While visiting the San Diego Air and Space Museum, you’ll learn about the hair-raising antics of the pioneers of flight, whose moxie made air travel possible. The museum is divided into several galleries, each emphasizing the contributions San Diego has made to aviation. The galleries include the Theodore Gildred Rotunda, Special Exhibit area, World War I, Golden Age of Flight, World War II, Modern Jet & Space Age, and the Edwin D. McKellar Pavilion of Flight.
Special Exhibits
SPEED: Science in Motion
The San Diego Air & Space Museum is bringing Speed to San Diego with a focus on competition, record-setting and racing throughout 2018, with of the Museum’s planes, jets, cars, space vehicles, motorcycles, and more – including some of the fastest vehicles known to mankind — having their top speeds posted next to them for everyone to enjoy. The heart of the Museum’s year-long celebration of speed is a new special exhibition, SPEED: Science in Motion. Designed and Produced by Scitech and Produced by Imagine Exhibitions, SPEED: Science in Motion is a fun, interactive exploration of the technology behind everything fast.
American Women of Flight honors contributions to the world of aviation by women. Notable aviatrixes, such as Bessie Coleman, Jacqueline Cochran, Fran Bera, Sally Ride, and many others are featured.
Atlas Rocket Exhibit: The Museum is proud to showcase an exciting exhibit telling the story of the Atlas rocket series from the late 1950s to the present. Both graphics and videos detail the history of the project. Describing its role in the space race, the manned Mercury orbital missions, its effect on the San Diego area. Finally its enormous successes in helping launch many space projects. Benefiting mankind in general along with lessons in rocketry and guidance.
Kids Aviation Action Hangar: This special “kids only” area has an abundance of attractions for kids of all ages. Preschoolers can enjoy magnetic toys and aviation coloring books, plus a dry erase board where they are able to sketch out their favorite airplane! Even pedal planes to whisk them around our kid-size airport. Grade school-age aviators will thrill at the “U-Fly-It” machine. A flight simulator experience in a real wind tunnel atmosphere. They’ll also enjoy a romp in our simulated moon’s surface.
Better than Tacomas museum of flight! I liked this museum alot and will definitely encourage people to come and look.... I had an amazing time thereread more
An interesting Air MuseumThe San Diego Automotive Museum is in the amazing Balboa Park next to the San Diego... Automotive Museum. There are a lot of old WWI & WWII real scale airplanes (some are real I think) on display scattered throughout (and overhead), you can also find some activities for kids.Most of its exhibits were related to air and not so much on space, the name (air and space) suggested a lot more space therefore it has been a disappointment to me.read more
First time I visited this museum and wow it had some cool stuff inside. A ton of history with lots of reading... materials, plaques, and videos.This museum is also free for san Diego county residents on Tuesday. Look it up on Google to see what other museums are free.read more
Great place to see the history of airplanes, but not too many exhibits on space. A good history of flight and an... interesting place to spend an hour of your day in Balboa park.read more
Interesting if you love planes and the history of mostly military planes. Small area about commercial flights... beginning. Nice little area about space.read more
This is a great place for a home schooling history/science lesson and/or field trip. To my pleasant surprise... Kids... were free right now. And it's not super crowded like the zoo.read more
Was an awesome museum to go would of loved to take my family. If you are active duty military make sure to bring you... military ID it's free for you!.read more
Overall the museum was a great place to visit. However, I don’t think it’s worth $20 just to get in. They also had... additional charges for some of the simulation activities. Will not be coming back.read more
Lots of cool things to do and knowledge. They charge for different interactive games apart from the tickets. Other... sections are closed due to COVID-19.read more
For how much you pay for it's not very exciting. Took my young kids here and they enjoyed looking at all of the... displays. But there were a lot of things that were closed due to covid. might have been worth the price if those things were open and we were able to interact with them. My husband did enjoy being able to do the flight simulator though.read more
Honestly a letdown. I thought this would be a great museum and all but I have seen so many of the cars that were there... and even have one more valuable then some of them. Also, the Plank Road display has so little information that I have read websites that had more info so it made that one pointless. The cars were in nice condition though.read more
Great experience in a post-shutdown world! Felt safe and they took the time during the pandemic to update the exhibits... and do some touch-up. New articles about African American history in Aviation are especially relevant in today's conversations.read more
Great air museum. Lots of great displays and different aircraft. Make sure you look up as you go through. Lots of... exhibits hanging from the museum ceiling. Close to many different things in the park.read more
Absolutely LOVE this place. Unlike other museums where you see pictures and comment cards and plaques this is the real... deal. An airplane hanger filled with some inanely historical, interesting, and important aircraft that are just a marvel to look at. I 100% recommend taking a guided tour also. These guides are smart individuals who actually enjoy explaining everything you could want to know about the museum and it's contents. I visit a fair amount and every tour I'll still hear some new information that is just fascinating. I could spend days here and still enjoy myself.read more
Excellent museum for military and history buffs. It's incredible to see how large and intricate a carrier can be.The... displays are well-marked and informative. And the gift shop is pretty extensive as well.It's awe-inspiring and makes me proud that we can make such incredible and powerful machines.All in all, if you're in San Diego, this is definitely worth a visit!read more
This is a place of history and fun. There is so much to see in this museum, more planes than in the Smithsonian museum.... It has its own gems and is the house of some of the rare items for the world war artifacts.There are flight simulations and other activities for kids. It will make a nice family outing packed with history.read more
It is a very nice museum. All ages can enjoy it. Every 4 months they change many of the cars. At present, there are... many 70's vehicles along with many unique and unusual vehicles. This is brand new. It is worth the trip.read more
This museum was truly an amazing experience. The memorabilia collected all in one place. And there was an older museum... tour guide who told us amazing stories about the Japanese bombers and his own personal encounters with astronauts. It was wonderful hearing his stories. We will be visiting here again ASAP.read more
It was a very cool place to visit. A lot to see and learn and there's a little bit of interaction to do around. Kid... friendly museum, it has cool discounts for everyone,. I wish they will put more newer stuff too, like new type of planes, things like that. We definitely enjoyed it, and might go back once in a while.read more
This is a must see!! First time being here. It's in Balboa park and easy walking distance from everything. This air and... space museum is remarkable. The time and effort put into it is worth the stop. Prices are very reasonable. 20$ a person. 15$ if your military. We made it through in about 4hrs. Could easily spend more time. The place is very clean. Friendly staffread more