Santa Maria Museum of Flight at 3015 Airpark Drive, Santa Maria, California.

The main building was the backdrop for the Disney movie the Rocketeer and there are many movie relics in there. Plenty to see and grab your attention. Our guide, Bob, was very informative. A mural of women in flight’s contributions over the last century was well done. It’s outside in a garden, so be sure to look for it. Bombers, helicopters and lots of history make this a good stop for an hour. The young kids liked sitting in the training mini-planes and trying to “fly”. There is also a large scale model of the rocket-launch exterior used at Vandenburg...in fact it was to build the real thing that brought Bob to the Santa Maria area. When the Challenger tragedy happened, they shut down the project.