Dayton, OH – Jan 27, 2025—Starting in February 2025, the Air Force Museum Foundation invites visitors to explore some of the ocean’s most remote places in two immersive exhibitions at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The Foundation seeks individual and corporate sponsors to support these groundbreaking exhibitions.
OceanXperience is an exhibition designed for all ages that offers visitors unprecedented virtual access to OceanXplorer, the most advanced filmmaking and research vessel in the world. The exhibition replicates some of the ship’s most captivating spaces and showcases the cutting-edge science and technology the ship uses to explore the ocean and bring it back to the world. As visitors embark on the personalized adventure of a lifetime in this extraordinary, interactive experience, they engage in hands-on experiments just like the scientists on board. They’ll uncover fascinating ocean secrets and learn how to forge deeper connections with this essential, precious resource.
The exhibition offers a variety of guided research missions, ensuring that each visit is a unique experience. One mission invites you to study orca group dynamics, virtually tag an animal, and collect data to understand how they coexist. Others explore humpback whales’ complex communication or investigate the tropical habitat of great hammerhead sharks through dynamic interactives that feature cutting-edge technology, like mixed reality and projection mapping.
In conjunction, the Foundation is also proud to host Drop in the Ocean, an interactive, social virtual-reality experience from Pulseworks. Drop in the Ocean uses state-of-the-art virtual reality headsets in a stand-up arena to immerse six people deep in the water – and directly into the plastic pollution crisis plaguing the world’s oceans. It is immersive, interactive, and collaborative: guests can freely walk around and see in any direction, engage with undersea organisms through hand movements and gestures, and see and interact with the avatars of the other people in the arena space.
Tickets are required for these exhibitions. The $12 admission charge grants entry to OceanXperience and Drop in the Ocean and helps cover the cost of bringing these cutting-edge exhibitions to the Museum. Education groups that pre-register with the Foundation will receive free admission to OceanXperience.
The Air Force Museum Foundation is financing these exhibitions at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, February 5 – April 27, 2025, with help from individual and corporate sponsors. Various sponsorship levels are available starting at $10,000. For more information on becoming a local exhibit sponsor, contact Chris Adkins-Lamb at cadkins-lamb@afmuseum.com or 937.751.1567.
OceanXperience is a traveling exhibition produced and toured internationally by Flying Fish, based on the National Geographic series OceanXplorers, produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and OceanX in association with Lightship Earth Productions. The series follows a fearless team of pioneering scientific storytellers exploring the deepest and most inaccessible areas of our world’s oceans, highlighting their achievements and the challenges they face along the way.
About the Air Force Museum Foundation
The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., was founded in 1960 as a Section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Since it was chartered, it has gifted nearly $100 million in support of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, including 94% of the cost of constructing the one-million-square-foot Museum campus. The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., is not part of the Department of Defense or any of its components and has no government status. The use of the Roundel image in the Foundation’s logo is with the permission of the United States Air Force; endorsement by the Department of Defense or the United States Air Force in fundraising activities of the Foundation is not intended nor implied pursuant to DoDI 5535.12. For more information on the Air Force Museum Foundation, visit www.AirForceMuseumFoundation.org.
About the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the world’s largest military aviation museum. With free admission and parking, the museum features more than 350 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space. Each year visitors from around the world come to the museum. For more information, visit www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
About Flying Fish
At Flying Fish, we believe exhibitions can do more. As a leading producer of traveling exhibitions for over a decade, we partner with world-class museums and science centers to create extraordinary, impactful experiences. Our exhibitions have welcomed over ten million visitors, showcasing the wonders of science, history, culture, and more. We are dedicated to making exceptional, authentic content accessible to all while driving sustainable revenue growth for our clients. By empowering institutions to share their stories globally, we amplify their missions and expand their influence. Whether developing a new exhibition or adapting existing content for international tours, Flying Fish is more than just a service provider—we are a trusted partner in elevating our clients’ reach and impact.
flyingfishexhibits.com
About OceanX
OceanX is a mission to support scientists to explore the ocean and bring it back to the world through captivating media. Uniting leading media, science, and philanthropy partners, OceanX utilizes next-gen technology, fearless science, compelling storytelling, and immersive experiences to educate, inspire, and connect the world with the ocean and build a global community deeply engaged with understanding, enjoying, and protecting our oceans. OceanX is an initiative of Dalio Philanthropies, which furthers the diverse philanthropic interests of Dalio family members.
oceanx.org