The other day we went on a field trip to the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame. It was a great place to learn some of the history of aviation in New Jersey. I had no idea that our state played such an important role in the history of aviation. One of the things I learned is that the only two astronauts to be related to one another come from New Jersey. They are identical twins, Scott and Mark Kelly. Many of you have heard of Mark because of the horrible shooting incident involving his wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Mark just recently returned to earth after commanding the space shuttle Endeavor on it's final voyage into space where he was able to visit with his twin brother Scott who is the commander of the International Space Station. They grew up in West Orange, New Jersey.After watching a short video about aviation history in New Jersey, we took a short tour of the museum.
Of course we had to get a picture of Buzz Aldrin who is one of my son's favorite astronauts. He is from Montclair, New Jersey. They had a whole room filled with plaques like this one honoring astronauts and aviators from New Jersey.
There was a nice display about Women in Aviation.
And a real airplane to go in.
After the tour, the kids broke up in to teams where they designed and built a glider. Then they went outside to see which team's glider would travel the furthest.
Dakota's team came in second place.This was a great tour full of history and science. How can learning be any more fun than this?
