Airplane Museum

In Tucson there is a fantastic airplane museum that we were able to visit. It was really neat for all of us, but I think Preston got the biggest kick out of being there. 

In the area in front of the building the museum has a bunch of plants labeled so that people could get to know what kind of plants live here in the desert. Here is the rare Stealth Cactus! You could get a shin full of spines and not even know what happened! P.S. This is Hillary's favorite cactus.. the kind that aren't there. 

In part of the museum they had some really fun exhibits for the kids. Here is an actual airplane that they turned into a play toy for the kids. Jordan is moving the stick there in the middle and it actually moved the flaps. He loved it! It looks a little small but Preston was even able to fit into it. There was a nameplate on it that said it was an experimental airplane built in the 80's. I think I would be been sick riding in this thing.

Here is a close up of Jordan enjoying the display. He wouldn't look at the camera because he was so interested looking at how the wing flaps moved. 

Preston and Natalie even had a turn in the airplane moving the stick and having fun.

The museum had airplanes on the ground and hung from the rafters. This red airplane looked really cool and reminds us of Dusty the crop duster.

Here is another kid display that is the control tower for an airport. There were lots of switches and fun things to play with for the kids. Natalie is here pushing a button and having a fun flashing/spinning light go off. Jordan is also pushing buttons and listening to some fun sounds.

This big blue airplane was the largest Naval Airplane that could be landed in the water. It was pretty much just a transport airplane to haul things from one place to another. The docent told us that in for this airplane to take off it had to have rough seas, and even then it needed some help from a tug of some sort to get it started. If the water was smooth and hugged the hull of the airplane it could not get enough speed to lift itself out of the water. 

They had a pretty cool cockpit from some old airplane. The kids really loved pushing the buttons, flipping the switches, and pretending to fly an actual airplane. They had lots of fun here. Preston looked really hard for the cabin pressure controls and he found something that resembled a rudimentary control switch. Cabin pressure has come a long way from those days.

We walked through a WWII area and Hill and the kids sat in an old fighter airplane cockpit. Lots of fun.

Here is a reconnaissance airplane painted with some cool teeth painted on it. You can tell this is a reconnaissance airplane due to the bubble shaped windows. I assume this is for allowing the pilots to see a little better to spot the enemy.

Here is Preston in front of his favorite airplane ever, the SR-71 Blackbird! He loved seeing this airplane. Every time he sees it and hears about what this airplane can do he gets all giddy and acts like a kid in a candy shop. He is such a cute engineer!