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Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum
Established July 1982 (1982-07)
Location St. Louis Downtown Airport, Cahokia Heights, Illinois

The Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum is a cool place where you can explore amazing airplanes and spacecraft from the past. Its main goal is to keep these historic machines safe and show them to visitors. The museum also offers fun learning programs about flight and space.

Museum Home: A Historic Hangar

The museum is located inside a special building called Curtiss Wright Hangar Number Two. This hangar is at the St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia Heights, Illinois. This building, along with the one next to it, Hangar One, is very important. They are even listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This means they are recognized as significant historical sites.

The Hangar's Early Days

The Curtiss Wright Hangar was finished in March 1930. It was built at the brand-new Curtiss-Stienburg airport. The building is made of brick and has a special design. You can see a cast Curtiss Wright emblem above the main doorway.

The first company to use Hangar Two was the Union Electric Company from St. Louis. They used their Ford 4-AT-B airplane for company travel. They also used it to check power lines from the sky. This historic plane is now part of the National Naval Aviation Museum.

Later, the hangar became home to the East St. Louis Flying School. In 1939, Oliver Parks started more flight training there. His Parks College used the hangar for flight operations. They continued to use it until the mid-1990s.

Museum History

The Saint Louis Air & Space Museum officially started in July 1982.

The museum first opened at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport. However, in 2005, there was a flood. Because of this, the museum had to move. It found its new and current home at the St. Louis Downtown Airport.

Aircraft Collection

The museum has a collection of interesting aircraft and flight-related items. Here are some of the aircraft you might see:

  • Schempp-Hirth Standard Austria
  • Bede BD-5
  • Link Trainer
  • Lockheed JetStar
  • Meyers OTW
  • Mini-MAX

See also

  • List of aerospace museums