OK, since I have to check out of my room, and I have a few hours to kill before my flight, I’m going to check it out, since I’ve never actually been there. Like Aviation Week (and space technology) I expect the “Space” part to be an afterthought.
[Update, waiting at the airport]
As I expected, the emphasis was on the “Air,” but there were a lot of pretty neat aircraft there. It was 104 degrees, but didn’t seem that bad to me (as it generally doesn’t in the desert, particularly in the shade). I was more put off from wandering far out in the field by the sun for which I had no sunblock than the heat itself. I pointed out to a docent that Gene Kranz never said “Failure is not an option,” at least while he was a NASA mission controller. He said he’d talk to the curator.
I also showed the book to the space docents, and they all wanted a copy. The gift-shop manager was out for the day, but I’ll email her. But it would look pretty lonely amidst the other books. Almost nothing about space –mostly aviation. But I did put it up on the shelf to see how it stood out. It did, a lot. I think we’ll be glad we spent extra time on the cover design.
[Update a while later, before boarding]
I forgot to mention that it happened to be Orville Wright’s birthday. There were remnants of a cake (I had a small piece). I got a picture of it, but not on my phone — on my good camera, and I don’t have a card reader with me, so I’ll have to post it later.
[Bumped]
It is a fun place, the only place about space was the b-52 carrier for the x-15, and the SR-71 (I know, high altitude) On my list to visit again.
Pima is a blast, although it’s focused on airplanes (but as Christopher says, one of the B-52 motherships for the X-15 is there).
There’s also the Titan missile museum south of town that I found quite interesting as well.
Second on the Titan museum; if you’ve never been it’s worth a couple hours.
Third (or second second) on the Titan museum. It was an operational Titan II silo, complete with a real Titan II in the hole, and gives you some appreciation of the scale of that operation. It’s fun to go with a former missile man, because the tour guides are just that. You can hear some fascinating stories when they start talking…
I have not been to Pima but it has a good reputation. I like airplanes more than most people (a sentence that can be read two ways and both are accurate), so I judge aircraft museums by the number of rare aircraft in their collection. Pima has an F-107 (only other one I know is at the the Air Force museum) and a YC-14 (don’t know of any others). There are several places with an SR-71 but it’s still something that looks like it belongs in science fiction (and one made a cameo appearance in “Firefly”) and few places have a D-21 drone (I’ve seen one in Seattle’s excellent Museum of Flight and in McMinnville, OR). There are other rare aircraft there, too but probably not a lot of space stuff.
The Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida is also great fun. If you get a chance, go.
I loved it, and I hope you enjoy it too.
The space hanger contains mainly mockups and models, but it’s quite interesting.
The only quibble I have is their display criteria. For example, their X-15 is a mockup, but it’s prominently displayed inside their space building (and so is a copy of a meteorite). However, there are a lot of historic aircraft (real ones) outside. One example; the first Air Force One (the first aircraft to fly under that call sign) was Eisenhower’s prop-driven Constellation, Columbine. It’s in poor condition, and parked on dirt outside, but they have many similar sized but less historic aircraft in the hangers. Oddly, the sign on Columbine didn’t even mention that it was the first AF1.
There are also a collection of Soviet fighters, including the Mig-29, and that’s outside as well.
And heh, their signage could use a bit of fact-checking. One issue I noticed was the bomb case for a W-57 warhead was labeled “B-57”.
Those minor quibbles aside, I highly recommend the place.
Another Tuscon area attraction that I love is the Titan Missile Museum.