What’s Happening Wednesday
Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
Recently I decided to take the kids somewhere new. I’ve meant to check out the Wings Over the Rockies museum here in Denver for a couple years but kept forgetting about it. Seeing that the family membership is only $50 (it has now been raised to $60), I decided now was a good time to pay it a visit.
Located on the former Lowry Air Force Base, the museum was founded in 1994 in a 160,000 foot hangar. The museum has a collection of over 3 dozen aircraft.
We visited on a Wednesday. The older three didn’t have school so I pulled Baby Momo out for a family field trip. We arrived at the museum before it opened at 10 and bought a membership. We were the first and only ones at the museum. We had the place to ourselves!
The museum was finishing up their new floor in the hangar. The floor wasn’t finished yet so not all of the displays were out. Since I had just bought a membership I wasn’t worried, I knew we’d be back.
Walking into the hangar the first thing you notice is all the aircraft suspended from the ceiling. Looking to your right you’ll see bigger airplanes in the hangar. A glance to the left will show hands on activities and other exhibits.
The first thing my son noticed was the T-65 X-wing Starfighter from Star Wars. The kids enjoyed getting up close to all the aircraft. Aircraft includes Eagle II, 1926 Eaglerock, , 1970 B1-A Lancer, 1962 F101B Voodoo, 1975 F14-A Tomcat and much more. If like me, that sounds like alphabet soup to you, check out their online exhibit of their aircraft.
The kids’ favorite hands-on activity was the Wright brothers display. Climb up onto the glider replica to see if you can make it fly on the simulator screen. As the kids got up on to the glider, they laid down on their bellies. It never occurred to me that the Wright brothers started with gliders, which only makes sense or that they did it while on their bellies, again only makes sense; do I live under a rock? Or maybe I just don’t pay attention.
The girls had some help flying it from one of the volunteers, Stan, who I was told was a WWII veteran. The boy tried it by himself and he proceeded to crash into a tree much to the delight of his sisters.
Since we were there early, Stan gave us his full attention. After helping with the Wright brothers display he took us over to two cut out plane cockpits and explained what the controls were and the differences between the two. We were very pleased to have Stan to ourselves! He was very informative and we were very appreciative of his knowledge and his service.
Since not everything was on display we walked around what was out a second time. Baby Momo was appalled when she saw the bombs on display and realized that the big planes were bombers. Planes in her mind are for vacations and fun, not war.
Overall the kids enjoyed the museum and look forward to going back.
Why is it the best membership ever? Well, that my friends, requires another post!
I have just returned to Texas from Denver, where my daughter and I installed our WASP exhibit, “Fly Girls Of World War II’, in the Wings Over The Rockies Museum.
It is a comprehensive, extensive exhibit about the WASP of World War II (Women Airforce Service Pilots), the FIRST women in history to fly America’s military aircraft. It is not only EDUCATIONAL , it is INSPIRATIONAL and MOTIVATIONAL.
I sincerely urge you to revisit the museum with your children.
P.S. (My husband, a career Air Force pilot, was stationed at Lowry AFB from 1949 to 1952, as the Director of Operations. (We lived about three blocks from the front gate.) We were then transferred to Japan.)
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