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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Taking Flight

That's what we did recently, but not exactly in the air.


Instead, our flying was done at the Virginia Air and Space Museum in Hampton, VA. It's less than 2 hours from our The Frog & PenguINN home, but this was a first time visit.


The museum, which opened in 1962, is the visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center and Langley Air Force Base. It features interactive aviation exhibits covering 100 years of flying.


Its permanent collection is housed in a 110,000 square foot building that features a three-story glass atrium accessible from two exhibit floors. A catwalk level allows for viewing aircraft suspended from above. The museum houses over 30 historic aircraft that are displayed in several galleries or suspended from the ceiling.



The Adventures in Flight gallery features a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 passenger aircraft donated by AirTran Airways that dominates the gallery. Here, you can sit in the cockpit, first class and coach seats or try take off and landing using the on board flight simulator. Of course, we had to board this plane.

In the Space Gallery, we entered a room that simulated a manned launch to Mars. Narration and videos told the story of a rendezvous with a Mars Transit Vehicle. After the short flight, which compressed months into minutes, the narration concluded with arrival on a simulated planet Mars as doors opened into the gallery.
 

Once back to earth, we headed home after a fun and informative afternoon.

 

15 comments:

MadSnapper said...

wow and wow again. amazing all those planes in one spot. bob would LOVE this. i will save the post to show him. and that is the only way i would ever get to mars.. looks like fun

Anonymous said...

Love the photos. There is an aviation museum here in Hawaii, but it focuses on the planes used during the world wars. Even those piloted by the Japanese.

Anvilcloud said...

I always figured you guys were just plane folk.

Montanagirl said...

Wow - my husband owns a Cessna 182, and he would LOVE this!!

Anonymous said...

What a fun place to visit! I would especially have loved the space part of it :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

Lois Evensen said...

What a great place! We would love that one!

Out on the prairie said...

Great fun

Debbie said...

i have visited, it's a wonderful place!! you got some amazing pictures!!

a fun place!!

Connie said...

Looks like a neat place to visit!

William Kendall said...

Magnificent planes!

We have an aviation museum here... it's been awhile since I've been there.

Michelle said...

This does look like a great place to visit!

jp@A Green Ridge said...

You two always find neat things!!!....:)JP

Catherine said...

Wonderful shots of the VA Air & Space Museum! The aircraft look amazing up close like that... I would have loved to be on that flight to Mars :)

DeniseinVA said...

I love this place, and it's nice going back again through these photos.

Kathy said...

What an amazing place! I would love to visit there. Your pictures were great.