Soar into Summer at the New England Air Museum

Hi there. I'm Teresa Dufour with today's CT Style Express. Summer vacation is in full swing and if you are looking for a field trip for kids, really of all ages, the New England Air Museum has so much to offer. Here with more is the Director of Advancement and External Affairs, Ron Katz. Great to see you, Ron. What a cool backdrop you have. Thank you. That's our B-29. It's one of our best aircraft here up at the museum. Now, I understand the museum is soaring into summer, so talk to me about all the programs. So, we're doing a lot this summer, actually. We do have a program called Soaring to Summer Fun. It consists of nine weeks of different themed activities, everything from helicopter week, jet week, balloon week, any different type of aviation vehicle you could think of. We have a week for that. That'll be a lot of fun and along with that, we have specific activities, scavenger hunts and open cockpits and build-and-fly activities and a lot of those activities are directly related to the themes that we're sharing that week. Wow, that's a packed summer you have over there. What a great way to spend some time with the family or just get out of the house a little bit. I know also the Space Expo is happening. What are the details about that? That's right. Space Expo is on August 21st this year. We're looking forward to that. We have an astronaut, Susan Kilrain, coming in. She has a terrific career in space to talk about and she'll be meeting with people. We have a lot of other activities, other organizations from around the area that have space-related activities that are coming in to join us. It's always one of our best events of the year and we think this year is gonna be really special as well. Ron, describe to us what an experience is like coming to the museum when you first enter and as you walk your way through. Yeah, you know, there's almost too much to see in one day. We have 90,000 square feet of space and three different aircraft hangars. So when you first come in, you see our military hangar, a lot of military helicopters, military jets. Most importantly, we have our docents right there to meet you and they can tell you all kinds of great stories about the aircraft and so it's they make it a lot of fun but it's also very educational. We have our civil air aviation hangar where we have a wide range of aircraft dating from the early 1900s up until much more recent and then the aircraft that you see behind me, our B-29, is in the third hangar. So there's quite a bit to see. We have some aircraft outside. We we've been integrating new technologies so we have augmented reality in in one of our exhibits. We have some new videos that you can access through a QR code on your on your phone. So a lot of a lot of new things. If you were here last summer and you come back this summer, you'll see a lot of new things. Alright, worth a visit up there and who would you say you have more adult guests or kid guests at the museum? I think we we have a lot of both. You know, during the summer when school is out, we have a lot of kids but I'll tell you the adults enjoy seeing what we have just as much as the kids do, if not more sometimes. Very good. Well you have a booked summer calendar of events happening at the New England Air Museum. Ron, thanks so much for your time. Thanks, Teresa. Sure thing. You'll learn more over at NEAM.org. That is your CT Style Express. I'm Teresa Dufour. Enjoy the rest of your day.