April Vacation Activities
Celebrate the arrival of spring with two weeks of school vacation week programming at the New England Air Museum! Explore three giant exhibit hangars filled with over sixty historic aircraft and experience the wonders of flight through daily hands-on activities including:
Hands-on Build and Fly Challenges
Interactive Flight Science Demos
Open Cockpit Experiences in historic aircraft
Computerized Flight Simulators
In addition to these daily activities, daily special events are scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.:
Monday April 9: Balsa Wood Airplane Workshop. Build and fly a balsa wood model airplane with our expert model builders! This workshop is for children ages 3 and older. All children must be accompanied by an adult, and there is a $5 cost per model kit.
Tuesday, April 10: LEGO Flying Machine Contest. Children ages 3-13 can construct flying machines using the museum’s collection of LEGOs. Winners will be awarded prizes in three age categories, and participants need not be present to win.
Wednesday, April 11 and April 18: Parachute Drop. Learn the science of parachutes while building and launching a weight bearing parachute.
Thursday, April 12 and April 19: Paper Plane Challenge. Who can build and fly the best paper airplane and how far will it fly? Test your skills.
Friday, April 13 and April 20: Straw Rocket Launch. Are you a rocket scientist? Test your skills by building and launching a straw rocket. How far will your rocket fly?
Monday April 16: Rotocopter Launch. Have you ever thought of how a helicopter stays up? Build a rotocopter and watch it float down.
Tuesday, April 17: Slingshot Gliders. Build a glider and launch it with a special sling shot.
All events and activities are included with general admission unless otherwise noted. Events and activities are subject to change.
The New England Air Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Memorial Day through Labor Day. The museum is closed on Mondays during the winter season with the exception of holidays and during school vacation weeks. Admission is $15 for ages 15 to 64, $14 for seniors 65 and up and $10 for ages 4 to 14. New England Air Museum members and children under 3 are admitted free. For more information and directions to the museum, please visit www.neam.org or call 860-623-3305. The New England Air Museum is located in Windsor Locks, Connecticut adjacent to Bradley International Airport.
Space Expo
The New England Air Museum will hold its tenth annual Space Expo on Saturday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring NASA Astronaut Michael Foreman. An action packed day offers an array of hands-on activities for visitors of all ages. Visitors will be able to interface with a number of aerospace exhibitors, meet some well known intergalactic droids and characters, view planetarium shows, fly a Space Shuttle simulator at the NEAM Virtual Flight Center, participate in out of this world experiments and science demonstrations, build and launch straw rockets, and much more!
Special guests for Space Expo 2018 also include UTC Aerospace Systems and One Giant Leap, Inc., the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford, CATO Rocketry Club, NOAA National Weather Service, Springfield Stars Club, the Springfield Museums and the Talcott Mountain Science Center.
Food and beverage will be available for purchase from Kane’s Market. SPACE EXPO is supported in part by the NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium and UTC Aerospace Systems.
Capt. Michael Foreman graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a Navy test pilot and flight instructor before joining NASA in 1998. Foreman is a veteran of two space missions and five spacewalks, and he logged over 7,000 flight hours in more than 50 different aircraft. Foreman will present two lectures on his experiences in space at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Space Expo will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the museum will close at 5 p.m. Admission is $15 for ages 15 and up, $14 for seniors 65 and up and $10 for ages 4 to 14. New England Air Museum members and children 3 and under are admitted free of charge. Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more with advance registration. Visit our website for more information and a complete schedule of events: www.neam.org.