You must live in the southeast. I went those museums many times.

Warner Robbins has a lot of airplanes, decommissioned service craft that were saved from recycling. As a random collection they do not fit plans a curator would make. Many of the planes are interesting, such as the B52, SR71, recon a/c, and fighters. It is a large military aviation museum, although pretty random.

Southern Aviation Museum in Birmingham has an excellent piston bomber engine collection. To see 28 supercharged cylinders arranged on a single crankshaft is quite a sight, and a few of them operate as cutaways. Radials carried the hopes of the Allied Forces during WWII, and were the last major design before turbines assumed a dominant role. They were magnificent machines, arguably the finest production examples of the 20th Century.

Aviation museums are special. Where else can you tie together decades of war, peace, culture and technology while eating a hot dog.