It is virtually impossible to take in everything there is to experience at the Virginia Air and Space Museum in a single day. The multi-floor museum built into a futuristic style building offers hundreds of different permanent exhibits as well as traveling exhibits that rotate on a regular basis. Additionally, the museum located in downtown Hampton, Virginia, houses the Peninsula’s only current IMAX theatre. Dozens of interactive displays and programs work together to entertain as well as to help educators marry theoretical curriculum with hands-on experience. There is something for everyone, from toddlers to grandparents alike, to enjoy at this premier museum.
Instructions
1. Visit the Wright exhibit. When talking about air flight, there is only one place to begin – at the beginning, with Orville and Wilbur Wright’s historical first flight. The museum features a replica of the Wright brother’s plane. This is part of a gallery that celebrates 100 years of flight. With exhibits, historical markers, and audio information, the gallery takes guests through the history of flight from its early beginnings into the 21st Century.
2. Watch how man's use of airplanes began. A visit to the Curtiss Jenny Theatre lets guests hear as well as experience some of the early days of flight. Take a walk on the wing of a biplane and/or board a B-24 simulator to see how the earliest fighter pilots flew.
3. View how commercial flight began. Starting with the DC-9, see how humankind became forever tied to the sky. Walk through a real Boeing airplane from coach to first-class. Board the 717 Flight Simulator to try your own hand at flying this big bus in the sky. Enter the cockpit to view all of the controls and switches that it takes to keep the huge aircraft in the air.
4. Experience the life of an astronaut through gallery exhibits and audio information. While much of this section remains under reconstruction, it is still possible to view the Apollo 12 Command Module. Visitors can also view actual suits worn by astronauts throughout the decades and experience, through simulation, some of the sites they have seen on their various excursions. Audio information outlines the training that astronauts must endure in preparation for their flights to the stars.
5. Explore the newest gallery of the museum. Space Quest is but one of several hands-on galleries planned for the museum. However, it is an excellent place to start, covering man’s quest to fly to the stars; his visit to the moon; and his exploration of Mars. Take a journey to Mars by way of a simulated space travel experience on a Mars Transit Vehicle. Hear the sounds and view the sights that the astronauts saw on their journey to the Red Planet. Feel the turbulence as the aircraft transverses asteroids. Feel the heat of solar radiation. Finally, touch down on the surface of Mars; a near perfect simulation of the real experience. Take part in a simulated Mars mission. Using a computer, command Mars robots to complete some of the same tasks that the astronauts had to accomplish while on Mars
6. Try your hand at a Lunar Landing Simulator. Those more interested in the experience that astronauts may have felt as they traversed the surface of the Moon, will find this simulation the perfect match.
7. Try building an aircraft. The internal construction of the Air and Space Museum makes it possible for amateurs to explore their own aviation talents. The Paper Airplane Flight Lab, a favorite among children, lets those who want to build a paper plane and set it afloat through the wide-open spaces of the museum's center.
8. Let the kids play. An area dedicated to the smallest guests, lets children create their own airport as well as experience various aspects of flying. Even the smallest guest can play on the simulators, take part in interactive games, and just have fun with the replicas of planes and space capsules.
9. Lose yourself among the stars. Huge planetary models, built to scale, float above guests across the 30-foot ceiling of the museum’s second floor. Known as the largest models of their kind anywhere in the world, visitors won’t be able to keep themselves from feeling like they are, indeed, floating among the stars.
10. Visit a planet or two through the museum’s Inter-planetary Travel Agency. The interactive simulator shares information on the various planets chosen by participants. From temperatures to gravity expectations to atmosphere and weather, everything that a visitor would want to know before booking a flight will be made available, including tips on dress.
11. View rock and soil samples that astronauts have brought back on their travels to the Moon and Mars. Learn about the make-up of these various planetary bodies and what life, if any, could exist there.
12. Explore the Space Station exhibit that outlines the how and why of mankind’s need to build a platform in the stars.
13. Take a trip through time in the Space Center’s time machine. See how life on earth may have begun and watch life unfold before your very eyes through a series of short stops that explore some of our planet’s greatest mysteries. Then move forward to see where scientists and great thinkers now believe we will go in the future.
14. Join tours and/or take advantage of theatre presentations that are put together from time to time in order to further enhance the Virginia Air and Space Museum Experience.
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