Danville, Virginia - AAF Tank Museum

The Tank Museum appears to be mostly complete from their move from NY. They have added a scale town where they conduct R/C tank battles every so often. They have changed their rules on cameras to include no flash photography anywhere in the museum. [David Yemm, 03/26/2006]

[RA: The museum contains "over 15,000 international tank and cavalry artifacts dating from 1509 to present." They continue with plans to display about a hundred large pieces in the collection in realistic dioramas, incorporating murals and a replica bunker.]

The AAF Tank Museum, formerly in Mattituck, NY reopened last May in Danville. It's housed in a huge building that used to be a tool factory and is filled with, well, tanks. Lots of them. And I saw lots more out back waiting to be brought in. In fact, the woman that I spoke to said that even though the museum is now open, they've got many more tanks and exhibits that they're working on for future display.

Besides the tanks, there are also several displays of weapons, a room full of vintage children's uniforms, plus patches, medals, helmets, embroidered pillowcases, and a large number of mannequins wearing all sorts of uniforms. And in one particularly gruesome display, there's a disemboweled mannequin, complete with blood and guts spilling out of him. In the back of a giant, mostly unused area, I came across a glowing model spaceship. Not sure how it's supposed to fit in with the tanks, but I'll be sure to go back one day and find out. [Dean Jeffrey, 07/21/2003]