Happenings at the New England Air Museum

2 great events in March!

Open Cockpit Sunday

On Sunday, March 20, we will hold our last open cockpit program for the winter. The aircraft to be open include the famous Vought Corsair of WWII, the North American F-100 Super Sabre, a DC-3 airliner, several helicopters and more. There will be additional hands-on activities for the enjoyment of the younger visitors during the event. For the convenience of all, a food vendor will be on site serving sandwiches, snacks and hot and cold drinks. The event will be held inside the Museum's three large, heated display hangars.As an added one-time feature, visitors will be given the opportunity to go behind the ropes and take a close-up look at the Mitchell B-25 bomber of WWII. Also participating in the event will be Time Machine Hobbies of Manchester, Conn. who will put on flying demonstrations of RC helicopters. Additionally, there will be a presentation made by Staff Sergeant Joshua Read of the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard based at Barnes Airport in Westfield. Sgt. Read has just recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and he will share his experiences with those present. The Open Cockpit program runs from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM with the Museum and Gift Shop staying open until 5:00 PM.

Annual Space Expo

The Museum's Annual SPACE EXPO will be held on Sunday, March 27.The theme of the event is "Celebrate the Year of the Solar System". More than 15 exhibitors from across New England will participate in the event including Hamilton Sundstrand Division of United Technologies, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Aldrich Astronomical Society, McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, the CATO Rocketry Club, NASA and the Talcott Mountain Science Center. Most of the activities will be hands-on. Visitors can try on a real space suit, pilot a space craft simulator, touch a meteorite, taste space food, learn about the atmosphere of Mars, build a rocket and more. Retired Astronaut Susan Still-Kilrain will be joining us for the day at Space Expo. She is a retired Commander with the US Navy having flown in more than 30 different aircraft including the F-14 Tomcat. She has been on two Shuttle m issions, the first cut short due to problems with the Shuttle's three fuel cell power generation units. She was a mission specialist focusing on materials and combustion science research in microgravity. There will be special guest appearances and presentations throughout the day. An Apollo 13 exhibit and presentation will show how the crew was rescued thanks in great part to many of the engineers at Hamilton Sundstrand who had designed and built the life support system for the mission. Charles Bourland, co-author of The Astronaut's Cookbook, will be joining us sharing his career experience with NASA developing menus for our astronauts. This event is sponsored by The Connecticut Space Grant Consortium and by Hamilton Sundstrand. The Space Expo will run from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM. For the convenience of visitors, a food vendor will be on site all day.

We're Looking for Help!

One of our more popular activities at the Museum is giving our visitors the chance to "fly" our full-motion Ercoupe flight simulator.The simulator is made available each Sunday from 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM and is staffed by a number of volunteers who work on a rotating schedule. Typically each volunteer may work every fourth or fifth Sunday. Museum member and volunteer Peter Rozantes coordinates this program which includes training and scheduling. If you think that you may have an interest in helping, you may contact Peter at home at 860-653-6936.

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