Busy Winter for Pima Air & Space Museum

Busy winter ahead for Pima Air & Space Museum

• Oct. 2, 2014    Pima Air & Space Museum (true to its name and history-related mission) in its upcoming Second Saturday Speakers Series will feature information on a local aircraft: the A-10’s weapons; on space: asteroids; and on the first official flight’s inventors: the Wright Brothers. The series will be held on the second Saturday of the month at 1:30 p.m. in the Pima Air & Space Museum’s Main Hangar and is included with paid admission to the museum.

• On Sat., Oct. 11, Capt. Matt “Ace” Orlovsky, Davis-Monthan Wing Weapon’s Officer, will discuss flying the A-10 Thunderbolt II (affectionately referred to as the “Warthog”).
• On Sat., Nov. 8, Deputy Principle Investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission, Ed Beshore will explain about why asteroids are suddenly so interesting and what we can learn from them. The OSIRIS-REx mission is a University-of-Arizona-led mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid and return a sample to Earth. Once deemed the “vermin of the sky,” asteroids are now being reexamined for insights into the beginning of the solar system, the source of water and organics on Earth, and much more.
• On Sat., Dec. 13, in celebration of their accomplishment on December 17th, 1903, Dennis Hull, Wright Brothers expert and museum docent, will discuss the life and times of the Wright Brothers and how they achieved what no one else could at the time: piloted, heavier-than air, controlled, sustained flight.

 

“Visitors have been as delighted to learn about key historic, local and contemporary topics, an added value to their museum visit, as we are to present them,” said Curator of Education Mina Stafford. She continued, “This quarter’s tie-in with the current controversy on A-10s and its local impact, up-to-date asteroid factoids, and the Wright Brothers on the 111^th anniversary of their historic flight make them especially compelling and educational. Please join us.”

Admission to the museum is $15.50 for adults, $12.25 for Pima County residents and FREE for members. Visitors will be able to learn from knowledgeable speakers and see the museum’s vast aircraft collection on these dates.

ABOUT PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
Be wowed at Pima Air & Space Museum, one of the largest aviation museums in the world and the largest non-government-funded in the U.S. (TripAdvisor ranks it in the Top 10% worldwide for excellent ratings, 95% say “Thumbs up!”) Its significant collection, 300 strong from around the globe, covers commercial, military and civil aviation.  Be amazed by many all-time great aircraft:

• the SR-71 Blackbird (the world’s fastest spy plane);
• a B-29 Superfortress (the WWII bomber that flew higher, farther and faster plus carried more bombs) that flew in the Tokyo Fire Bombing and Victory sorties;
• the world’s smallest bi-plane and jet (a James Bond “toy”);
• the C-54 (the Berlin Airlift’s star flown by the famous “Candy Bomber” Col. USAF (Ret.) Gail Halvorsen, a Tucson-area resident);
• the Boeing 737-300 airliner, the world’s most popular commercial jet as one takes off every three minutes;
• plus planes used as renowned-contemporary-artists’ canvases, including Brazilian graffiti artist Nunca;

and many more. Examine more than 125,000+ historical artifacts, including a moon rock donated by Tucsonan and Astronaut Frank Borman.

Explore five large hangars totaling more than 189,000 indoor square feet—four+ football fields­—of air/space craft, heroes’ stories and scientific phenomena. The 390^th Memorial Museum (a independent museum located on the grounds) and two hangars are dedicated to WWII. Pima Air & Space maintains its own aircraft restoration center. It also operates exclusive tours of the “Boneyard,” aka the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, plus offers a docent-led tram tour of its 80 acres (additional fees apply). Pima Air & Space Museum is located at 6000 E. Valencia Rd., just off I-10 exit 267, in Tucson. More information can be found at www.pimaair.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PimaAirAndSpace, or by calling 520 574-0462.