I got online last night and started looking for things to do in the Bartlesville area that we had not done before. The Tulsa Air and Space Museum is located on the campus of the Tulsa Airport. We spent the afternoon here with Nana & Papa. The main building houses all of the aircraft - including an F-14 Tomcat like they used in the movie Top Gun. In order to get permission to have it on display here, the museum agreed that it could be pulled and ready for combat within 24 hours if needed. The kids loved clambering into all of the cockpits and fiddling with the dials and switches.
We couldn't resist this picture. I'll have to find mine from the Kennedy Space Center in Houston. Alex also got to try some hands-on space simulations. One was just flipping a series of switches to help "launch" a large model of the Space Shuttle. Both boys went into a space ride simulator, Aaron went twice.
Alex got to manipulate a robotic arm to pick up objects in the simulator's payload bay using the controls in front of him and the camera views shown on those little screens to the right. He did very well. Once upon a time he wanted to be an astronaut. Maybe activities like this will spur him toward it again, or at least a career in the sciences. I know, I'm partial, but its got to better than his current favorite - video game tester. Thanks to whoever told him that he could get paid for that.
This cockpit didn't have a plane around it, but they could sit side-by-side and flip the switches and move the sticks. To add a touch of realism, this cockpit was playing a live feed from the control tower nearby.
The next building held a planetarium that we watched a neat film about how a trip to space affects the human body and what would happen to it on different planets. At least thats what I think it was about. Lets just say the chairs were comfy, it was dark, and it had been a long week - right, Papa? The kids said it was a good show.
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