AmericaJR.com’s Jason, Gloria and Jerome Rzucidlo visited the San Diego Air & Space Museum during their recent trip to America’s Finest City. It is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum is divided into many galleries with exhibits emphasizing the contributions San Diego has made to aviation. Sections include the Theodore Gildred Rotunda, Special Exhibit area, World War I Gallery, Golden Age of Flight Gallery, World War II Gallery, and Modern Jet & Space Age Gallery, and the Edwin D. McKeller Pavilion of Flight. Visitors can enter the Rotunda for free. Admission is required to visit the remaining galleries and additional cost to see the Special Exhibit. SDASM promotes itself as one of the largest aviation museums in the nation, containing the third-largest collection of archives and library.
Antique airplanes
1916 Curtiss OX-5 engine
Snoopy
WWI Centennial gallery
1917 Ford Ambulance
Ford sent 2,350 of these to France
German Zeppelin model
Lincoln Standard J-1 plane
It was used in the 1958 film “Spirit of St. Louis”
1922 Ford Speedster replica
Pacific Southwest Airlines model plane
PSA was known as “The Poor Sailor’s Airline”
It has no relation to today’s Southwest Airlines
PSA buttons and flight guides
PSA flight attendant uniforms
Miniature Southwest airplane
AmericaJR.com’s Gloria Rzucidlo
AmericaJR.com’s Jerome Rzucidlo
Now onto the World War II gallery
“Japan Surrenders”
Santa Fe train
More Lionel trains
Churchill pottery
Replica of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Actual uniform worn by Adolf Hitler
Uniform worn by Hermann Goering, No. 2 man in NAZI party
Wool suit worn by Winston Churchill
“Flying Tigers in China”
AmericaJR.com’s Jason Rzucidlo checks out the cockpit
The Merlin Engined Spitfires
Battle of Britain map
Rolls-Royce Merlin 62 engine (1944)
AmericaJR.com’s Jason and Jerome Rzucidlo watching a movie
Flight simulator rides
Blue Angels Boeing F/A-18 Hornet
Blue Angels Boeing F/A-18 Hornet
Space Shuttle tire
Actor/Pilot Harrison Ford (bottom)
Uniform worn by Sally Ride, first American woman in Space
