Hiller Aviation Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Hiller Aviation Museum

The front of the Hiller Aviation Museum with a Rutan Long-EZ on the roof
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Established	June 1998 (1998-06)
Location	San Carlos, California
Type	Aviation museum
Collection size	50+ aircraft
Founder	Stanley Hiller Jr.

The Hiller Aviation Museum is a cool place to learn about airplanes and helicopters! It's an aviation museum located at the San Carlos Airport in San Carlos, California. This museum focuses on the history of flying in Northern California. It also highlights the amazing work of Hiller Aircraft and the history of helicopters.

History of the Museum

How the Museum Started

The idea for the museum began way back in the late 1960s. A man named Stanley Hiller Jr. loved collecting aircraft. He kept them in a warehouse in Redwood City, California. By 1986, he had gathered 15 aircraft. His goal was to collect 28 of his own aircraft designs. Just eight years later, he had over 40 aircraft! This collection was called the Hiller Museum of Northern California Aviation Heritage.

Moving to a New Home

Even with so many cool planes, not many people could see them. So, Stanley Hiller Jr. used money from a special fund to create a new museum. They planned to take a building at the San Carlos Airport. This building was about 13,000 square feet. The plan was to make it much bigger, about 44,000 square feet!

The airport agreed to the plan in March 1996. Construction started in October of that year. The new and improved Hiller Aviation Museum opened its doors on June 5, 1998. It was a huge space, about 53,000 square feet!

One special exhibit, a model of the Boeing 2707 airplane, was at the museum when it opened. In 2013, it moved back to Seattle. There, it is being fixed up at the Museum of Flight.

What You Can Find at the Museum

Research Library

The museum has a special library called the Michael King Smith Research Library. It holds about 5,400 books. These books are all about aviation and flight.

Exciting Exhibits to Explore

The Hiller Aviation Museum has many fun things to see and do. You can try out flight simulators. These let you feel like you're flying a plane! You can also explore the front part of a real British Airways 747 jumbo jet. It's painted in cool Flying Tigers colors. You can even walk inside it using a staircase!

There's also an indoor drone area called the "drone plex." Other displays teach you about early flying machines. You can learn about California's flying pioneers. There are sections on air racing and amazing women in aviation. You can also discover how planes fly and learn about weather. The museum also shows new ideas for flying in cities.

Amazing Aircraft Collection

The museum has a large collection of aircraft. Many of these are unique or important to aviation history.

This is a replica of the Hiller XH-44 helicopter.

Aircraft on Display

Ground Vehicles

The museum also has a few vehicles that stay on the ground!

Flight Simulators

You can also find different types of flight simulators at the museum.

Fun Events at the Museum

The museum hosts a yearly event called the Biggest Little Air Show. This show features cool radio-control model aircraft. It ends with a real pilot doing amazing aerobatic stunts! The museum also holds an annual Airport Runway Run. This is a fun race on the airport runway.

From 2000 to 2010, the museum sponsored Vertical Challenge. This was an airshow just for helicopters! They had one more in 2012. In 2011 and 2016, they held an aviation festival called Heli-Fest instead.

Educational Programs

The Hiller Aviation Museum offers special programs for Scouts BSA. Scouts can earn their Aviation Merit Badge or their Weather Merit Badge here.

See also

• List of aerospace museums