The New England Air Museum is located at Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, USA. The museum is housed in three large display buildings consisting of more than 75,000 square feet (7,000 m²) of exhibit space. In fair weather, the outside storage yard is available for touring as well.

Exhibits include the history of Sikorsky Aircraft, early French aviation featuring the Lafayette Escadrille, a history of air mail, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Flying Mollisons and the 58th Bomb Wing Memorial.

http://www.neam.org/

The Defense Department quietly gave a U.S. company a contract to provide 22 new Russian-made Mi-17 troop transport helicopters to the Iraqi military in a deal worth an eyebrow-raising $325 million, DANGER ROOM has learned.

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Photos of the XH-26 at the USAF Museum in Dayton, OH.

From Wikipedia

The Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout is an unmanned, robotic helicopter under development in Rancho Bernardo, California for use by the United States armed forces.[1] Northrop Grumman is developing the Fire Scout to provide the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps with reconnaissance, situational awareness and precision targeting support.

The initial version was designated RQ-8A, and in August 2003, an enhanced version of the Fire Scout, the RQ-8B, was selected as the Class IV UAV for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems. This enhanced four-bladed main rotor version of the Fire Scout must meet 8 hour flight duration and 130 lb (60 kg) payload specifications. It is designed to give Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability at the brigade level. Due to the aircraft's multi-role capability, it was renamed MQ-8B.[2]

Full Wikipedia Entry

An aerospace company has built a prototype of a driverless aircraft designed to shuttle hundreds of pounds of supplies to soldiers in war zones.

Dubbed a flying Humvee by Ryan Wood, CEO of Broomfield Colo.-based Frontline Aerospace, the robotic vehicle can fly 600 to 1,000 miles carrying a full cargo of 400 pounds. Code named V-STAR, the autonomous aircraft, which can execute vertical take-offs and landings, is about the size of a large SUV, weighing in at 2,400 pounds and measuring 21 feet long and up to 26 feet wide.

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In the extreme case of a battlefield or natural disaster area rescue, the pilot or co-pilot of an AH-64 Apache will ride on the outside of the helicopter so the passenger(s) can sit inside. At Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, Aug. 25, Soldiers practice the tricky operation. Photo by Sgt. Stephen Proctor.

From USAF Museum web site: 

The product of a 1951 joint U.S. Air Force-U.S. Army initiative, the Bell XV-3 became the world's first successful vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor aircraft. By combining the vertical takeoff and hovering capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft, the XV-3 offered great military potential, but it never went beyond the testing phase.

Nevertheless, the XV-3 paved the way for the modern tilt-rotor CV-22 Osprey.
Like a helicopter, tilt-rotor aircraft use their propellers, or proprotors, for vertical lift. When the aircraft gains enough altitude, the proprotors rotate forward for thrust, and the wings provide the lift. This configuration is more efficient for level flight and allows greater speed and range. A tilt-rotor aircraft is different from a tilt-wing aircraft, such as the Museum's Chance-Vought/LTV XC-142A, which rotates the entire wing.

Bell completed two XV-3s in 1955, and hover tests started in August 1955. The first XV-3 was damaged beyond repair, but testing continued with the second aircraft. The first complete conversion from takeoff to horizontal flight and back -- the first ever for a tilt-rotor aircraft -- took place on Dec. 19, 1958. After testing ended in 1965, the surviving XV-3 went on display at Fort Rucker, Ala., and later into storage.

In 2004 the XV-3 was moved to the Bell Helicopter Textron facility at Arlington, Texas, where a group of current and retired Bell engineers restored the aircraft. It arrived at the museum in 2007.

Full Wikipedia Entry

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Just returned from my annual visit the National Museum of the Air Force previously known as the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio.  Every year I travel down and check out the changes to the museum and take the "Behind the Scenes" tour to see what is currently under restoration.  Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting hundreds of photos but here's a quick summary of the changes since last year.

F-22: the museum has replaced it previous F-22 static airframe with an example with actual flight time.

Global Hawk:  The fiberglass model has been replaced with an actual aircraft with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MiG 29: The Fulcrum which had been in storage for several years has been painted and moved the main museum collection.

N1K2-J George:  Which had been in restoration for a *really* long time has been completed and moved to the main museum collection.

Avro VZ-9:  Restoration has begun on this flying saucer research craft.

XC-99:  More pieces of the XC-99 have been moved to the museum.  The XC-99 is the cargo derivative of the massive B-36.  Restoration will take a long time but you can get an idea of the size by looking at what's been moved so far.

Work continues on the B-17 Memphis Belle.  A lot still needs to be done but a lot of progress has been made since the plane got to the museum.  There are plans for it displayed apart from the rest of the collection- maybe in a new lobby or separate building.  Total restoration is expected to take 6-8 more years.

YF-23:  The YF-23 has been re-assembled and is beginning to undergo restoration for display.

XF-90:  The XF-90 which was recently written about in Air & Space Magazine is in storage and awaiting display.  It will not be restored but will be displayed to show the damage that an atomic explosion would do to an aircraft.

MiG 23:  The MiG 23 that was previously displayed in the museum has been removed.  A more complete example has been obtained and will be restored eventually.

That's the quick summary, I'll be posting photos over the next couple of weeks.