One of the world’s largest aviation museum (the largest non-government), it’s not without oohs and ahhs. The Pima Air and Space Museum is huge, over 127 acres huge. It has multiple indoor hangars and tons of outside exhibits displaying over 300 planes & aircraft (over 150 outdoors). There’s a special tour that drives a bus through the aircraft graveyard. There is a separate fee for that tour. There’s a gift shop and a play/learning area for the kids. The kids got extremely tired being exposed to the heat so just beware. Most of the museum is self-guided.
The boneyard tour only happens twice a day and will cost extra. With this tour, you hop on a small tram that takes you across the road to the unique plane boneyard. This is pretty popular and recently they’ve adopted an online request form that must be pre-approved before you arrive. You might want to call in advance to find out the latest procedure before you visit. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here’s a picture of the boneyard (thanks to Google maps for the photo).
Their aircraft are organized into large sections where you’ll find bombers, fighters, helicopters, foreign, utility aircraft, navy, civil, and more. Planes include everything from SR-71 Blackbird, an A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-14 Tomcat, and the huge B-29 super fortress. There’s not a ton of “space” stuff but they do have a few educational displays and a lot of aircraft that was used in the space program.
There’s a place to get some hamburgers or chips and a small eating area. It’s the kind of museum that doesn’t seem to mind if you brought your own picnic to eat inside. It’s Tucson so taking a break from the sun is essential. Besides food, there’s a gift store and bathrooms.
We suggest going first thing in the morning to avoid the Tucson afternoon heat. Plan on spending anywhere between 3 to 5 hours exploring.
They are open every day except for major holidays. Be aware that they close at 5 but the last admission is usually around 3 pm.
Visit their website for more information: http://www.pimaair.org
Don’t miss the other nearby things to do in the Tucson area. Especially the Titan Missile Museum.
More To Do in the Area
There’s so much to do in the Tuscon area. Be sure to see our posts about other fun family-friendly stuff in the area, besides the Pima Air and Space Museum, there’s Kitt Peak, Biosphere 2, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (one of our favorites), Titan Missile Museum, San Xavier Mission, and nearby (kinda) Tombstone, AZ.