The Hilo Children’s Aerospace Museum combines aerospace artifacts with thoughtfully designed educational exhibits and a sense of wonder that is inspiring for children and adults alike. Many of today’s pilots, airplane mechanics, and service crew first began dreaming after being invited to sit in the cockpit of a commercial flight as a child. The museum experience is designed to provide a tactile, memorable and larger than life opportunity to learn about aerospace science, and how it applies to the rest of our life.
The museum looks to projects like the Exploratorium in San Francisco for inspiration, but capitalizes on the unique venue, experience, and partnerships that can only form around the shared goal of preserving an aviation legacy, and inspiring the next generation of astronauts, aerospace engineers and enthusiasts.
The museum strives to maintain the airworthiness of the aircraft, not because it needs to fly, but as a platform for active, retired and aspiring mechanics and engineers to teach and learn. If such a program is particularly successful, a world of opportunities emerge.
We envision the following types of exhibits and experiences:
With a 747 as an anchor exhibit, the museum plans to acquire other modern aerospace craft, such as recovered capsules and rockets, to display in the hangar, and provide exposure to current and near future technology.
While the museum is for children from all over the world, it is especially for the children of Hilo. East Hawaii has many challenges facing youth, including access to STEM focused, experiential educational resources that are so common in major cities. The museum will provide free access for class field trips to all schools in the district, and days where local residents may bring their children for free.