Hiller Aviation Museum
add photosFor the airplane, helicopter and other "flying things" enthusiast, this is a great place for all ages! Among the amazing collection of airplanes, fly a helicopter simulation in a real helicopter, see a scaled down Stealth, get in the cockpit of a real commercial airliner as well as view airplanes take off and land from San Carlos Airport on the inside or outside flight decks.
5 Reviews for Hiller Aviation Museum
2
10 families found this helpful
"Flying High at Hiller"
I took a group of school age children to the museum and the kids loved it. This is a small museum but really packs a lot of aviation into it. This is a great way to introduce airplanes and helicopters to your little ones as if they need a introduction. The docents are all former pilots and give a lot of themselves to the tours, it's great. After our tour I just got on the freeway and took the kids to Coyote Point to have their lunches. It was a great day.
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1 family found this helpful
"Hiller's Special Events = Family Fun"
We've been to Hiller several times, each time for a different special event. When my son was 2 we took him to the Halloween event, and he loved it. Being near all the airplanes and looking for halloween items on the scavenger hunt was really neat for him. The Noon Year's Eve party was a blast--especially the balloon drop. And this past Easter, we took him (age 3 by that time) to see the Bunny himself arrive by helicopter. Talk about exciting! The special events can get crowded, but we do our best to arrive early when the crowds are thinnest. Boys and girls of all ages always seem to be having a great time at these events. We're definitely planning to be there for Santa's arrival in December.
2 families found this helpful
"Interesting but small"
This is another place that is nice to see once, but there isn't too much to get back to more than once. They have a small display about the history of aviation, a small play area for toddlers (it appears that some moms will get memberships and then meet up there during rainy days), and a plane you can walk through. Most recently we saw a model train exhibit there that we made an effort to get to, but mostly we don't think about going there that often and it is close.
'10, '11, '12
0 families found this helpful
"Super fun for adventurous toddlers"
We went to Hiller with one of his toddling buddies and it was night and day what they enjoyed. My almost 2 year old was terrified of sitting in sitting in the Blue Angle cockpit (full on arched back) when I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. His 1.5 year old buddy loved it and happily pushed all the buttons on the command board including the "eject" button.
My son's favorite part of the entire museum of standing on the metal platform and watching all the planes take off from San Carlos airport. I don't we needed to pay money for this piece, but the view was fantastic.
The trip into the 747 was fun although we ended up just hanging out in the first class seats up on the second floor. We were there on a Saturday, so the cockpit area was consistently full of kids and parents. Our kids just enjoyed playing with the phone which is probably the most unhygienic part of the entire plane, but what else is new.
The toddler play area is great and we probably could have stayed there the whole time. There were planes to ride and rock and climb into. Plenty to entertain the smaller set.
Bottomline: if your kid is a bit more cautious like my guy, you might want to wait for them to be a bit older in order to enjoy some of the finer parts of the museum.
4 families found this helpful
"Toddler to Teen"
My 2 year old LOVES the indoor area where he can "ride" mini wooden airplanes. He also loves viewing the planes take off and land from San Carlos Airport! There are also several hands on simulations for older children. AND a great indoor activity on rainy days.
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