moffett field historical society museum

To bad this Naval Air Station was shut down due to " budget" cuts but the history of this station and photo's and some aircraft makes it an interesting place to visit. I always remember seeing in the 60's, 70's,80's, and early 90's the Navy P-3 Orion sub hunter planes departing for Patrols out to the Pacific and returning as a squadron to land. Alway's cool to see.

I had no idea, but after a trip to the Moffett Field Historical Museum, I do now. This museum is not large, but they have a lot of military history there. I enjoyed myself thoroughly looking over the displays and artifacts. When you visit, make sure to ask one of the volunteers there about the "ghost ship". They kept asking me if I had any questions and when I did, they were happy to answer and provide all the information they could on the subject. I came away with a lot of information on things I never even knew existed. I am glad I stopped in. You will need ID to get into the gate and it's a short trip back by the museum. It is right across the street from the blimp hangar. I highly recommend stopping by.

This place is amazing, especially the early photos of actor Jimmy Stewart when he as a skinny Aviation Cadet during WW-II. Not many people know that he was Bomber Pilot during that war. The museum contains much Military history that should be seen, especially about the history of the Blimps based there. Next to the museum are one of the WW-II Blimp hangars now stripped of it's covering. It is scheduled to be recovered, and the huge hangar to be used for business purposes by Google. Imagine that?

Went here after a rather disappointing visit to the NASA Ames visitor centre, and found a little gem. The museum is in the base and you need ID to get in. It contains a vast and eclectically sorted collection of objects largely relating to the air base, naval aviation and lighter than air flight, but encompassing many other things too. We found many of the exhibits very interesting and our boys enjoyed sitting in the Harrier cockpit, but it was the volunteers who made itAs I understand it this museum is largely run and curated by these fine folk, many of whom were navy/navy aviators themselves. The great skill they have is personalising the exhibits with memories and several of them held us all entranced for double the hour we had intended to spend there. Great and thank you. Definitely worth a visit if passing and to also admire the vast lattice structure that is all that remains of the airship hanger next door.

This nice little museum is full of artifacts from the early days of Moffett Field. What makes it so great are the docents. We had a former Marine pilot. His knowledge and experience made our visit a delight. There is a fee and you need at least an hour and a half to explore old photos, newspaper clippings, uniforms, flight suites, etc.

Took my work team to MFHSM today, and we were all in awe of how outstanding the museum and tour were; the memorabilia was very interesting , but the stories and history lesson we were given by one of the docents was first class - including inputs and photos of himself - linked to the stories he was telling - we all appreciated it so much, and went nearly 2 hours when we only expected one; what a great walk through history - something millions drive by yearly - and never stop to understand what's behind it!!!! Thanks Frenchie!!!!

Anyone driving on Highway 101 through Mountain View can easily see a huge steel superstructure rising on the edge of a vast, decommissioned air field. The superstructure is Hangar One, a former dirigible hangar, and Moffet Field was an operational airfield that was home to the US Army Air Corps, Navy and more from 1933 through its decommissioning in 1994. At that point, it was turned over to the NASA Ames Research Center. There is still a military presence at Moffet Field, so all visitors to the Historical Society Museum must pass through a checkpoint and show a photo ID. On the short drive to the museum, the erector set-like Hangar One looms larger and larger, until you park in its shadow and are truly dwarfed by its enormity. Although its skin has been removed, it is still imposing, one of the largest unsupported structures in the country. Its floor space covers the area of seven football fields and its curved roof rises nearly 200 feet into the sky. It was constructed in 1931 as the hangar for the U.S.S. Macon, one of the largest dirigibles ever built. That dirigible was so huge that it barely cleared the hangar doors. In comparison, three of today's Goodyear blimps could fit inside Hangar One, according to the docent who spoke with us during our visit. The museum itself is absolutely chock-full of artifacts, photos and memorabilia depicting the history of flight in the U.S. generally and at Moffet Field in particular. If you have time--and I highly recommend you take the time--be sure to have one of the museum's highly knowledgeable docents show you through. Most of the docents are retired military men with amazing in-depth knowledge of everything in the museum and will point out things about the exhibits that you would never get just by walking through yourself. On our visit, we had a docent to ourselves and he was a walking encyclopedia who told wonderfully exciting and sometimes quirky stories about all the photos and artifacts.Outside in back of the museum there is a cockpit of a P-3 Orion plane. When we were there, a retired military pilot was inside and he was explaining all the switches and dials. Kids would love this, as they can sit right in the pilot or co-pilot chairs of this real military plane. My husband and I are by no means aficionados of airplanes nor very knowledgeable about flight, but we were both fascinated by this little museum. We only had about an hour to spend there, but at that we only covered about half of the museum. We could have easily spent two hours with the docent we had, and anyone with a real passion for this topic could probably spend even longer here.