Air Zoo Blog
A Classroom by a Classroom: A Simulator by the Simulators: Our 747 FA Trainer
Whether you’ve joined your wee ones for a cool class in our Activity Room or moved through our full-motion simulators queue, you’ve likely seen the neighboring, somewhat curious airplane cabin cutout. Perhaps it’s nestled into the perfect place, for this interesting airliner artifact can be considered both a classroom and a flight simulator!
Airlines built or repurposed retired aircraft sections as flight attendant classrooms. Trainees learned takeoff and landing proc...
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Thursday, Oct 31, 2024
Artifact of the Month: November
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Object 1988.001.031
Trophy, Frigidarie Wartime Production
When our visitors hear the term “Arsenal of Democracy” they might first think of companies like Ford, Boeing, or U.S. Steel – industrial colossi that turned out planes, ships, and tanks by the thousands during World War II. Fighting wars in Europe and the Pacific Ocean simultaneously however called for massive mobilization of American industry, sometimes drafting the most unlikely manufacturers.
Th...
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at Thursday, Oct 31, 2024
Artifact of the Month: October
Object 2014.012.001-004 Brick, Launch Complex 37B, Cape Canaveral
Sometimes, the unassuming objects in the Air Zoo’s collections are some of the most exciting. The magic of collections care is that even objects like the bricks that make up this month’s featured artifact have stories to tell. Received in 2014, these bricks once made-up part of the tower foundation for Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Built specifically to support developme...
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Glove Box: Looking for Lunar Life
The Air Zoo exhibits a glove box a bit too large to fit in a car and clearly not manufactured to house your auto registration or roadmap. Our glove box helped NASA scientists maintain a sterile environment while inspecting lunar samples during the Apollo 11 mission.
Part of the larger NASA Ames Lunar Biological Laboratory, the glove box, so named for the attached safe examination gloves, delivered an isolated workspace used to investigate the Moon rocks and soil samples ...
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F-117 Fighter Pilot, Thad Darger, to visit the Air Zoo Tuesday, September 3
August 30, 2024, Portage MI - The Air Zoo is excited to welcome Captain Thad Darger to the Flight Discovery Center, located at 3101 E. Milham Rd., Kalamazoo, MI, on Tuesday, September 3, where he will be reunited with his F-117 Nighthawk (tail number 817), Shaba. Join us from 11am-5pm for talks and tours with Captain Darger, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism while flying in the stealth aircraft displayed at the Air Zoo’s Flight Discovery Center. T...
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Wednesday, Aug 28, 2024
Coming in for a Landing in Our Apo11o Exhibit
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Like our living rooms at home, we strive to keep our Air Zoo living room tidy, too. While we’re preparing to spruce up and add interpretation and a few “new” 1960s playthings to the toybox, we thought we’d reflect upon our beloved Apo11o living room.
As the 50th anniversary of the July 20, 1969, Moon landing approached, the Air Zoo challenged its Exhibits and Collections departments to create an exhibit marking this “giant leap for mankind.” We ...
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Thursday, Aug 1, 2024
"It's all theatre" an intern's account
“It’s all theatre.”
When I applied for an internship at the Air Zoo, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what I, a costume design major at Western Michigan University, would be able to do for a plane museum. I just thought it sounded like a cool opportunity and that it would be nice to stay in Kalamazoo for the summer instead of packing my cats and sewing machine up in my tiny Ford Fiesta and trekking across the country for a summer stock t...
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Thursday, Aug 1, 2024
Artifact of the Month - August
Object 2022.014.003
Fragment, Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird (61-7952)
Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird is an aircraft whose name and image still inspires a combination of awe and mystique. Though this high-flying, high performance reconnaissance machine first flew sixty years ago, it is still today the fastest aircraft using air-breathing engines. Flying at the speed of a rifle bullet at the edge of space came with risk however, as this month’s featured artifact demonstrates.&nb...
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Thursday, Jun 27, 2024
USS Kitty Hawk Recollections to Inform Exclusive Exhibit
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On June 8, 2024, speakers shared heartfelt stories, amusing anecdotes, and moving moments at our gala USS Kitty Hawk anchor dedication ceremony.
This free event welcomed Kitty Hawk veterans who represented the ship’s five decades of service, guest speakers and flag corps, and the Air Zoo community. After the public ceremony concluded, the stories continued, but this time, in a more intimate space: Our Smith Memorial Library.
We invited Kitty Hawk veterans to participate in an oral histo...
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Artifact of the Month! July 2024
Object 2010.099.101
Piston Head, North American AT-6 Texan, Suzanne Parish
This month’s featured object at first appears to simply be a broken aircraft engine piston head. Writing on the piston’s face however tells a concise story of what must have been a tense situation:
“7/31/76 - 333SU Sue and T-6/SNJ AZO-OSH but not even SBN & home.”
Recognizing both the name of our co-founder, Sue Parish and the registration of our own AT-6 Texan, we...
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Thursday, May 30, 2024
A Tall Tale: USS Kitty Hawk Anchor Now on Exhibit!
It’s here! The USS Kitty Hawk anchor is the biggest new artifact on exhibit at the Air Zoo. Standing nearly 19 feet tall, the mighty anchor helps interpret the history of one amazing aircraft carrier. What an honor to be trusted with stewarding and exhibiting a 30.3-ton piece of naval heritage. In 1961, the U.S. Navy described the Kitty Hawk as “a long-legged, far-ranging force, giving confidence to the free world, and pause to any potential enemy.”
Twenty years ...
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Thursday, May 30, 2024
Artifact of the Month! June 2024
Object 2013.072.026
Patch, Eclipse Experimental Demonstrator
“If you can get your ship into orbit,” goes a quote attributed to science fiction author Robert Heinlein, “you’re halfway to anywhere.” The anecdote speaks to the difficulty of escaping Earth’s atmosphere and while the rocket has remained the standard, history is populated with many alternate concepts. This month’s featured artifact is a small relic of one such design, the...
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Come visit us.
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Great place! Very interesting educational and informational! Great place to take the whole family as there is something for young children up to adults!
blackeyedsusan2018
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We took our grown daughters and young grandsons to the Air Zoo. It was very entertaining for all of us. There is so much to see and do. Rides for the whole family!
Rick C