Air Zoo Blog
Category: Collection
Thursday, Apr 27, 2023
Calling All Air & Space Toy Fans!
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Growing up, did you play with air and space toys or build model airplanes or rockets? Do your dearest little ones launch foam gliders and Barbie astronauts into the sky? The Air Zoo’s Exhibits team seeks your toy and model memories, photos, and stories!
What were (and are) some of your favorite aviation and space-related toys, games, and model kits? What aerospace toys did/do your kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews enjoy? Contact April, Exhibits & Interpretation Manager at ...
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Thursday, Jun 30, 2022
July Exhibit & Collections Update
Cosmic Contemplations
Long before we had the technology to picture space, we rendered our own versions of it. For example, in the 1940s and ‘50s, artists blended science fact with science fiction to interpret the Moon, as seen in Chesley Bonestell’s 1957 Lunar Landscape mural section.
Learn more about how the images that form our vibrant new wallpaper came to be and explore the stories of the people and imaging technologies that help us photograph space with ou...
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Monday, May 30, 2022
New Paintings at the Air Zoo - "Over Europe" by Matt Milkowski
The Air Zoo acquired three new paintings at the end of 2021, from a Chicago Artist, Matt Milkwoski. Check out Over Europe on display in the Flight Innovation Canter-World War II Wing.
Matt Milkowski
Over Europe
oil on canvas
Artist Statement
Through a window, a B-17 crewman would have seen bombers gently swaying one way or another. This would occur as the hundreds of planes lumbered into position to assemble their intricate box formations. At times, collisions occurred. The 11 person...
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Thursday, Dec 30, 2021
Collections department, plans for 2022
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The Collections staff and volunteers have been working hard on the Guadalcanal Campaign Collection. Our volunteers just finished up inventorying and taking photographs of the 3D objects in the Guadalcanal Campaign collection. We will be working on changing some of the display cases in the Guadalcanal Campaign exhibit. We also recently received a fabulous collection from the family of Charles A. Buser, who was a Marine who fought on Guadalcanal and featured in the Guadalcanal Exhibit. (Photo i...
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Wednesday, Oct 13, 2021
Celebrating the end of an exciting chapter at the Air Zoo’s Restoration Center
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The time has come to celebrate the hard work and dedication the volunteers and staff at the Air Zoo have put into the restoration of the Douglas Dauntless SBD-2P Dive Bomber, a historic WWII Navy aircraft once thought lost forever in Lake Michigan.
The SBD-2P (Bureau Number 2173) currently housed at the Air Zoo’s Flight Discovery Center is the last of its kind. It was thought to have sunk to ...
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Wednesday, Sep 29, 2021
"Smoe" and the P-80A on Display
We’ve added more cool jets to our outdoor aircraft display! In addition to the OV-1D Mohawk newly placed beside the S-3B Viking, we’re pleased to showcase an aircraft with one historic paint scheme.
The scheme honors Colonel Michael Smolen, aka “Smoe,” who served the in U.S. Air Force as one of six early jet trainers and made history as a member and leader of the Acrojets. Formed in 1945, this precision flying team was the first to perform in the P-80 Shooting S...
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Monday, May 31, 2021
Astronaut Christina Koch
As we curate and install a beautiful new space-themed wallpaper and welcome a cosmically cool traveling exhibit, Be the Astronaut (May 28 – September 12, 2021), we’ve got space adventure fever! The same could be said for Michigan-born Christina Koch (b. 1979), whose longings for space travel drove her to “be the astronaut.”
As a child, Christina loved things that made her feel small: the oc...
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Thursday, Jun 6, 2019
D-Day remembered at the Air Zoo
It was truly an amazing weekend for our Air Zoo family and the Kalamazoo community! Quick recap - Our talented Exhibits & Collections team debuted a breathtaking display for the public, surrounding the significant roles airplanes, paratroopers and all things aviation played in the largest seaborne invasion in world history, D-Day, on June 6, 1944. As America reflects on the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, the Air Zoo's exhibition which explores the invasion through...
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Come visit us.
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Great place! Very interesting educational and informational! Great place to take the whole family as there is something for young children up to adults!
blackeyedsusan2018
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We took our grown daughters and young grandsons to the Air Zoo. It was very entertaining for all of us. There is so much to see and do. Rides for the whole family!
Rick C