History Learning at the Museum of Aviation
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In April our family took a trip to Warner Robins, Georgia, to visit the Museum of Aviation. My son loves aviation history, so we knew we wanted to visit. We wanted to visit several times in past years, but we didn’t feel he was ready for a visit and appreciate all that he would see and learn. I’m so glad we waited because he truly enjoyed history learning at the museum.
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Located adjacent to Robins Air Force Base. The Museum of Aviation is on 51 acres with four buildings and boasts of having 85 historic U.S. Air Force aircraft, missiles, cockpits and award-winning exhibits. The Eagle building which is the main museum building and three hangars: Hangar 1 (Vietnam Era), Hangar 2 (Century of Flight), Hangar 3 (WWII-Scott Exhibit). Around the grounds are many aircraft you can view.
History Learning
Eagle Building
Contains exhibits of everything imaginable from uniforms to aircraft. There’s a large exhibit of the 14th Air Force Fighting Tigers and one for Georgia’s own Fighting Tiger, Brig. General Robert L. Scott.
The nose art in this exhibit are panels from the C-141 at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, the “Boneyard”.
History Learning
Hangar 1
The aircraft and exhibits in this hangar are from the Vietnam era. An UH-1 “Huey” that was used by special forces in Vietnam is located here. There’s a Huey fuselage where visitors can climb into the cockpit.
History Learning
Hangar 2
The upstairs of this hangar contains the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. You’ll find plaques and memorabilia of these noted men and women.
We found the plaque and exhibit for Major Damon “Rocky” Gause who’s family still lives not too far from us. I stumbled across his book after Christmas and bought it hoping to use it in our school. I couldn’t put it down! You’ll not want to miss The War Journal of Major Damon “Rocky” Gause.
Major Damon “Rocky” Gause, “A True American Hero”
Major General Frank O’Driscoll Hunter, “Georgia’s only WWI Ace”
Corporal Eugene Jaques Bullard – “The World’s First Black Military Pilot in WWI”
Jacqueline Cochran – “The Greatest Woman Pilot in History”
The Lockheed SR-71A is located in this hangar and it is stunning, for an aircraft.
The day we visited, a local school was preparing for their prom. (The museum offers event space rentals.)
History Learning
Hangar 3
This hangar is home to the Tuskegee Airmen and the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment & the Air Invasion of Normandy exhibits.
You’ll also find a future exhibit (at the time of this writing) of the B-29 Superfortress.
A B-17 ball turret. There’s reasons why they have height regulations for certain jobs in the Air Force. This turret shows just that.
A former Air Force One waiting to being restored. This plane is actually a VC-140B “Jetstar”. President Johnson preferred this plane when traveling to his home in Texas. When Johnson was on board, it was Air Force One.
The CH-21B was assigned to the Presidential fleet during the Kennedy era. This aircraft carried Bobby Kennedy from the Pentagon to Andrews Air Force Base to meet the flight carrying President Kennedy’s body from Dallas following his assassination.
Around the buildings are lots of aircraft you can check out.
Self-guided tours can take however long you want. We toured the main building and hangar 1 before heading to Chick-fil-A for lunch. We finished touring the other two hangars and grounds right up until to closing time. This is definitely an all day visit.
Guided tours are offered for groups of 15 or more with a small fee.
All buildings and aircraft are wheelchair accessible. The museum has wheelchairs available on a first come first serve basis.
Free Admission – although they do have a donation box.
Free Parking
Picnic tables are available
Hangars are just that. They are not built for staying cool even with the air conditioning on. If you are like me and suffer from carrying around an inner heater, then you’ll want to keep that in mind, because parts of those hangars are HOT.
This is one museum you DO NOT want to miss.
