Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum
The Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum , generally known as the Air Zoo , is an aviation museum at Kalamazoo Airport in Portage, Michigan, south of Kalamazoo . This museum is the first in the world to combine a museum with elements of an amusement park. Many rare aircraft are on display at the Air Zoo, including the last remaining SR-71B Blackbird . Many of the aircraft on display are airworthy.
history
The Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum was founded in 1977 to preserve, exhibit and research historically and militarily important aircraft.
The opening took place on November 18, 1979. The museum grew to be the tenth largest private aircraft museum in the United States of America .
In 1994 the Restoration Center was added, where old aircraft can be restored or rebuilt.
In 1999, the Term Air Zoo was developed, and planning began on a major expansion. On April 25, 2003, work began on a new exhibition hall that was to be twice the size of the original one. There are several attractions here, such as carousels, flight simulators and a 4-D cinema. The main attraction, however, are historic and new aircraft such as a Grumman F-14 , Douglas A-4 , Vought F-8 and the aforementioned SR-71B Blackbird.
In the building you can see the largest painting in the world that was realized inside a building. The painter is called Rick Herter , who named the painting “Century of Flight” (in German “Century of Aviation”).
swell
- O'Leary, Michael. "New Aviation Museum prepares for takeoff" , Air Classics , April, 2004, accessed on December 1 of 2006.
- Prichard, James. "The sky's the limit for museum mural" , The Associated Press , March 21, 2004, accessed on December 1 of 2006.
- Prichard, James. "New Interactive Aviation Museum Has Rides" , The Associated Press Online , May 1, 2004, accessed on December 1 of 2006.
- "Expanded Kalamazoo Air Zoo prepares for takeoff" , The Oakland Press , March 27, 2004, accessed on December 1 of 2006.
Web links
Coordinates: 42 ° 13 '56 " N , 85 ° 33' 36" W.