San Diego Air Space Museum Balboa Park - FREE for County Resident with ID

Free for San Diego County Residents with ID. Please be prepared to present a photographic ID with your address.

Aviation history is truly a remarkable story, and it all unfolds at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Your journey through the history of flight begins as you stand beneath a model of the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon of 1783 - the first manned vehicle in recorded history to break the bonds of gravity and lift humans above the Earth.
Rare specimens of aircraft suggest the excitement of air combat in the World War I Gallery. Marvel at the entertaining and dangerous antics of the barnstormers of the 1920s in the Golden Age of Flight Gallery.
Mint condition aircraft in a mint condition museum - a Spitfire Mk. XVI, a Navy F6F Hellcat and an A-4 Skyhawk jet - these beautifully restored airplanes help you appreciate the increasingly complex technology represented in the classic military aircraft of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

San Diego has one of the richest aviation heritages of any city in the country. Convair, home of such famous aircraft as the B-24 Liberator and the PBY Catalina, was founded here. Ryan Aeronautical, home of Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, was located here, and North Island Naval Air Station is the home of naval aviation. Much of that knowledge is captured and conveyed through the San Diego Air & Space Museum, a major institution unique to the region and one of the preeminent aviation museums in the nation.
Many local residents, including Preston M. “Sandy” Fleet, son of the founder of Consolidated Aircraft, and Captain Norvel R. Richardson, USN, believed the love affair with flight that began for San Diego in 1910 should be shared with the world. They took their ideas and enthusiasm to a group of prominent San Diego businessmen, including T. Claude Ryan and Joseph Jessop.

The San Diego Aerospace Museum was established on October 12, 1961, when the articles of incorporation submitted by the non-profit Citizen’s Committee were approved by the State of California. When the idea was presented to then-Mayor Charles Dail, he recommended the vacant Food and Beverage Building in Balboa Park as an ideal location, and the City Council approved the recommendation.

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