San Diego Air & Space Museum - Balboa Park, San Diego

San Diego Air & Space Museum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
San Diego Air & Space Museum - Balboa Park, San Diego

San Diego Air and Space Museum

For my own amusement, I've prepared a self paced web based guide to the San Diego Air & Space Museum. While going through the museum and looking at the exhibits, you can click and find out more information, as well as see videos of the planes in flight.

San Diego contributions to aviation and space are emphasized in this museum, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian. A lot of effort has been spent in recovering from the 1978 fire. There is a lot of information on the museum website, but I decided to build my own web based guide. I recently purchased a Balboa Park explorer pass which gives general admission to all the major Balboa Park museums for a year, so I will be spending some time here.

Some pictures from my visit to the San Diego Air and Space Museum on May 8, 2014. The museum is located at the south end of Balboa Park in a circular building laid out as shown above, which is a scan of the map you get as you enter through the rotunda. Below is the view from the parking lot entry area.

There are a few dynamic, interactive, and multimedia exhibits, but most of the volume is taken up with static displays of memorabilia, some actual working aircraft, and scale models, replicas, and mockups. I've added links to supplementary material. There is good wi-fi in the museum area, so if you have a tablet or smartphone, you can use it to supplement the exhibits.

Front of Museum

Museum from Lot

1.       Convair YF2Y-1 Seadart

2.       Lockheed A-12

Theodore Gildred Rotunda

San Diego Air & Space Museum - Theodore Gildred
There are 8 significant exhibits in the free entry rotunda, as well as the museum store with many unique aviation related items. Purchase tickets here for remainder of museum. Extra charge for special exhibit, which at this time was "Ripley's Believe it or Not!". On entry, "Sharpshooters" will take a souvenir picture in front of a green screen with Lunar background. Then you enter the special exhibit on the right. Otherwise on the left you pass through the Aviation Hall of Fame, or another art exhibit. On this date they had the Aviation Artists Exhibit.

Special Exhibition Area (1505-1911)

Aviation Hall of Fame. History of aviation - goes back to early China and Greeks. Gallery of unique reproductions of early flying machines starting with Leonardo da Vinci and a scientific approach to Flight hanging above the Special Exhibition.

World War I Gallery (1914-1919)

Stroll amongst the rudimentary machines that took gallant men of warring nations into the perils of aerial combat for the first time.

Golden Age of Flight Gallery (1920-1936)

Relive the dangers and adventures faced by barnstormers, airmail pilots and the first airlines during the Twenties and Thirties.

World War II Gallery (1936-1945)

Witness this worldwide fight In the skies,from the Flying Tigers over China, to the RAF over the English Channel,to carrier pilots over the Pacific.

Modern Jet & Space Age Gallery (1946-)

Walk under a Blue Angel A-4 and F-18. For an extra charge, there are flight simulators, including an F-35. Early manned space age capsules and artifacts, including a special exhibit on the Atlas booster

Edwin D. McKellar Pavilion of Flight

Central atrium of the museum used for special events. Six full sized prop, jet aircraft and a mercury capsule are pedestal mounted or suspended from the ceiling.