The San Diego Aerospace Museum




Introduction









Aviation history is truly a remarkable story, and it all unfolds at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. Your journey through the history of flight begins as you stand beneath a model of the Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon of 1783, the first manned vehicle in recorded history to break the bonds of gravity and lift man above the Earth.

Our International Aerospace Hall of Fame, the only one in the world, honors those men and women who have made a substantive contribution to the advance of the aerospace sciences. Exhibitry accompanying their portraiture relates to the honorees and their accomplishments. Names such as Lindbergh, Montgolfier, Earhart, Gagarin, and Armstrong are here, all a part of the saga of the continuing conquest of air and space.

The Wright Flyer exhibit takes you to the sands of Kittyhawk, North Carolina, where you are introduced to the first successful attempt at controlled, powered flight.

Rare specimens of attractively displayed aircraft suggest the excitement of air combat in World War I. You will marvel at the entertainingly dangerous antics of the barnstormers of the 1920s.

Mint condition aircraft in a mint condition museum -- a Spitfire XVI, a Navy F6F Hellcat and an A-4 Skyhawk jet -- these beautifully restored airplanes help you appreciate the increasingly complex technology represented in the classic military warbirds of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

The Museum's display of space age technology, like man's desire to journey to the stars, may never be finished, for it represents an adventure which the human race has truly just begun.




Next: The Theodore Gildred Flight Rotunda






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