New #17: Explore Wings Over the Rockies Museum

One of the most useful books I own is a tour guide to Colorado. Sure it's for the state where I live, and one might wonder what tourist information could I need at home? But filled inside are places and adventures right in my own backyard that I never would have discovered otherwise. Case in point: The Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, an amazing museum tucked away literally in the middle of Aurora's suburbia. I never would have found it by myself - but thanks to the tour book, I got a glimpse of some history, airplanes and artifacts I couldn't have imagined were nestled in Colorful Colorado.

Big smile in front of a big plane.

The museum's building itself is a part of airplane history, set inside the former Lowry Air Force Base hangar (which was later engulfed by surrounding new homes - hence the seemingly odd location). Inside the enormous room are dozens of planes of all sizes and decades parked and offering an up-close look. From a gigantic B1A Lancer bomber (yes, I had to look that up) to compact spy planes, there were all sorts of vessels to the sky that I could read about, look inside and touch.


I admit airplanes have never been very interesting to me beyond the places they can take me. I guess it's always seemed like something just boys appreciate, like trains and poking dead things with a stick. And at the museum, Ben and my dad definitely were enthralled. But I actually found it very interesting to take a look at the details of the planes, like the big bolts that held the metal slabs together to make the wings, that somehow could lift that heavy hunk of material off the ground. It's really pretty impressive. And to think one person could sit in a tiny cockpit and control that massive behemoths through the sky is even more mind boggling.


Along with looking at planes, I got to fly one myself, too. A simulation of one, at least. It was the Wright Brother's first craft, which looks kind of like a wooden hang glider. With the help of a volunteer, I laid down on my stomach in the recreation of the plane. Controlling my elevation with a pole in front of me and using my hips to steer the rudder, I watched a screen as the stimulation of my plane slowly took off from the digital ground.

Me in the airplane simulator with the encouraging volunteer by my side.

I did a really good job the first minute or so, leveling out the plane over the prairie in front of me. All that was missing was the wind in my hair and the threat I could actually crash and die. Good thing, because soon I came across a neighborhood ... which didn't go so well. Long story short, I tried to avoid a tree and crashed into the side of a building. Game over for Sarah.

Here I am flying high.

And here I am crashing.

I may not be the best pilot, but I left the museum with a new appreciation of airplanes, as well at the people who design, fly and fix them.