San Diego, California - Aerospace Museum, Moon Rock

The San Diego Air and Space Museum should not be missed by anyone with even the slightest interest in aviation. Located outside the front door is a genuine SR-71 on a stick. This museum covers many square feet and nearly every inch of the floor and ceiling contain something related to aviation.

The SDASM pays tribute to famous aviators, planes, and gizmos from Kitty Hawk to the space shuttle and beyond. Scattered throughout were so many different types of engines that I stopped counting.

I really enjoyed seeing the real china used in first-class sections of airlines, and a wall covered with pilot and crew flight pins from current and long-gone airlines like Braniff, Eastern, and others. Also not to be missed things are the reproduction engine from the Wright Brother's plane and the Wright Brother's Wind Tunnel used to test their aerodynamic theories back in Ohio before their famous flight at Kitty Hawk, NC.

In the Primo Space Junk category are a replica space suit, Mercury 7 capsule, as well as a section dedicated to the space shuttle program. Also in this area is a genuine Moon Rock encased in a clear plastic pyramid -- which is further encased in a plexiglass case. Just try to get a decent picture of that!

Other items of interest were an F-4 Phantom, Messerschmitt BF-109, Maxim 7.7 MM aircraft machine gun, a complete section dedicated to the women of aviation, my personal favorite plane the PB5Y Catalina, and the Wee Bee -- a plane so impossibly small that the pilot had to lay down on the fuselage rather than sit in a seat. [Greg Brown, 03/23/2001]