Flanked by seven other aircraft, a Grumman F-11 hangs suspended in a shallow dive over the main entrance to Cradle of Aviation Museum’s four-story glass atrium. Three viewing levels on wraparound balconies afford views of the aircraft that only fellow pilots in close formation ever saw when it was in service. The 150,000-square foot facility’s eight exhibits galleries grant similarly intimate glimpses of more than 75 air and space craft that trace the historic path of Long Island’s aviation contributions since 1870. Those artifacts include Charles Lindbergh's first plane, a WWI Jenny, one of the oldest planes in the country, a 1909 Bleriot, a 1928 Ryan NYP, one of two surviving sister ships to Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, and our Lunar Module that was scheduled to go to the Moon on Apollo 19 before the program was canceled.

As part of the museum's Countdown to Apollo at 50 celebration, patrons can explore an exciting new exhibit, Space: A Journey to Our Future. This enthralling, totally immersive exhibit takes you from the dawn of man’s earliest visions of space exploration to the heroic achievements of the past, the unfolding discoveries of today, and the frontiers of the universe that lie ahead. Over in the JetBlue Sky Theater Planetarium and the National Geographic Dome Theater, the immersive screen brings to life subjects such as the award winning Backyard Wilderness, a film that teaches us that "WiFi is not the only connection that matters."