During your visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum, take a self-guided or free guided tour of the Museum to learn about Naval Aviation’s rich history and see some of the Museum’s restored aircrafts representing Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Aviation. Be sure to stop by the Flight Deck Store for a unique shopping experience.
Artifacts and Exhibits
Take a look at the people and events of Naval Aviation that have shaped our history in the Museum’s exhibits from displays featuring vintage uniforms, to dioramas that take visitors back to the World War I Western Front. In addition over 150 beautifully restored aircrafts can be seen on display such as the NC-4 (first to cross the Atlantic by air) and the SBD Dauntless Bureau Number 2106 (a veteran of the Battle of Midway).
South Wing
Start your visit in the National Naval Aviation Museum’s South Wing. Here you will find the Museum’s World War I Exhibit and aircraft collection from two eras of aviation experimentation, the Golden Age of the '20s and '30s and the early Cold War era of the '50s and early '60s.
The World War I Exhibit
The World War I Exhibit is made up of distinct dioramas that will transport you back to World War I. See a seaplane as it would have appeared on the shores of Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida and an airfield scene in France that depicts the battle-scarred building that served as a makeshift home for combat pilots complete with wartime music and a flickering flame in a wood burning stove. In another diorama, a machine gun nest guards a muddy airstrip on which a biplane sits. Also included in this diorama is a period ambulance waiting to take airmen to a field hospital.
Patches and Flight Gear
Squadrons have used insignias as veritable coats of arms throughout aviation history. Step into the Squadron Patches exhibit, colorfully adorned with flags, banners and insignias from a variety of air stations, carriers and squadrons. Display cases hold artifacts that trace the evolution of flight gear from the earliest days of Naval Aviation to modern combat.
NC-4 Exhibit
The NC-4 flying boat was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean during a 3,000 mile journey from Naval Air Station Rockaway Beach, New York to Lisbon, Portugal in 1919. Learn about the construction, transatlantic flight, recruiting tour of the Southeastern United States, and the eventual restoration of the NC-4 flying boat in the NC-4 Exhibit, built to resemble the interior of a wooden hangar from the era in which the NC-4 operated.
West Wing
In the Museum’s West Wing, the history of Naval Aviation during World War II starts to unfold with examples of Navy and Marine Corps aircrafts of World War II. In addition, the West Wing highlights the Navy’s postwar transition to the Jet Age.
PBY Cutaway
In the PBY Cutaway exhibit, a layer of the venerable aircraft has been peeled back to expose the compartments in which the crew lived and worked. Climb on board the PBY Catalina, the most famous flying boat operated by the U.S. Navy during World War II. Once you board the aircraft you can view the controls of the PBY Catalina, peer into the blisters on the fuselage through which downed pilots were pulled to safety and navigate the seven seas.
USS Cabot Island and Flight Deck
The USS Cabot, commissioned in 1943, was one of the light carriers to serve the Pacific during World War II. As you view this World War II aircraft displayed on USS Cabot’s deck, you will gain an appreciation for the limited size of a light aircraft carrier flight deck. Remember to look for the 40mm anti-aircraft gun on board the USS Cabot.
Sunken Treasures
See aircrafts used during Commander Richard F. Whitehead’s Naval Aviator training schemes in 1942, recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan. At the center of the exhibit are two aircrafts resurrected from Lake Michigan and preserved in the condition in which they were found, the F4F Wildcat and the SBD Dauntless.
Home Front U.S.A.
Discover what life would have been like on the home front during World War II in the Mezzanine. The Home Front U.S.A. exhibit will transport you to a time defined by rationing and war bond drives. The centrepiece of the Museum’s Home Front U.S.A. exhibit is the recreation of a typical Main Street as it would have appeared in most small towns during World War II. See a Marine, home on leave, getting a shoe shine in front of a barber shop. Period signs of bright and bold colors with the names of Pensacola establishments of the era will catch your eye and a wartime household and general store will provide a look at day-to-day life during the early 1940s.
Naval Aviation in Space
Honor the many astronauts whose paths to outer space passed through Naval Aviation. In addition to honoring astronauts that ventured to space during Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs, Naval Aviation in Space explores the Navy’s role in the recovery of the space capsules which landed in ocean waters. Don't miss the Museum's new Apollo 17 exhibit located in Hanger Bay One.
Pacific Island Exhibit
You can experience life as it was for the Allied forces that advanced across the Pacific during World War II in the Museum’s Pacific Island Exhibit. As you make your way through a recreated jungle airfield in the World War II Pacific Theater, elements of the display such as its rustic shower give visitors a sense of a life out of the ordinary and the critical importance of these rough-hewn facilities that supported the air campaigns.
World War II Aircraft Carrier Exhibit
Discover life at sea for pilots and aircrewmen as you explore the cramped spaces of a ready room aboard a World War II aircraft carrier. With a maze of pipes overhead, authentic deck plates and vintage equipment throughout, the World War II Aircraft Carrier Exhibit captures life at sea below decks and pays a special tribute to the work of enlisted personnel aboard World War II aircraft carriers.
Hangar Bay One
Hangar Bay One adds an additional 55,000 square feet of exhibit space to the National Aviation Museum. Within Hangar Bay One, you will find mostly aircrafts from the Museum collection that flew post World War II. Notable aircrafts include the first aircraft to land in the South Pole, R4D-5L Skytrain and the P2V-1 Neptune, an aircraft that established a long-distance record between Perth, Australia and Columbus, Ohio in 1946. U.S. Coast Guard aircrafts can also be seen on display in Hangar Bay One as well as the Marine One helicopter flown during President Nixon and Ford administrations. Other special features include Women in Naval Aviation and the new Apollo exhibit.
Shopping in the Flight Deck Store
Be sure to stop by the Flight Deck Store. Clothing, accessories, books, coins, DVDs and CDs, flags, glassware, home décor, auto accessories, models, patches, prints and posters, stationary and toys unique to the National Aviation Museum are available to purchase.
- All visitors must present valid identification before entering the Naval Air Station Pensacola.
- Be sure to pick up a Museum Map at the Information Desk, located at the right of the main entrance to assist in planning your visit.
- Complimentary wheelchairs are available to check out from the Information Desk.