museum overview
Preserve…Inspire…Educate…Celebrate!
museum history
Learn about the history of the San Diego Air & Space Museum and the Historic Ford Building.
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Preserve significant artifacts of air and space history and technology.
Inspire excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Educate the public about the historical and social significance of air and space technology and engage its promise for the future.
Celebrate aviation and space flight history and technology.
Aviation history is truly a remarkable story, and it all unfolds at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Your journey through the history of flight begins as you stand beneath a model of the Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon of 1783 - the first manned vehicle in recorded history to break the bonds of gravity and lift humans above the Earth.
Rare specimens of aircraft suggest the excitement of air combat in the World War I Gallery. Marvel at the entertaining and dangerous antics of the barnstormers of the 1920s in the Golden Age of Flight Gallery.
Mint condition aircraft in a mint condition museum - a Spitfire Mk. XVI, a Navy F6F Hellcat and an A-4 Skyhawk jet - these beautifully restored airplanes help you appreciate the increasingly complex technology represented in the classic military aircraft of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
The Museum's display of space age technology, like the desire to journey to the stars, may never be finished, for it represents an adventure which the human race has truly just begun.
other museum sites
gillespie field annex
From a small one-hangar beginning, the San Diego Air & Space Museum's annex at Gillespie Field has grown to become an integral part of the Museum's aircraft restoration and replica reproduction program. Staffed mainly by volunteers, the Facility has produced some of SDASM's finest work.
low speed wind tunnel
The LSWT, located at 3050 Pacific Highway, originally began operations under the direction of Consolidated Vultee (Convair) in May 1947. General Dynamics assumed operations in 1961 when the company acquired Convair. General Dynamics' Convair Division (and later Lockheed) operated the facility until a private company took over in 1994. The LSWT remains the only privately held low-speed aeronautical wind tunnel in the United States.
