Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum

 At the end of June, my husband and I, and a few friends, visited the The Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum which is located on the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. 

Transferred from the United States Air Force to a group of volunteers in 1994, Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum is located in Hangar #1 of the former Lowry Air Force Base in eastern Denver, Colorado. Today, the museum boasts more than 182,000 square feet of hangar space full of iconic aircraft, space vehicles, artifacts, military uniforms, and much more. Visitors can also experience flight simulators, discover various educational programs and participate in dozens of exciting museum-sponsored events.   This was the second time my husband and I visited the museum--see my first post about it on this link.

It's such an interesting museum, filled with both permanent and temporary exhibits, and over 50 aircraft and space vehicles.

  

We all wanted to see the 45-minute National Geographic movie that plays every hour in the museum theater called "Living In the Age of Airplanes," narrated by Harrison Ford.  The movie trailer is above, or at this link.  It really is amazing to see how humankind's ability to fly has impacted the world in such a short time!  

This example of a Kitty Hawk Multicopter looks almost like a drone, but it was able to fly one person like a helicopter and was so light it did not require a pilot's license to fly! The company no longer makes them and now wants to focus on more powerful VTOL aircraft that can travel faster and farther and with more occupants. The company already has a new design in the works called the Heaviside.  The era of "flying cars" may soon become a reality!  How much more will that change our world?

There was also a special exhibit at the museum called "All the Cosmos a Canvas--Hubble Reveals Our Beautiful Universe," comprised of these amazing Hubble telescope photos...

...including this signed photo by Loren J. Shriver, the commander of the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-31) which lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Florida, on a mission to place the Hubble Space Telescope in Earth Orbit in April 1990.

Actual Star Wars movie aircraft memorabilia is a big hit at the museum, especially for children.  R2D2 actually whistled at me--the rascal!

Do you remember hearing about "The Miracle on the Hudson" years ago? A commercial passenger jet lost all its engines to bird strikes when flying out of New York's LaGuardia Airport in 2009, and the pilot was able to glide the plane down and land in the Hudson River, saving 155 passengers' lives.  Fortunately, the pilot had learned to fly a glider at the US Air Force base when he was a cadet!

Before we left the museum we stopped a moment to reflect on this stirring sculpture called "Least We Forget The Mission" which honors the more than 88,000 US airmen who died in WWII.

 

Each year, Wings Over the Rockies welcomes roughly 160,000 visitors representing all 50 U.S. states and 28-countries around the world. We certainly enjoyed our visit!

What's new around here...

Thank you to everyone who commented on the book review in my last post. It was an interesting book that made me think quite a bit about my own collections and possessions.  I think we all agree that keeping things that bring us joy in our lives is not a problem, it is only a problem when we find they lead to stress or debt, or become an obsession that we focus on more than life experiences.

We had a very Happy 4th of July...

Our son's community has an annual mini-parade each 4th of July where the residents follow emergency vehicles around the neighborhood. They then host a buffet lunch in the park, have a water splash slide, and face painting for the children, and at night there are some firework displays. Thankfully we had beautiful weather that day and enjoyed it all.

I hope you are also having an enjoyable summer!

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Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum

Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum is located on the old Lowry Air Force Base in the Denver, Colorado area. The museum preserves Lowry AFB's operations history from 1938 to 1994 in its collections, archives, and research library. 

Information from the Wings Over the Rockies website:
"Transferred from the United States Air Force to a group of volunteers in 1994, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum is located in Hangar #1 of the former Lowry Air Force Base in eastern Denver, Colorado. Today, the museum boasts more than 182,000 square feet of hangar space full of iconic aircraft, space vehicles, artifacts, military uniforms, and much more. Visitors can also experience thrilling flight simulators, discover Wings Aerospace Academy, our enrichment program for 6th-11th-grade students, and participate in dozens of exciting museum-sponsored events."

The museum hangar containing the airplanes and educational exhibits is enormous!

My husband and I enjoyed exploring all the airplanes on exhibit and learning their history. There are both permanent and temporary exhibits and over 50 aircraft and space vehicles. Features of the museum's collection include the USAF's B-1A Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress bombers and many other militaries and general aviation aircraft.

There were different flight simulators at the museum to try and my husband had fun trying to land the Wrights brother plane --not an easy task in 1903 when their flight only took 12 seconds!!

In just the first 50 years of the Space Age, more than 64 astronauts have developed close ties to the State of Colorado. Through birth, university, or employment these space professionals have put Colorado on the leading edge of space exploration and study. 

The “Colorado’s Astronauts” exhibit offers Museum guests a look at some of the fine men and women with connections to the Centennial State and how they have helped transform our understanding of space.

One of the most famous Colorado Astronauts was John L "Jack" Swigert, an American test pilot, mechanical and aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and NASA astronaut. He was one of twenty-four astronauts who have flown to the Moon--his mission was on Apollo 13.   A piece of lunar rock that was collected by Apollo 15 was donated to Wings Over the Rockies in Swigert's memory by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

There was an interesting exhibit about life on a space station.

The exhibit focuses on the groundbreaking science that the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) does on the ISS such as treatments for disease, new building materials, and consumer products

A unique collection of uniforms, gear, and more were on display in the World of Aviation attire in the Uniform Room. This permanent exhibition features dozens of items not found anywhere else in the world including specially designed artic flight suits, original Lowry Air Force Base photography equipment, and a letter to the father of a deceased soldier written by then-Secretary of War, Henry Stimson. 

One of the museum stars is the Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter, a 3/4-scale replica of the aircraft flown by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It is signed by numerous cast and crew including Harrison Ford, George Lucas, and David Prowse. Thanks to generous Rocky Mountain Fan Force volunteers and an agreement with Lucasfilm, this unique Star Wars heirloom has become a permanent part of the exhibits.

Each year, Wings Over the Rockies welcomes roughly 160,000 visitors representing all 50 U.S. states and 28-countries around the world.  We certainly enjoyed our visit and know we will be back to see more of it with our grandchildren one day. 

Wings Over the Rockies

Air & Space Museum

7711 East Academy Boulevard

Denver, CO 80230-6929

Hours:

Monday - Saturday: 10am – 5pm Sunday: 12pm – 5pm

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