I always enjoy visiting aviation museums, and I enjoyed visiting the Museum of Flying at the Santa Monica Airport. It's a relatively small museum, and the price of entry is reasonable. There's a full size DC 3 mounted on a column outside the entrance so the museum is difficult to miss. Inside, there are full size planes and models. Each full size plane has explanatory materials. They even have an actual WWI Fokker triplane. You don't see them very often. Two things I always enjoy seeing in aviation museums are theaters with aviation videos and flight simulators. This museum has both, but the theater wasn't actually running the videos, and the flight simulator is live only on weekends. I took off one star because of these deficiencies. I recommend that you visit this museum on a weekend.
Small but great aviation museum! The entrance to park is the immediate left after the Donald Douglas Loop S intersection, in front of the outddor aircraft. The rel gem of this place is the detail and history pieces they have. There is a great display of model aircraft including an historic Pan Am aircraft. The museum is 2 floors, with the actual table from the former board room. amazing experience. 4 stars as the gift shop wasn't that great, and the inner cockpit of the Fed Ex aircraft is still closed off, with COVID being cited as the reason.
This was a fun place! We chose this location because of the VR experience that was featured online, and the actual airplane cockpit that you can go into. Aaaaaand, both were not open that day a Saturday. That was a let-down, but there were many other things that we busied ourselves with. There were old types and styles of airplane seats to sit in and to see the evolution of the design was a neat experience. I didn’t get his name, but I assume he is the owner was a very nice man. He took time out of his duties to talk to us about some questions we had, he taught us about ejection seats, and just overall provided a nice conversation. Unfortunately, it turns out the reason the two features weren’t open that day is due to being short-staffed. The wall protruding cockpit has to be manned by its own employee as when left unmanned, visitors tend to damage things and people can get rowdy. It’s unfortunate this is the case for him, because he truly has a clear passion for this and his knowledge is immense; his heart is in this and so many people would gain from that.
Great museum with enthusiastic helpful people working there. My toddler has a great time too trying out the Boeing 727 cockpit.Visited onWeekdayWait timeNo waitReservation recommendedNoPrice for adult entry$6–10
My job had a meeting with 300 people at this museum. Everything was super organized, the displays were amazing.Although, the reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 is because the airplanes that are outside that are a part of the show are way too dirty. If they were cleaner and shinier, it would tie the whole place together. Nevertheless, I left with a wonderful first impression of the place, and would definitely recommend it as a place to visit and explore.
My bf took me here on my birthday a few days ago and it was so neat seeing all the old planes hanging from the ceilings!
Small flight museum. Aircraft collection is small and limited. However, the real gems are artifacts associated with the history of Douglas Aircraft Company. There you can see most of the models produced by the company, hear amazing stories about building a fake city to protect the factory and airport during WWII and see Executive Boardroom. However, the last one was closed and one needs to ask to gain the access.
A great place for anyone into aviation or military. They have quite a few artifacts that are very unique. Staff know lots about flying today and were very helpful. Once your done at the museum you can walk a few minutes to an observation deck where you can watch planes taking off and landing. Very cool!
Excellent place for youth interested in areonautics. Upon entrance, the youth were given an opportunity to participate in a scavenger hunt. They had to find all of the featured aircraft within the building. There was a nice prize for all the participants. There were several aircrafts that the little one could actually get into and pull throttles, push buttons, turn various buttons etc. We had an opportunity to meet a pilot that started to fly at age 17. He enlisted in the air Force, served 20 years and now flies for a major carrier. He explained the various jobs in the cockpit and how technology has eliminated many of the traditional jobs. We saw a replica of the " Wright Brothers" first engines aircraft. As we approached the display, the propellers started. We got a nice cool breeze from the propellers, a young man told us all about the "Wright Brothers aircraft & even hot air balloons. There was a theater upstairs that showed various clips of important "first" in aircraft history. There were pictures and posters of the Tuskegee Airmen, several presidents as they took their first flights. A replica of Almia Earnhardt's trans Atlantic aircraft was also displayed. Great place for anybody interested in airplanes. Highly recommended!!
This is such a fun museum with a friendly, knowledgeable staff. A perfect place for kids of all sizes remotely interested in airplanes, and or local history.
