Tornado Ravages Air Force Museum Restoration Hangar At Wright Patterson AFB

Imagery of the devastation released by Wright-Patterson certainly makes for grim viewing. In the photos, we see various parts of aircraft strewn across the apron in front of the museum's Restoration Hangar 4, which sustained significant damage.

An F-104 Starfighter is seen in rough shape in front of the hangar and we can see two aircraft inside — F-15A Eagle 76-0027 and one of Boeing’s Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) demonstrators, both of which were previously on display in the museum. It’s unclear why they were in the restoration hangar at the time. 

The images also reveal damage to the front of the Air Force Research Laboratory's main entrance and other parts of the sprawling installation, as well as the efforts of restoration teams to clean the resulting debris.

While visually bleak, Col. Travis Pond, 88th Air Base Wing and installation commander, said that the damage was isolated to certain areas of the base.

"Our initial assessment from this morning’s storm is the damage is isolated to the southern side of Area B. Our initial focus right now is on safety and damage assessment," he noted. "I can’t speak highly enough about our security forces, Fire Department and civil engineer Airmen for their quick response and hard work to assess damage and determine a path forward for restoring operations as quickly as possible."

Signs that extreme weather and possible tornadoes could pose a risk to the base were initially raised in a post on Wright-Patterson's X account yesterday evening. In the tweet, it stated that inclement weather could be expected between the hours of 12:01 and 4:00 A.M. on February 28.

Strong storms across parts of the U.S. midwest were recorded today, along with at least four tornadoes in Ohio. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Wilmington has confirmed that a tornado hit the city of Riverside, which sits just west of Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio's Montgomery County, before it continued on into Greene County, Ohio.

The Air Force released the following statement in connection to the damage sustained at Wright-Patterson AFB:

"The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force's Restoration Hangar 4, Gate 22B (I-675 Gate) and several other buildings on Area B of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base sustained damage after a suspected early-morning tornado touched down Feb. 28.... The 88th Civil Engineer Group, first responders and base safety personnel are assessing damage throughout the base.”

This isn't the first time that Wright-Patterson AFB has suffered the impact of volatile weather stemming from tornadoes in the past. Back in May 2019, a tornado tore across northern Dayton, resulting in damage to dozens of homes on one of the base's residential areas. However, while the impact of the weather close to the National Museum of the Air Force was significant, it was subsequently confirmed that the museum only suffered minor damage, and that no aircraft or artifacts were impacted. 

We will update this post as new information becomes available. 

Contact the authors: oliver@thewarzone.com, tyler@twz.com