The San Diego Air and Space Museum occupies the 1935 Ford Building in the southern end of Balboa Park, a streamline moderne structure built for the California Pacific International Exposition that now houses aircraft from the full history of powered flight. The museum's location in San Diego is appropriate: the city was a centre of early aviation manufacturing, and Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis was built in a factory in downtown San Diego before the 1927 transatlantic crossing.
The collection spans from a reproduction Wright Flyer through World War I and II aircraft (the Spitfire and Zero reconstructions are detailed) to the Apollo 9 command module. The Lindbergh connection is well-documented: the Spirit of St. Louis reproduction here is full-scale, and the gallery about the 1927 flight is the museum's strongest narrative space.
The International Air and Space Hall of Fame in the museum's courtyard honours aviators and astronauts with plaques and a hall of busts. The museum is one of the less visited in Balboa Park, meaning it rarely requires waiting or crowd management.