CHeck them out!
Featured Air Zoo Exhibits

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“Daughters of the Sky: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII” tells the stories of the bravery, triumphs, and challenges of women pilots committed to serving their country.

Situated in the Air Zoo’s East Wing, the exhibit combines artifacts, images, video, and interactives to tell stories of the WASP. Guests can find the exhibit by following the new Fifinella (the WASP mascot), pathfinding stickers on the floor.

Featured prominently is the story of Air Zoo co-founder Sue Parish. Follow Sue’s story from “too young” to apply to the program to not man enough to fly commercially. Artifacts from Sue’s collection, including a rejection letter from a major airline and her Congressional Gold Medal, are on display. Guests can also enjoy a slide show, find out how many women applied to the program, then sit back, relax, and watch a short film about the WASP experience. The WASP Database, an interactive digital kiosk filled with profiles of each WASP, allows guests to look up their WASP family members and learn more about these courageous women.

 

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Get to know our co-founder, Preston “Pete” Parish in our new, inhouse exhibition Planes, Principles, & Positivity: Remembering Pete Parish.

Follow Pete’s entrance into the U.S. Marines with his college best friend, Pete Richards. Learn more about Pete’s military career, including his service at Guadalcanal and Peleliu during World War II. See the model of the ship that claimed Pete’s best friend’s life, sand from Peleliu, and Pete’s military artifacts. Flip through a LIFE magazine that features Pete in an illustrated story of Peleliu.
 
Learn more about Pete’s postwar life, his Upjohn career, dreams of flight, and the Air Zoo co-founding. Through a fun interactive that the whole family can enjoy, find out how many hours Pete spent in some of his favorite Air Zoo aircraft. We’ve highlighted the historic Grumman Cat Flight in this section and included more from Pete’s personal collection, such as his flight jacket and official pilot’s wings. Watch as Pete Parish takes you on a flight in his Corsair! Pete’s contributions and philanthropy are highlighted through plaques and awards that illustrate his dedication to education, business, and aviation. Cast your vote for the value that means the most to you in our Pete’s Principles interactive!

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Women in Air & Space Interactive Timeline

Come and explore an engaging panorama of stories, images, graphics, videos, and hands-on activities as you explore more than 100 years of contributions made by more than 50 accomplished women in the fields of aviation and space exploration. We are delighted to enhance these stories with items from our collection, images from our archives, as well as affiliate organizations like the Smithsonian and several featured assets from the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) IF/THEN an Initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, which enriches U.S. projects like ours that highlight women and minorities in STEM.  Learn more!

 

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In We Did It: The Riveting Real Rosies of WWII, you’ll meet some of the women who answered America’s call to fill defense plant positions in the 1940s. Learn about the recruitment process, the art of the famous Rosie poster, and the many kinds of jobs these women took in service to their country. See an authentic rivet gun, rivet manual, and paystub on loan from Yankee Air Museum, which sits on the former site of the Willow Run plant where women manufactured one B-24 bomber an hour. Watch video interviews from the children of real Rosies. Take a picture with our “We Can Do It!” poster cutout.

This exhibit opened February 26th. Stop in and explore this riveting story of the real Rosies of WWII! 

Check out more Women in Air & Space exhibits as we celebrate Women's History Month!

 

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Amelia: Adventurous Aviatrix: An all new exhibit that explores the adventures and legacy of Amelia Earhart. The exhibit tells the story of a brave, bold woman who broke through barriers to make history in the sky. Guests will learn how Amelia went from a playful child born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897 to an aviation and women’s empowerment icon and contributor.

Enjoy stories of Amelia’s healthcare passion, which found her nursing wounded World War I pilots, and how she honored her early feminist values by deliberately choosing a female flight instructor. Guests will get to know the man behind Amelia’s powerful publicity machine and count the pilot’s numerous achievements, such as becoming the first woman (and second person) to pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic and setting women’s world altitude, speed, and endurance records.  You will also learn about Amelia’s ultimate dream to fly around the world, meet flight navigator, Fred Noonan, who joined her on that mission, and consider the unsolved mystery that followed. A recreated historic scene—which depicts Amelia giving flying tips pint-size pilots—provides the centerpiece to this exhibit in the round.

Amelia: Adventurous Aviatrix was made possible in part by Jean and Michael King.

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EVER ASKED YOURSELF “ARE WE ALONE?” 

It’s a question that has fascinated man for centuries, and in this 5000 square-foot exhibition, you can join scientists in the search for alien life in and beyond our solar system.

Explore 9 different themed environments that immerse you in the discoveries in space and the advances in technology that have led to increased speculation on the possibility of life beyond planet Earth. Hands-on experiments allow you to manipulate variables of a particular environment to see how it affects the possibility of life. You can journey to Mars alongside NASA’s Rover robots, get up close with the robots made famous in the Terminator movies, and learn about the everyday use of real robots right here on earth.