Aerospace Hall Takes Flight in San Diego

Feb. 22, 1978 was a sad day in San Diego for the volunteers who had worked to create an aerospace museum in a city that had long prided itself for its achievements in the development of aviation. A fire had destroyed its building in Balboa Park, incinerating about 40 vintage aircraft that had been restored after hundreds of hours of work.

A somber group gathered at the site pondering what could be done. To abandon their dream was unthinkable. The City Council made available a nearby building that had been built by Ford Motor Co. for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition. A federal grant obtained by the city was used to renovate the structure, and with the help of volunteers, both individual and corporate, the Aerospace Museum and the International Aerospace Hall of Fame were combined to create one of the nation’s finest museums specializing in aerospace history.

Displays in the huge circular building tell the story of the development from man’s earliest attempts to fly to the latest examples of Space Age technology. On view are 64 aircraft, most of which are flyable, ranging from a replica of the original Wright Flyer, which two unknown brothers lifted from the sands of Kitty Hawk, N. C., on Dec. 17, 1903, to a collection of modern military jets.

Rich Heritage

Visitors begin their tour of the museum in the Theodore Gildred Flight Rotunda, dedicated to those pioneer aviators who contributed so significantly to San Diego’s rich heritage in aviation. Gildred made a hazardous 4,200-mile good-will flight from San Diego to South America in 1931, flying a Ryan B-5 Brougham. His son repeated the flight to Quito, Ecuador, in 1981 to commemorate his father’s earlier flight. In the center of this hall is a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis in which Charles Lindberg made his epic 1927 flight from New York to Paris. Lindberg selected the Ryan Airline Company in San Diego to design and build the aircraft in which he would be the first to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Among the volunteers who built this model were three who helped build the original plane. Hanging above this is a Curtiss A-1, the first seaplane developed in San Diego. It was Glenn H. Curtiss who demonstrated the value of airplanes to the U.S. Navy as early as 1911, when one of his planes was launched from the battleship Pennsylvania.

By 1914, airplanes could climb to 20,000 feet and reach a speed of nearly 130 m.p.h. World War I would become their proving ground. The military, both Germany and their adversaries, the Allied Powers, realized their effectiveness for a variety of uses--observation, bombing, strafing, and as fighter aircraft were developed, squadrons of SPADs, Camels and Nieuports were engaged in mortal combat with German aircraft in the skies over France.

The section of the museum devoted to World War I contains an original Spad used by American forces and a German Albatros. Some of the planes are suspended from the ceiling as though in flight. An American spotter hangs in a basket, which would have been attached to an observation balloon. It was a hazardous duty. German pilots delighted in shooting these balloons from the sky, a sport for which Allied pilots showed a similar enthusiasm.

Barnstormers, Daredevils

Following the war, between 1919 and 1939, aviation came of age. There were the barnstormers, stunting and wing walking at county fairs, and there were the daredevils who walked away from staged crashes in a number of motion pictures. There were also the airmail pilots who flew from coast to coast in open-cockpit De Havillands with few navigational instruments. This period is well represented in the museum.

Aviation memories of World War I were kept alive by pulp magazines as late as the 1930s. Little wonder that youngsters growing up during this era were captivated with flying. Thumb through a January, 1939, issue of Flying Aces magazine, which sold for 15 cents. In addition to fictionalized stories of aerial combat and photos of various aircraft used during the conflict, there were the advertisements. An aircraft school offered to train you at home to become a pilot within a few short months. There were also a wide variety of model aircraft kits, which could be purchased by mail for as little as $2. A new generation was ready when another more devastating global conflict began.

It is here you pass through one of the museum’s most interesting exhibits; the aircraft of World War II. The flight deck of a Navy carrier has been re-created where the pilot of a Grumman F6F Hellcat waits for the order to start his engine. Parked nearby is a rare Japanese Zero. A German Stuka bomber is displayed as if in a dive. There is a flyable British Spitfire (one of the few remaining), a Navy Grumman J2F (known as a duck), an amphibious workhorse used by Navy VJ (utility) squadrons during the war, Navy and Air Corps trainers--and more.

One moves along to the Jet Age to see the McDonnell Douglas A-4, one of the most successful long-lived light-attack bombers ever built for operations from an aircraft carrier. The tour closes with the Space Age, which focuses on the shuttle program.

Female Flyers

One section is devoted to women who have been participants in the progress of aviation from the beginning. Harriet Quimby was the first woman in America to become a licensed pilot (1911). Jacqueline Cochran led the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots during World War II and Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She was later lost in a flight across the Pacific. Earhart is also honored in the adjacent International Aerospace Hall of Fame, which shares the museum and contains exhibits and portraits of those who have distinguished themselves in many different aspects of flight.

The museum’s basement resembles a large aircraft plant, only the engineers, machinists and mechanics are all volunteers, mostly retirees from the military or aircraft industry, and they are at work restoring vintage planes. One group is assembling a Ford Tri-motor. Only 198 were manufactured between 1926 and 1933.

It was often called the “Tin Goose,” and it carried 13 passengers.

The museum is located in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. seven days a week, closed Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Admission is $3.50 for adults, $1 for youngsters 5-16, and children under 5 are admitted free. Students in class groups and military personnel in uniform are also admitted free.

To reach the museum from Los Angeles on Interstate 5, as you approach San Diego’s downtown, take Interstate 8 east, moving into the right lane and turn on Highway 163 south. Follow this a short distance to the 4th and Park exit. Go left and turn on President’s Way to the museum.