New England Air Museum

Predictions for the New England Air Museum:

• I predict that I'll learn about the evolution of aviation in the US and around the world.
• I predict that I'll learn about Connecticut's place in Aviation history.
• I am also intersted to learn how aviation's role in American history is portrayed and memorialized.

The Visit:
In reflection upon my tour of the NEAM, I'm left thinking more about the museum's presentation of the subject matter than I am the subject matter itself.  The museum has three hangars;  one dedicated to military aircraft, one to civilian aircraft, and one that holds a Boeing B-29 Superfortress.  After purchasing your ticket (no teacher discount but AAA), you enter the military hangar.  You can't help being wowed as you walk in to the iconic Huey, made famous in Vietnam, or sit in the cockpit of an F100.  For me, the WOW! factor of the museum is a cause for concern.  It seems to push the status quo of the military industrial complex and thus does not force it's visitors to think or to question what these machines did or what they were created to do.  In large part the NEAM presents an awesome set of artifacts in a somewhat disorganized fashion, with little interpretation, and little challenge to visitors.  The average visitor could easily leave the museum having seen much but learned little.  This is not to take away from the very thorough and informed docents present throughout the museum and the sections devoted to local WWWII squadrons, and key players in aviation history, from Connecticut, like Sikorsky.  The docents and the exhibits however simply peddle information rather than provoke thought.  In the B-29 hangar for example, visitors enter and see the immensity of the beautifully restored aircraft, with the bright lights shining off it's sleek chrome body, and the detailed nose art that reads "Jack's Hack."  To the museum's credit there is a placard that outlines the B-29's role in the firebombing of Japan late in the War, and notes that 300,000 Japanese civilians died as a result of the American incendiary attacks.  So doing the math, American firebombing caused 300 times more deaths than occurred on September 11th.  Unfortunately, it's the awe inspired by the plane that leads the charge of historical memory at the NEAM, and not the 10 sentences on a the 8x6 placard, or the photo (see below) demonstrating the devistation, which truly highlight the realities of the death machines on hand.

The results of an American firebombing campaign in Japan.