The Virginia Air and Space Center
add photosExtended summer hours: Memorial Weekend through Labor Day Weekend on Monday to Wednesday from 10am to 5pm and Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 7pm.
5 Reviews for The Virginia Air and Space Center
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"Amazing! Great for kids of all ages "
So much to do! As soon as you walk in you are engulfed in activities! Learn how man has conquered flight, play with plasma balls, listen in to demonstrations. There is even a gift shop type area where you can purchase educational materials. My kids were entertained for hours!
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"Good for the Right Kids"
Not EVERY kid is going to enjoy this place entirely. Kids who are into rocket ships, planets, aviation, space (etc.) will LOVE this place. The displays are nicely done and there are many hands-on features. A younger child will appreciate that museum at another level, but could get a little antsy depending on how you handle things. DEFINITELY go if you have a science/space loving child!!
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"Good Museum for 2-3 Hours of Filler"
While you are visiting the Hampton Roads area, come to the Virginia Air & Space Center if you want to fill a couple of hours in between other activities.
There are lots of hands-on activities for the kids here. As a previous reviewer noted, there is currently a terrific Grossology exhibit, which focuses on various "gross" things, like slime, poo and pee, bad smells, etc. Kids love it, of course! In the center of the exhibit is a huge "submarine" with a playground slide and a periscope you can maneuver to see all around the exhibit. There's a game where you can guess who is the slimiest creature, while another lets you race your dung beetle against other dung beetles to see who can make it to the top of the dung ball the fastest!
The airplane section has a couple of airplanes you can climb inside/take photos in and a couple of small films you can watch (you'll watch one of them while sitting on an airplane wing or on "crates"). The space section is very interactive... you can design your own solar system, experiment with gravity and "blast off" with the astronauts, etc.
For an additional fee, you can get inside a simulated ride vehicle (not for those who get seasick), ride the Hampton carousel, view an IMAX movie, or ride the bumper boats. There is a small gift shop and also a cafe if you get hungry.
This museum cannot hold a candle to the Air & Space Museums in Washington, DC and Dulles, VA, but it is a nice diversion if you are on vacation and need something to do for a few hours.
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"Can finish this museum in an hour or two"
This is a great museum for kids with so many hands on activities. Everywhere you turn there is a new thing to try out! While we were there, Grossology was the main exhibit. The kids loved learning about all the gross things our bodies can do! My favorite part was the room where you feel like you have stepped on another planet in the space gallery! We were able to go for free because of my ASTC membership. Out of the three museums we visited in the Virginia Beach area, this was the most fun as far as hands-on activities for the kids. There is an ice skating rink too but we skipped it since I had my 3yo with me. Right next door is a carousel that the kids loved!
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"Fun with the Family"
This is a great place for adults and kids alike, with more than one hundred interactive exhibits. In Touch and Tornado, kids can watch a tornado form, then touch the funnel to make it change shape. Visitors can stand in front of the blue screen used by TV weather forecasters and see how they use “invisible” maps.
Kids can enter a wind chamber and try on a pair of wings and feel the lift, launch a rocket, or explore Mars. They can land a space shuttle, try out fighter pilot equipment, and use an olfashioned ham radio. There is also an IMAX theater, and an impressive array of historic aircraft are suspended—as if in midflight—in the atrium. Gaze on an F-4E Phantom II fighter used in the Vietnam War and a Corsair F-106B Delta Dart that was struck by lightning nearly 700 times as part of NASA research.
The 15,000-square-foot Adventures in Flight gallery highlights commercial aviation in the Air Traffic Control section with a real-time electronic map of North America showing all aircraft in flight. Civil aviation is explored aboard an authentic DC-9, whose last commercial flight was in July 2002.
With a 93-foot wingspan and a length nose to tail of 119 feet, this interactive exhibit helps kids understand the true miracle of flight—how something this large can defy the laws of gravity. A B-24 motion simulator gives visitors a taste of what it was like in a World War II bomber.
For younger children, the play area Little Wings is where they can build a plane, ride in a simulator, and climb into a cockpit. The center’s science camps are outstanding opportunities for kids to explore the real fun of scientific discovery. Camps during the summer are weeklong and require prior registration. The one-day Saturday camps in the winter welcome walk-ins.
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