Planes

Long Islands aviation and space museum on the old Mitchel Field, with more than seventy aircraft and spacecraft including a genuine Apollo Lunar Module built on Long Island by Grumman. Kids climb into cockpits, work flight simulators and walk under fighters hung from the ceiling. A dome theater runs space and nature films. The Junior Jet Club area is aimed at the under-sixes with soft play and toy planes. Combine it with the childrens museum next door for a full indoor day.

A big hangar at Dallas Love Field packed with more than thirty aircraft and spacecraft that kids can walk right up to. The Apollo 7 command module is the headline piece and it still stops adults in their tracks. Cockpit sections you can climb into, flight simulators, and a dedicated childrens area with building toys keep younger kids busy while the plane-obsessed ones read every placard. Because it sits at the edge of an active airport you can watch real jets take off from the parking lot. Two hours is about right unless you have a serious aviation kid.

Two working seaplane hangars on Ford Island that still carry bullet holes from December 7, 1941, filled with restored aircraft from that day forward. Kids see a Japanese Zero, a B-25 bomber and Cold War jets up close, plus a restoration shop where volunteers work on planes in view. Flight simulators let older kids fly a mission and are usually an extra ticket. The setting does most of the work here because you are standing inside the actual buildings. Reached by shuttle bus from the Pearl Harbor visitor center.