Tucson 2012: Pima Air & Space Museum

I said "Give me some sexy hip action," and by golly, she did.

On one of the days during my trip to Tucson, AZ, we visited the Pima Air & Space Museum to see an exhibit featuring airplane parts and other flight-related things that had been decorated by local artists.  The BFF was excited to see a Waco biplane from the 1930s that was very similar to one she flew in with her highschool sweetheart.  She's led a very interesting life.

The Pima Air and Space Museum covers 80 acres, with 5 hangars and a boneyard with over 300 aircraft including John F. Kennedy's Air Force One.  You used to be able to take a tour of it, but the museum had to stop allowing it because people kept breaking off pieces to keep as souvenirs.  For real.

In the Dorothy Finley Space Gallery, you can see the mockup of the interior of the Apollo 13 capsule that was used in the Apollo 13 movie and lots of other cool things.  I enjoyed walking through the gallery and thinking back to when I was a kid in school and the teachers would wheel televisions into the classrooms so we could watch lunar launches and splashdowns.  Yes, Gentle Readers, I am really that old.

For you kids out there, monkeys were sent up in spaceships before people were to find out what the physical effects of space travel would be.  Unfortunately, my research on Wikipedia indicates that most of them died.  This piece honoring the brave monkeys of the early days of space exploration was painted by a local artist and is part of the exhibit in the main hangar.

But on to happier topics.  Isn't this pretty?  I love the finial glued on the top that completely transforms what looks like it might have been a bomb casing.

More cool thingamajigs.  I loved how each piece was unique to the artist who made it. 

This is another section of the same grouping.

Even I know this is the front part of an airplane.  I really loved the layers of print on this one. 

Bonus photo of the cute little Miss Baby Bird!

We ended up seeing only a fraction of what the museum had to offer because we had an infant and a nonagenarian with us.  But honestly, I don't think you can see all 80 acres in one day anyway.  I definitely want to go back the next time I'm in Tucson.