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Details
• College Park Aviation Museum, 1985 Cpl. Frank Scott Dr.,
(301) 864-6029
• 94th Aero Squadron, 5420 Paint Branch Pkwy., (301)
699-9400
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By Theodore Fischer, Sidewalk
College
Park Airport, which was founded in 1909 and proudly proclaims itself
"the oldest continuously operating airport in the world,"
recently became the home of the newest museum in the Washington area.
Supplanting the old College Park Airport Museum – a staid and minimalist
display of memorabilia housed in the airport's no-frills operations
building – is the bright and sunny, family-friendly and lavishly
hands-on College Park Aviation Museum.
Located three blocks from a Metro station and half a mile from the University
of Maryland's College Park campus, the new museum is a major step up
from its predecessor in both its sheer size (27,000 square feet on two
levels) and its dramatic design – a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows
overlooking the runway and a curved roof that resembles the wing of an
early Wright brothers' airplane. Exhibits have calculated appeal for two
target constituencies: dyed-in-the-wool aviation buffs and children who
are no more fascinated by aviation than by 50 other subjects.
For buffs, the museum displays five vintage planes (left) on the floor or
dangling overhead: a 1918 Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny," workhorse of the
early airmail; a gangling 1924 Berliner helicopter, essentially a biplane
with a helicopter prop on each wing; a spiffy red 1932 Monocoup 100 that
was an air-show performer; a bright yellow 1936 Taylor J-2 Cub used for
flight instruction; and a spin-, stall- and slip-proof Ercoupe 46 that
"anyone could fly." Nearby video clips show some of the planes
in action.
But the museum also has plenty to offer little aces of various altitudes.
Older kids can admire an animatronic Wilbur Wright who comes to life when
visitors enter a mock-up of his hangar. (The Wright brothers began
training pilots at College Park in 1909.) A device called "Be an
Airmail Pilot" lets kids use a joystick to control the ailerons,
elevators and rudders of a model biplane aloft in a wind tunnel. They can
also pilot – and usually crash – a computerized jet. Kids can also try
to spin a wooden propeller (below) from one of the Wrights' early planes
and wield magnets to observe the effects of airflow on an airplane wing.
The smallest fliers can assemble puzzles, don pilot outfits and color and
take home airplane necklaces and "wingdings" (plastic-foam
models). Toddlers can wheel biplane scooters inside the museum and taxi
slightly larger toy planes around an outdoor track. Adults should come
prepared to take advantage of a photo opportunity: decking out the kids in
classic fliers' regalia – white silk scarves, leather helmets – and
putting them behind a backdrop of a World War I-era biplane.
The Prop Shop in the lobby is stocked with books on aviation, model planes
of plastic foam and balsa wood, and other identified flying objects such
as kites and yo-yos. For extra flight time, preschoolers can join the
Thursday-morning Peter Pan Club, and older kids can attend
Saturday-morning model-making workshops (call for a schedule).
No rations are available (nor is food allowed) in the museum, but the
nearby 94th Aero Squadron (accessible by a footpath in back) is
appealing enough to use as an incentive for good conduct in the museum.
Inside the sprawling stucco structure, virtually every inch of wall and
ceiling space is adorned with fragments of aviation history: posters,
aircraft parts, old photographs and flight maps (replicas of a couple of
World War II fighter planes are out front). In terraced dining rooms,
where every seat overlooks the runway, adults can order hearty sandwiches
and entrees or serve themselves at a bountiful buffet (lunch only).
"Pilots and co-pilots 12 years and under" can get Red Baron's
Grilled Cheese, Pilot's Pasta, the Amelia Earhart Special (grilled chicken
sandwich) and other items for $4.94 – including a drink and ice cream
for dessert.
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