San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park

Being bound by gravity to keep our feet to the ground has never stopped man from dreaming of flight. And when you live close to the Southern California coast where the gulls spend most of their time wind-surfing merrily along the shoreline, you can't help but wanting harder to prove to those aloof little long-winded gliding beasts that you can do it, too, even with a bunch of less than naturally beautiful instruments. The gulls may coast more gracefully and be capable of seemingly effortless acrobatic moves (not to mention how they can dive straight into the ocean and emerging a few seconds later with a fish in its mouth), but our mechanical flying wings a bigger, louder, and can crash a lot more spectacularly in a more newsworthy manner. They fly because they are meant to. We do because we dare to go where we aren't meant to be...

I suppose that's what makes the San Diego Air & Space Museum one of the most visited corners of Balboa Park. Housed in the strikingly circular Ford Building in the south end of the park, the 45,500 sq. ft streamlined modern building was designed by Walter D. Teague as a part of the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, where it housed a line of Ford cars and motors. And, with the life-size models of a Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart and a Lockheed A-12 Blackbird flanking its entrance walkway, it is a hard building to miss.

Note:
- Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult at all time.
- No backpack and/or large purse allowed inside. You'll be require to leave your rucksack up front.
- Free admission to the museum (excluding the Da Vinci Experience) every 4th Tuesday of the month.
- Video and photography not allowed in the Da Vinci Experience Exhibit (but is ok elsewhere).

The SDASM showcases 6 collections plus one featured exhibit. This year (2009)'s featured exhibit is 'The Da Vinci Experience'.

The first thing you see walking into the museum is the Theodore Gildred Rotunda, a small but airy hall with a bit from various focus areas of the museum. The first thing you'll likely notice is the very good replica of the famous NYP-3 plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, with a cardboard cut-out of Charles Lindberg grinning proudly at its side. Aside from the selected hanging replicas of military and civilian planes is the original command module "Gumdrop" of Apollo 9 space mission.

If you hadn't bought the ticket for the Da Vinci Experience, you'll move straight on into the sunlit center of the building, the Edwin D. McKellar Pavilion of Flight where you can sit and relax on one of the many benches surrounding the central fountain while admiring the 5 hanging bombers and fighters along with a mock up of the Mercury spacecraft (a small little thing that could!). They had put a rather life-like dummy pilot in each plane that, under certain light, can make you look twice just to make sure that a real ace is working to line up his missile right at you.

Moving on to the back part of the building is a large hall containing the 'Golden Age of Flight Gallery', reviewing man's struggle to get aloft in the earth's atmosphere. They have practically everything from a model of the Montgolfier brothers' 1783 hot air balloon to early aircraft in mint condition to today's spry little acrobatic planes. There is a section dedicated to women aviators, though everything is quite focused on American flyers (Amelia Earhart is a big presence here, but there is no mention of Beryl Markham anywhere, for example). To the right side is the World War I Gallery with its 5 beautiful replicas. There is a tall viewing platform you can climb and have a good view of most of the air crafts from above. If you can handle the stair, you really should do it. Then you can relax on a bench while imagining just what the Red Baron saw from his aircraft while patrolling over the French sky... keeping an eye at 6 o'clock to make sure that Arthur 'Roy' Brown isn't behind you!

Proceeding along the left wall of the building (back toward the front) you walk through the World War II Gallery with its beautifully kept real military planes and exhibits on the Flying Tigers, the Black Wings, and even the women fighters of the RAF. You aren't allowed to touch the planes, but there are automated narrators planted around the building to tell you about their previous adventures.

The final section before you emerged into bright light at the museum's gift shop is the Modern Jet & Space Age Gallery featuring the Wally Schirra exhibit (he was the only person to fly in all three space programs: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo). There are models of astronauts, the Apollo service module, a model of the space shuttle, the Blue Angel F/!-18 Hornet and other jets, and two flight simulator (you have to pay extra to get in one, though). This section is so dimly lit that walking through it can almost feel like walking through space itself.

The museum store has a lot of interesting flight related books, toys, models, and other artifacts for sale (not the least interesting of which are a bunch of packaged freeze dried space food... the neopolitan ice-cream is really good!). If you found yourself preposterously bored while hanging around downtown San Diego, dropping in at the Air and Space Museum on Presidents Way in Balboa Park is a good candidate for a cure of the ennui (especially on the 4th Tuesday of the month). Flight is truly one of man's many fantastic dreams that successfully progressed from fantasy to fact thanks to scientific innovation and a lot of perseverence. That is really something to be proud of!

San Diego Air & Space Museum: 2001 Pan American Plz, San Diego, CA 92101, Tel: (619) 234-8291
website: www.sandiegoairandspace.org

Admission Fee:
The Air & Space Museum: adults >12 yrs old ($15), senior/student with ID/ retired military with ID ($12), youth 3-11 yrs old ($6)
The Da Vinci Experience Exhibit from Jan 2009 to Jan 2010 (including museum admission) : adults over 12 yrs old ($24.75), seniors ($21.75), students with ID ($19.75), youth 3-11 yrs old ($15.75), active duty military ($9.75), children up to 2 yrs old (free), SDASM member/children under 2/active military duty (free)

Opens daily 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM (last admission at 4:00PM)
Summer Hours - (Memorial Day through Labor Day): 10:00 AM - 5:30 AM (last admission at 5:00 PM)
Closed: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day