Florida Air Museums

[Asturias56]

Heading to Florida in March

I hope to avoid The Mouse so anyone got any recommendations for Air Museums I can go while the rest of the family disappears into a Theme park?

[Self loading bear]

Fantasy of Flight
Polk City
south of Kissimee
owner Kermit Weeks
25 years ago already a great experience.

SLB

[newaviator]

Unfortunately Fantasy of Flight isn't what it used to be , scaled down and not sure if the museum is actually open anymore , if not limited days of operation , mainly corporate events now unless its changed again - crying shame really used to be a must do..

Space Centre Executive Airport at Titusville , visit Valiant Air Command Museum,

Kissimmee Gateway Airport visit Warbird Adventures T-6 Flights and Museum

You should have timed your visit to coincide with Sun n Fun at Lakeland Linder Airport April 2- 7 you can get there in an hour from Orlando by car

[India Four Two]

Asturias,

If you plan to go to Fantasy of Flight, call them first. The Museum has been scaled down from its former incarnation and is only open on limited days.

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/

Let’s not forget the “elephant in the room”:

https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

This might be worth a “whole family” visit. It’s only an hour’s drive from Orlando.

[Herschel Krustofski]

Valiant Air Command Museum gets my vote, many of the "exhibits" still fly. There are a number of volunteers there who are happy to guide you round and chat. Nice personal touch.

[22/04]

Valiant Air Command Museum gets my vote


They had an airshow when I was out there in the spring of 2017. Flew in a Huey organised by Army Vets, Damn good day out - car parking was airside adjacent to a hangar- wouldn't happen in the UK.

[Asturias56]

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this - just back after a great couple of weeks in Florida

We were, due to President Trump, able to see the delayed SpaceEX Dragon launch about 10 days ago - admittedly at 02:30 in the morning but wouldn't have missed it for the world!

We also liked the KSC - tho it would have been better to take the bus trip round first - and maybe do some research on options for detailed tours rather than the generic bus ride.

We also did the Valiant Air Museum - a must -do for enthusiasts I'd say . Beautiful collection and a lot of post -war US jets (and a Canberra!) you can't easily see in Europe. Only let-down was the "B-52" - a cockpit section rather than the whole beast. But we got to spend time with one of the founders - Major Joseph Reus, who is in his mid-90's and turns up most days. His stories of flying B-24's over Germany (shot down) and B-29's over Korea as well as service in Vietnam were a marvelous hour. And the guys in the restoration hanger were very kind and willing to discuss the challenges of keeping these planes in shape.

We also tried to get into the Museum at Marathon in the Keys but this seems to be closed - there is a PBY outside but the locals reckon its being run-down and some of the exhibits are no longer there - we did get to sse a number of F-18's tho from Key West training in the area at low lever=l .

Some pictures from Valiant:-

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1024x768/20190305_102057_medium__a5d4df8bde10a4567d02daea525df1ec32a3 02bb.jpg
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https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1024x768/20190305_102638_medium__cf412943faf83d4e92023cfe64da862c6ce0 cca4.jpg
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