Moffett Field Historical Society Museum

Great place to explore about history of Naval base, airships, USS Arkon, USS Macon and more. Place is not very big, probably spread across 5 to 6 rooms, but packs lot of great historical content like photos, books, posters, uniform display, cockpits etc. One room was filled with lot of books, for interested visitors to sit down and read. Volunteers were very knowledgeable and helpful, and spent lot of time with young kids in explaining about key facts. We got dog tags for kids for $5 and it was pretty cool. Also make sure to utilize the hourly tour of retired air crafts that are houses in a fenced display outside of the museum. Volunteers give tour every 1 hour. Overall great museum and stress free place

Small exhibition but very interesting about Moffett history, also very nice staff. They are very old, perhaps more than 70 years ago but they are very nice and knowledgeable

Excellent museum at Moffett Field. Be sure to take an ID, because they wont let you on the base. Lots of memorabilia from all branches of the armed forces.

Free museum with support through donations.We arrived quite late and they were going to close soon, but the staff were kind enough to allow us to wander around the place and ask them questions. Especially impressed with the wealth of information that volunteers like Bernie and John provided. The museum itself is not too big but it is packed with interesting parts of history, and volunteers who were directly involved with the Navy.#localguides

The Moffet Field museum was a great place to go to learn about US Naval Air history. I think the Macon exhibit was the coolest because I didnt know much about dirigibles and to see the pictures of planes flying up to the airship and being brought inside was really cool. Diana (one of the museum guides) filled us in on some cool details and made the experience better. There could have been some better directions on how to get the best experience out of the museum so try to ask questions about things you want to see. They closed at 3 the day I went (Saturday) so plan your visit accordingly so you dont feel rushed. Tickets for adults were $8 each.

Went to Wings of Freedom tour this Memorial Day Weekend, and got to see WW2 fighters and bombers, including a B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, and P-51 Mustang. Walked through the bombers, got grease on our fingers, and felt the rumble of engines in our ribcages.We didnt visit the actual museum, this weekend, though we have before and highly recommend it. Just seeing the airship hangers is worth the trip.

A lot of great Moffett history. I have lived around here all my life and have never been here before. It was well worth the visit.

Really nice museum with planes and models and a great history. The staff are amazing and most of them are veterans that have had first hand experience of the history of this airfield. I definitely recommend this place for the people who like wartime history and aeronatiics l. I busted this place after nasa Ames research center Nandi defiantly recommend. The tours are amazing

A small and lovely museum. The volunteers there were helpful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. We had fun with the retired aircrafts and the flying simulator.

It was great. Lots of history volunteers doing their best. I think Google should help out since they are going to bring a lot works to this site.

Fabulous local history museum, rather hidden and with limited opening hours but very much worth the effort. Rather basic presentation but amazing artefacts that detail the rich history of Moffett Field. Dont be put of my the guards at the aerodrome entrances you just need to show photo id to enter..

This is such a gem, lots of info and artefacts that bring the history of moffett field to life. the folks here are absolutely dedicated to sharing the stories behind the displays - special thanks to Jerry who took us on an impromptu tour of the museum. would highly recommend for history and aviation buffs.

Amazing place..must visit ..if you are in Bay area ...have to visit it to relive the moments !

Small but packed with fascinating history. Docents are extremely knowledgeable.

This was a nice museum and I recommend a visit. I learned a lot about the history of the field that I never knew. You need 2-3 hours at least.

These pictures are from a visit from Wings of Freedom tour.

The Moffett Field historical society museum is a small museum run by a dedicated core of volunteers. The volunteers are usually ex-military people or from military oriented families. The museum was well-staffed when I was there. There were many people working on the displays. The displays are a selection of well-rounded memorabilia and some simulator cockpits and actual flight simulators. I think the primary audience for this museum are people who are interested in the United States Navy. There are a large number of uniforms and equipment from various decades. There are a large number of ship and aircraft models. There is also a fairly large library of written material. I did not go outside and see the aircraft that they have on display. The museum staff is also interested in connecting with people who would like to donate their time or historical items.

Great bit of history that is very little known by the general public.

Its great. A walk back in history. The dosens are a little cranky, but nice.

A fascinating musuem with unique history of dirigibles and other naval aviation.#TRAVELFORMORTALS

This is an amazing place filled with historic artifacts relating to the colorful history of Moffett Field. Volunteers (many of whom are retired military personal) are eager to show you around, let you climb into a fighter cockpit, try on original uniform pieces and tell their first person accounts of life on the base. You have to enter the base through the main gate and show ID. To the frustration of the museum staff, some potential visitors have been told at the gate that the museum is closed indefinitely... THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!

Im a first time customer and have enjoyed their display and the aircraft.

Great historical site lots of history, and friendly volunteers answering every question

Its a small museum located at Mountain View. Most of the exhibits are small scale models along with prehistoric books and dress of air field employees. It hardly takes 30 mins to complete the muesem. They have a small visitor center where you can buy some goodies. The entry fees is around 8$ and i feel its not worth visiting.

An excellent facility and worth a look if you have any interest in Naval Aviation or the history of the south SF Bay Area.

The museum is quite small, but it is pleasant to see the aircrafts and especially the gigantic metallic structure outside.Important: you will be cleared by security at entrance.

Great place if you like vintage planes and lots of history. The history of Moffett Field is fascinating. Lots happened there over the past 50 years.

Fascinating museum and history, with some unique local memorabilia. Loved the dirigible displays and stories. Every docent had a unique perspective. Lots of period radio gear, military items, a handful of full size aircraft, and its immediately adjacent to the historic dirigible hangar. Took me about two hours to see everything I was interested in.

The glory days of Moffett Field are gone but the museum preserves aircraft and other artifacts from that era to tell the story. We were particularly fascinated with the model train room. It was created in the post-war period to help military personnel suffering with what we would call PTSD today. That side of history is often neglected.

Location location location. Not the best museum, but wow what a location

So much more to see than I thought! When I went, the place was mostly full with visitors and staff. Worth a visit to the train display in the back room also.

Amazing to visit this iconic centre of aviation history. Great museum with really well informed and friendly guides. The NASA U-2 and Harrier (AV8-B) cockpit were highlights for me. Not to mention the awesome airship hangar. Lets hope its re-clad soon.

Very large museum. Looks small from outside. Well setup. Grandson loved looking at all the old photographs, military uniforms and planes. Very interesting.

Drove down there with a Marine group. Wonderful field trip. Heard an amazing speaker talk about the new space force. Saw some amazing historical war memorabilia and had a nice catered lunch. Well worth the trip. Support our troops whenever you can.

Well I am always interested in seeing the legacy aviators museums because it shows just how difficult they had it back in the day. there is a P3 aircraft that is on a stick in front of the museum or down the street a little bit and I was crew on that aircraft before it became part of museum.

Great little museum. Lots of small artifacts and models and historical photos. Heaps of documentation and photos about the dirigible (blimp). Worth the $8 entry.

A wonderful little gem of American aviation history. Particularly heavy in Naval history.

Lovely little historical museum. Really enjoyed it despite the main NASA Ames Visitor center being closed. The little museum is staffed by a few veterans who give a real cool tour and share their stories. The exhibits are delightful and include military items, old jet simulator, RC blimp model. Super cool. Right outside are some old Jets and also the old blimp hangar. Highly recommend a stop.

This museum tells the story of flight at this airfield, especially airships. The building used was donated to them by NASA and is packed out with historical information, photos, uniforms, equipment; they also have a couple of planes there too. There are quite a few docents on hand to provide information and stories, overwhelmingly these seem to be retired military air personnel and it was obvious they had a lot of fond memories and interesting stories. Google is also now involved at this airbase and so the future here, I guess, is partly in their hands. Visitors should aim for the entrance close to NASA Ames research centre and follow the advice given that you should take photo ID with you. ID is checked when you drive in. Recommended.

Its a fun place to learn about History, it is in kinda in the middle of nowhere tho.

Loved my visit!

It may need a little work, but this is a cool place to visit and learn. Bring cash.

Go Fly hosted an event there. Very good experience

Lovely little museum with interesting stuff. There are a lot of volunteers who can help you. Very interesting, we had a fun!

Nice collection of military aviation artifacts.

I thought it was a great review of how MMoffett Field has been put to good use

A very fascinating museum about Moffett Airfield mostly focusing on blimps/hot air balloons. The museum guides are very informative, and I encourage anyone who goes to engage them, they’re very friendly!

Theres a lot packed into this little museum. Military uniforms and insignias, newspaper clippings, models of airplanes and ships. Very interesting!

Great fun & very efucational facility!A wonderful testament to the rich history of our ever-changing Bay area

This small museum is packed with interesting stuff. I especially enjoyed the uniforms, and photos of dirigibles. There are lots of volunteers who share their knowledge and experiences when they were stationed there. Definitely worth the stop.

I liked the tours NASA gave us of the worlds largest Wind Tunnel...

Lots of interesting history of the base and very knowledgeable docents.

Brought me back to the time I was young and living the life of an air Force brat. Great place. Lots to see and appreciate.

Great museum. Brunswick needs an equivalent. Great work by volunteer staff.

Many of the displays are historic memoranda, which are not very interesting. But there are enough guns and swords to keep a boy interested.

REALLY mad. Came from Tracy,ca to see this place which we used to deliver equipment to and the guard told us they were closed(even though I researched ahead of time and it said open) and so we drove 20 minutes north to another museum and so I called along the way and the lady says they WERE open,but we were already almost to Hillar avaiatiin museum. SO THE GUARDS AT MOFFETT need to get it together! Only one star because of the getting turned around and wasting gas situation. Maybe someday when I’m back out here,I’ll come back.

Great place. Must visit and take the family

Friendly and knowledgable staff!

Impressive to see all that old stuff here. People should care a little more for this location and clean it up.

I went to moffet feild for the wings of freedom air show. Antique airplanes from WW2, from May 17 to 25, (last week in May ) honors memorial day. This place and the event is a little known treasure! I will be back! Space museum, free airplane display, military museum, antique church still in use. And of course the old blimp hangers still standing. It is thiugh, a shame the county has not fixed the damage they did to the main hangar. It is a national monument to the era of derigables. The entire place is facinating look back at our countrys national defense, research, and evolution particularly of flight. And once you see it, you too, will be facinated. It is not expensive to go there. Great for familys or singles. You will wish for it to preserved, and you will be inspired. You wont want to drag yourself away. I guarantee, you will have fun. Everybody I know who went loved it. Go! Go there!

Bernie stayed with us the entire time (over 2.5 hours) giving us the personal tour, which we all truly enjoyed. He was such a knowledgeable legend! Loved every minute. Thank you :)

Learn something new every time I go

A visit to the Moffett Field Museum is an experience down history, with the largest collection of military-related artifacts that have been carefully preserved and cataloged by a dedicated staff of volunteers. You can spend hours and still not see everything. Each piece has a story and an enthusiastic volunteer that is eager to share his/her knowledge of the facts and events that he may have personally lived or observed. The value of the restoration of memorabilia that spans generations will influence future generations that will develop an appreciation to the efforts made by our service men and women. We support a visit to this museum in recognition of the preservation of military culture and for the message that the volunteer staff, who are still around, to tell.

I thought it was interesting, but that might depend on your tastes. Its probably not going to interest everyone.

Went here with my 8-year old daughter. I think she was too young for most of it (and not very interested in war anyway). The volunteers are great however. One played the various sounds that a submarine can hear (shifting ice, whales etc), which was great. I probably have to go back here by myself to check out all the model ships and planes they have.

Wonderful experience! The collection is amazing: educational, beautiful and inspiring. A great way to learn about and experience a great era of US military history. The docents are friendly and knowledgeable and a joy to meet. A gem of a museum.

Theres so much stuff here the museum deserves to be in a larger space

Great experience. Brought some memories back from living on base many years ago. Kids enjoyed it. They loved making their own dog tags too

Lots of cool aviation and memorabilia

Such an enjoyable experience. The docents were so welcoming and proud of their museum, always willing to answer questions, and patient with our little ones. So much history!

It was small but very informative and fun too

Visited some beautifully restored WWII warbirdson the runway!

Wonderful experience for all ages. Where the knowledgeable curators bring the past to life!

A gem of navy aerial history! The volunteers on site will guide through the very rich collection covering the whole navy aerial history. You will be able to seat in an harrier jump jet cockpit as well as a P3 Orion maritime reconnaissance plane. Really worth the visit and do not forget to make a donation :-)

My friend and I went with the kids we take care of. They are all under 3 but love airplanes and have been in museums before and are well-behaved. I called in advance to make sure that it was okay but we got a bit of a snooty cold shoulder from the moment we walked in. They wouldnt let her kids go look at the airplane because they said they had no docents available. There was a docent in the airplane already. The whole point was so that the kids could go see the airplane so we decided to leave. On our way out one of the other ladies that works there came and said to go ahead and go inside with a docent if we wanted to. We ended up spending $16 to spend no more than 30 minutes there and then leaving since the kids couldnt see the other airplanes. we will stick to Hiller Aviation Museum from now on.

A trip back in time. Lots of old timers who have lived through most of what you see. Fascinating place to get a glimpse of not so long ago. There is a picture album of the bombing of Pearl Harbor that is captivating.

Nice space/NASA stuff, a little pricey

Lots to see. Docents very knowledgeable and friendly. Great place to learn about military history of the South Bay.

It is an interesting small museum. What I liked most about it, is that they have people who can tell you stories about what happened there. This gives more lifes to all the things that are on display.

So much history and the people there have lived it. Pretty cool.

They close at 3 so just be aware of that. Getting onto the base requires the driver to show a drivers license. The museum is OK, it has a lot of uniforms, models, medals, pictures and some plane parts. Outside there are a few planes that are cool to look at. Since we arrived near closing time, we did not get up close to the planes. The giant blimp hangar is next to the museum and it is impressive too. Its a nice museum, but you have to be a hardcore military history buff to enjoy it. Kids wont really get into it, and there arent any exhibits geared toward them, so they will quickly get bored.

I was stationed at Moffett in the late 60s. Great fun t I see the base and a few of the planes from back then. A great volunteer service.

Very good collection. Some volunteers are veteran pilots. Keep in mind that it is located in NASA and need to go through security check, photo ID is required to pass the gate.

Fun little place, check it out if youre into vintage military aviation. Didnt know what to expect but the volunteer docents were patient and full of knowledge

This museum is really neat, I didnt realize they had so much cool stuff. Its really worth visiting.

Great museum, great staff. Lots of pictures and models of the old airships that used to be based at Moffett field. A great collection of uniforms and helmets. A couple of cockpits of old fighters. Seeing the hangars closely is also impressive. Definitively worth a visit.

Its a great place to learn a little more about local avionics history, both civilian and military.

Great work by the volunteer staff. Very informative, interesting and information plethoractic. If you go be sure to get a guided tour. The staff bring every object to life with stories.

This is a wonderful museum staffed with extremely knowledgeable docents. They really bring the history alive. We learned so much on our trip here and had a fantastic time!

So much information and kind people. Alot of information to absorb. Great way to spend an afternoon.

Wonderful place for kids and history buffs.

Amazing, informative and a must to visit, history Ive never seen, excellent museum

Moffett Field used to be a navy air base. The museum has some interesting pictures and display. I definitely learned something new. The museum is kind of small.

Neat museum with lots of photos, plane models and history

Lots of great history. I wish there were actual planes.

It is a really interesting place. The history of Moffett Field. Plenty to see for a small place.

Lots of historical stuff, maps, models, uniforms, and pictures. Helpful, well-informed and friendly staff. Well worth entry price.

Have been there twice. Well maintained museum with knowledgeable volunteers.

Great place, LOTS of memorbilia and historical photos. Dedicated staff.

Very nice museum to walk through. Docents/staff are excellent.