Planes at the Air Mobility Command Museum.Talia Lakritz/Business InsiderThe Air Mobility Command Museum is located on Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.The museum features cargo planes, inflight refuelers, and a former Air Force Two.Some of the museum's planes are open for the public to look inside.If there are people, equipment, or supplies in the US Air Force that need to be moved from one place to another, chances are the Air Mobility Command is on it.One of the Air Force's major commands, or MAJCOMs, the Air Mobility Command was activated in 1992 and serves four core missions: airlifting, air refueling, air mobility support, and aeromedical evacuation.The Air Mobility Command Museum, located on Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, displays over 35 aircraft that carried out these missions."All the cargo planes and inflight refuelers, humanitarian, medevac, presidential support — all that stuff falls under AMC," Michael Hurlburt, operations manager at the Air Mobility Command Museum, told Business Insider.I visited the Air Mobility Command Museum in May. Here are the coolest things I saw.The Air Mobility Command Museum is located on Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.The Air Mobility Command Museum.Talia Lakritz/Business InsiderEven though it's on an active base, the museum has its own entrance and is open to the public. Admission is free.My first stop at the museum was the cab of Dover Air Force Base's old air traffic control tower.Inside an air traffic control tower at the Air Mobility Command Museum.Talia Lakritz/Business InsiderThe 103-foot-tall air traffic control tower, in service from 1956 to 2009, was staffed 24 hours a day.By the 2000s, the aging tower was operating near its capacity, handling over 40,000 operations each year. A new $16.2 million tower with improved equipment and increased capabilities was completed in 2009, and the old one was turned into a museum display.The tower exhibit, which is 39 feet tall, overlooked the museum's outdoor display of historical aircraft and provided views of the active base in the distance.A case at the bottom of the stairs displayed the key to the Space Shuttle Discovery.The key to the Space Shuttle Discovery.Talia Lakritz/Business InsiderDover Air Force Base was an alternate landing site for the space shuttle."The fire department here at Dover kept that on hand all the time just to help get the astronauts out if they ever landed here, but they never did," Hurlburt said of the key, which opened the shuttle's hatch.The actual Space Shuttle Discovery is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.This VC-9C flew as Air Force One and Air Force Two during multiple presidencies.A VC-9C.Talia Lakritz/Business InsiderThe VC-9C, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, primarily served as the vice presidential plane from 1975 to 2011. It also transported other VIP passengers, including first ladies and Cabinet members.It occasionally flew as Air Force One when Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush needed a smaller aircraft.Measuring 119 feet and 5 inches long with a wingspan of 93 feet and 5 inches, the plane featured a communications compartment and a spacious stateroom with a fold-out couch.The C-141B Starlifter, known as the "workhorse" of the US Air Force, carried troops, vehicles, and cargo from the Vietnam War through Operation Iraqi Freedom.The C-141B Starlifter.AMC MuseumC-141 Starlifters operated from 1965 to 2006, when they were replaced by the C-17 Globemaster III. The C-141B could carry up to 68,000 pounds of cargo, including up to 13 290-pound 463L pallets, and fly at up to 500 miles per hour.I also got to see a C-130 Hercules, the military aircraft with the longest continuous production run in history.A C-130E Hercules at the Air Mobility Command Museum on Dover Air Force Base.Talia Lakritz/Business InsiderDozens of countries use the C-130 to transport cargo, troops, and humanitarian aid, as well as to conduct aeromedical evacuations, natural disaster relief, and aerial firefighting. They can also be configured as gunships and outfitted with skis to land in icy conditions. It's no wonder that Lockheed Martin has been building C-130s for over 70 years.The Air Mobility Command Museum is the only place in the world with a C-5A Galaxy, the largest aircraft in the US Air Force, on permanent public display.The C-5A Galaxy at the Air Mobility Command Museum.AMC MuseumC-5s are strategic lifters that haul tanks, missiles, helicopters, and other cargo.The C-5A Galaxy, which entered service in 1970, measures 247 feet long and has a wingspan of over 222 feet. It could carry enormous amounts of weight — up to 264,440 pounds of cargo plus 73 passengers. There's room for seven UH-1 Huey helicopters, or two M-1A1 Abrams tanks.The museum's C-5A Galaxy was also the first and only aircraft to launch an ICBM in flight.The C-5A was retired in 2017 and modernized into the C-5M Super Galaxy and ot
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