On Saturday, March 27, 2010, just over 30 members of the U-M aero department went on the AIAA-hosted field trip to the National Air Force Museum (NAFM) in Dayton, OH. The NAFM is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum. More than 400 aircraft and missiles are on display. 1.3 million visitors come to the museum every year. Included in the permanent collections are one of four surviving Convair B-36s, the only surviving XB-70 Valkyrie, and Bockscar - the B-29 Superfortress that dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II. The museum also has several past presidential aircraft, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft, F-104C Starfighter, SR-71A Blackbird, and the U-2A reconaissance aircraft. The U-M AIAA plans to return to the National Air Force Museum at least once per year, hopefully once per semester.

In early March 2010, the AIAA embarked on a complicated and fantastic trip. A group of 20+ students rented cars and drove from Ann Arbor to Marietta, GA to visit the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. The Marietta site includes the F-22A Raptor and C-130J Super Hercules final assembly, the C-5M Super Galaxy modifications, and the P-3/S-3 mid-life upgrades. The students were able to have a "behind-the-scenes" tour of the plant by the Engineering Site Director, an active U-M aero alum. Students got up-close-and-personal with these aircraft, toured the enormous low-speed wind tunnel, and all were given the opportunity to fly the C-5M flight simulator! The facility is only allowed to give a very select number of tours each year, so it was a very special treat to be able to survey this incredible engineering operation.

On the way back from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics tour, the AIAA group stopped in Manchester, TN to visit the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). The AEDC is the world's largest and most complex collection of flight simulation test facilities (though most have never heard of it). The facility has 58 wind tunnels (subsonic - Mach 20, sea-level to 300 miles), rocket motor/turbine engine test cells, space environmental chambers, arc heaters, ballistic ranges, and other specialized units. Twenty-seven of the center's test units have capabilities unmatched elsewhere in the U.S. and fourteen are unique in the world. It has contributed to practically every one of the nation's top priority aerospace programs including the Atlas, Titan, Minuteman and Peacekeeper ICBMs, the space shuttle, space station, and Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Aircraft include the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, F-22A Raptor, A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet and F/A-18 Super Hornet, F-105 Thunderchief, F-111 Aardvark, F-117A Nighthawk, C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III, C-141Starlifter, B-1B Lancer, B-2 Spirit, B-52 Stratofortress, B-58 Hustler, X-15, X-29, X-32 and X-33, X-35, XB-70 Valkyrie. Students toured the entire complex and were able to walk inside a 10' x 10' cross section hypersonic wind tunnel, a 30' diameter subsonic tunnel (pictured above), engine test cells, and space vacuum chamber test facilities.