A Walk Through the Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Museum (aka Kalamazoo Air Zoo)

UPDATE 12-3-23: I returned to this museum and shot new video of the aircraft hanger I had missed on my first visit. The resulting video is titled, "A Walk Through the Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Museum (aka Kalamazoo Air Zoo), Part 2".
On my way back home from the several days spend with my Wheelmen club's "Meet" (convention) at the Henry Ford Museum's Greenfield Village and the Old Car Show (see my video on all of that), I had just enough time to stop by the Air Zoo in Portage, Michigan, adjacent to the city of Kalamazoo. This video is my "walk through" of both museum buildings.
I missed a third hanger, one just behind the main one, because there was no signage suggesting that I go through a door, and because two docents in the main one said there was nothing else to see and that I should next go to the remote hanger, which I did. As such, this video does NOT include some WWI and WWII aircraft and some space program related artifacts.

[@JohnnyKiel949]

I enjoy going to the Air Zoo when I visit my dad.

[@usslaca135]

I've heard a lot about Kalamazoo museum, but never actually made it to the museum. Thanks for showing us the place & now I'm glad I didn't waste my time & money on a personal visit. I appreciate you sharing your visit to this museum as well as Greenfield Village - I have been to Greenfield Village & enjoyed it very much. Take care!

[@LINJ638]

How can some moron make this museum catered to families with their stupid ass little kidlets and rugrats???? Makes no sense to me.

[@johnseward9762]

I hope you'll give us a chance. There's more here than you might think.

[@mikecarrington4297]

Very good. Thank you

[@hamshackleton]

OOPS! Two minutes in, and a verbal slip - the Sopwith Camel was WW ONE, not TWO! - - - High wing radial a/c by the no 3 carpark sign looked like a DHC Beaver. - - - just past the fuel bowser and radar tower, not sure what the first one is, although I've seen it before, the twin turbo-prop with three fins is a Grumman Nomad, not sure of the model number, no 3 looks like a MIG, and no 4 is a McDonnell Phantom, one, two and four were ship-borne.

[@johnseward9762]

Twin tailed prop is an OV-1 Mohawk, the others are Grumman S-3 Viking, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis Fishbed, and McDonnell-Douglas F-4E Phantom. The high-winged radial is the MH. 1521 Broussard

[@hamshackleton]

@@johnseward9762 Nothing like a fast reply - and this wasn't a fast reply! 🙂

[@johnseward9762]

Apparently, you did not see everything. There are two wings at the back of the main building for Space and Science, and WWII the entrance to which is right between the P-47 and XP-55. You might have been fooled by the "Exit" sign above the doorway, and I'm sorry about that. There is now a video screen that points the way to the exhibits in back. As for lack of signage, that is being worked on, but we can't address everything at once. You also mentioned that you didn't see the Dauntless undergoing restoration...if you take another look at your video, you will see the Dauntless right next to the F-11F. It was parked there prior to being moved outside for soda blasting to remove the paint. As for the T-34 sign......planes were being moved so the Dauntless could be taken outside. Since it was raining the day you were there, it obviously couldn't go outside. I hope you get a chance to come back, and are able to spend time with a docent, and get your questions answered. And that exhibit of DC Comics heroes was a traveling exhibit that was brought in for the summer. It is gone now. Thanks for coming.

[@youtuuba]

Johnseward, as I noted in this video, and on other comments, I twice reached out to docents in the main building. Once with questions about the identity of aircraft hanging from the ceiling (he had no idea and just passed me on to the other docent, who was useless and seemed lazy and unengaged). The other instance was when I asked where the WWII aircraft were, and said all they have was what I saw, suggesting I go to the second building "where all the best stuff is". Yes, signage is absent and confusing, but you clearly have a problem with your docents being lazy, uninformed, and confused.

[@johnseward9762]

BTW........the aircraft hanging from the ceiling by the Ferris Wheel........a 1/2 size replica of the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny.....above the Biplane ride......the biplane with the rope ladder is the Murphy Renegade Spirit, and the one hanging next to it, is the Don Wolf Boredom Fighter.

[@johnseward9762]

I'm sorry that happened to you. I only work on Saturday mornings. I do hope you'll give us another chance@@youtuuba

[@Bogieking78]

That's the first time I've seen the Heath Kit plane as well. I knew about it, but never saw one up close. Wouldn't that have been great if they had continued along those lines.

[@rails2contrails]

I love your museum videos. If you are ever out that way again, you missed the best part of the museum. You missed about 30 awesome aircraft including a Navy plane they pulled up from Lake Michigan and restored. In the back part of the museum in the main building it has WWI and WWII aircraft. Where the WWI and WWII aircraft are, there are not any rides and is more like a museum. Those aircraft were on the other side of the wall of the aircraft carrier tower.

[@youtuuba]

Rails2contrails, that news really ticks me off. I asked two docents in the main building if there were any more planes outside or somewhere, because it seemed to be just a few odd planes and lots of rides. Neither of them mentioned the 'back room'!!! I was not very impressed with this museum because of the poor signage, the apparent focus on little kids, and lazy, ignorant docents. I have never before seen an aircraft museum run this way. My only consolation is that I have already seen all types of WWI and WWII aircraft many times in other museums.

[@rails2contrails]

@@youtuuba Sorry you had to go through that. I would not have known about the back area either, but one of the volunteers showed me around and let me walk on the wing of the Hellcat to see the cockpit. He also let me get in the Tri-motor. That back area is open to everyone. Next to that, is the space part of the museum. The space part is more for children in my point of view, although they had a couple of interesting items in it. Too bad you got the wrong people. Next time you are in the Detroit area, on the weekend, you should go the the Selfridge Air Museum. It is open Spring to Fall and the staff there are amazing. The best part of it is that you get to walk through a Navy P3 if the right volunteer is there that day.

[@johnseward9762]

Are you sure they were docents? I saw one docent in your video, and he's extremely knowledgeable about our aircraft. He was talking to a couple of other folks, but if you had waited a bit, he'd have given you all the information about the hanging aircraft that you wanted. @@youtuuba

[@amtraktraveler9118]

Any new Amtrak videos?

[@pstonard]

According to Wikipedia "The SR-71 was designed for flight at over Mach 3 with a flight crew of two in tandem cockpits, with the pilot in the forward cockpit and the reconnaissance systems officer operating the surveillance systems and equipment from the rear cockpit, and directing navigation on the mission flight path."

[@youtuuba]

Pstonard, OK, but what does that have to do with THIS video? The SR-71B shown here is a special version, hence the B suffix, and it did not carry the RSO. Instead, the student pilot sat in the front cockpit and the instructor sat in the rear cockpit.

[@LINJ638]

@@youtuuba Ignore the Mr. Know-it-all trolls.

[@pstonard]

48:08 / 54:53 That's a Nike Hercules Surface to Air missile. Cold War defense system before the ICBM era. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Hercules

[@DavidChow-n4x]

It is was surprising great how they designed the museum for family and yet have some historical planes that are not all military planes. Do you know where the name: “Kalamazoo” came from? (Funny name.) I know the Andrew Sisters sang a song with the name Kalamazoo. Take care and Be Safe. God Bless. 🙏

[@johnseward9762]

Yep, we're family oriented. It gets noisy, lol.

[@harryboswell592]

Can you go to the frontier flight museum in Dallas tx

[@youtuuba]

harryboswell, I am not a travel channel or a museum channel. I just video record things of interest that I do anyway, and share them on KZbin. As such, I don't take requests, and I cannot afford to travel some place I would not be otherwise going to, simply to satisfy requests.

[@OneLastHitB4IGo]

Sure has changed since my last visit and I live about a mile from what today looks more like a kiddie carnival than an aerospace and aviation museum. Seems like the personnel could use some training to be able to answer questions.(DEI hires?) Sad that they've turned the place into a circus.

[@dbel7953]

You aren’t wrong. The museum at one point did fly many of their WW2 Grumman Fighters (Wildcat, Hellcat etc). That’s actually how they got the name Air Zoo.

[@codyjames1952]

The last time i was there in 2003 they had one of them would start up and flying at 12:00 pm and i did not see the CAT'S F4-F6-or F7 ?

[@youtuuba]

Codenamed, I read your comment three times and still can't make sense of it.