Having lived in Connecticut for 10 years while working at Pratt & Whitney, you would have thought I would have been to this museum before. I hadn't though.

http://www.neam.org/default.asp

I had yesterday off so I finally decided to go. I am really glad I finally went. It has a lot of airplanes (both commercial and military) that I have never seen (either at Smithsonian or the Boeing Air and Space). It has a fully restored B29 Bomber and a B25 (identical to the one Doolittle used on his famous Tokyo Raid. It really is put together in a great way to show you the history of aviation as well as how planes fly. There were lots of computers to show you the engineering / physics behind Aviation as well as Flight Simulators. We overheard 1 parent trying to explain to his son how engines work. It was too detailed and I offered him a 3 word explanation "Suck, Squeeze, Blow" while pointing out different parts on the engine display. Which is exactly how an engine works and both quickly understood. There was a lot of activities for kids of all ages to get them interested in planes.

The museum is located directly behind Bradley airport and is worth a stop for anybody interested in planes. This location probably results in it being overlooked being out in a very rural part of CT north of Hartford but it is a great museum.

Admission is $10 with a an exta $3 fee for the audio portion of the self-guided tour. I felt it was well worth the time and money that we spent. We were there for around 3 hours and could have spent longer. There is an outside display area that we skipped due to the rain. But we will go back as there are some nice planes out there to see.