creation was shrouded in secrecy and the CIA developed it almost solely based on speed. Its titanium body and coal black paint make it intimidating, to say the least.The museum cafe is situated to look into a glassed-off room where mechanics and other workers restore planes and jets of all kinds, maybe most notably a B-29 bomber. The museum’s staff meticulously restored the bomber, from cockpit to instrument panels to paint job and engines and spent more than two years doing so.Other interactive exhibits at the museum include a multi-axis trainer, which whirls the passenger through a series of spins, flips, and twirls as it simulates the flight pattern of a plane—warning, this is not for the faint of stomach! A permanent exhibit details the life of Astronaut Clayton Anderson, an Ashland, Nebraska, native. The show looks at his upbringing, his training to become an astronaut, and the two missions he completed in 2007 and 2010.