National Aviation Museum

November 27, 2008

Decided to go visit the aviation museum today. it had recently reopened after undergoing renovations... and obviously, they were still not done! There are two buildings to visit, but the second building requires to take a guided tour, so we only visited the one building on this visit... we will have to come back for the other one another time.

This is definitely the least busiest of all the museums we have visited... which I guess is a good thing. also, there was only a couple of interactive things for the kids to play with... although it looks like there might be more when the construction is finished.

finally... the picture quality of the photos aren't the best... even with the flash, I just couldn't get enough lighting in the "hanger" and I didn't get a chance to read most of the signs explaining the planes, so my captions are a little generic.

we arrive... and the construction zone begins!

view from the parking lot.

samantha at the entrance.

woo-hoo! plane museum!

plane with folding wings.

sam thinks all old car are "chitty chitty bang! bang!" cars.

a bi-plane.

sammy showing how she flies.

look up there!

sammy is already getting tired!

a boat plane.

take cover!

another "chitty chitty bang! bang!" car

sammy watching an informational video.

... and again!

sammy learns to fly a helicopter!

meanwhile she is also taking care of the air traffic control duties!?

sammy plane!

if we lived a little further out in the country... this is how we might be getting our mail!

i can understand charging for a second luggage... if we were still living 50 years ago!

a rescue helicopter

a wall of all the different emblems

a "helicopter" ride

a military chopper.

this is one of the first commercial helicopters... and it's general design lasted for 3 decades!

sam trying out a loud display

jet plane!

weird plane.

one of the emblems found on some of the planes

a rocket plane!

a jet engine

a "flying" suit.

christopher decides to walk around for a bit.

sam now has a co-pilot
although she thought I said coat pilot... and really wanted me to give her coat to her.

the kids watching a video.... I went for a coffee at this point ;)

da plane boss! da plane!

this is getting soooo tiring!

christopher enjoyed walking around and discovering the many planes!

samantha is everywhere!

some noisy construction going on... it really echoes too!

a peek at the second building... the one we didn't visit this time.

a panoramic view of the museum
[ click to view a larger version ]