USS Midway Museum

Overview of This Historical Naval Craft

The USS Midway Museum is situated at the Navy Pier in downtown San Diego, California. It is a historical naval aircraft carrier museum that houses the famous aircraft carrier, Midway. The USS Midway Museum is a ship that contains an extensive collection of aircraft and a lot of these aircraft were built in Southern California.

This historic aircraft carrier was the longest serving carrier of the twentieth century in the United States (from 1945 to 1992). The carrier is well known for several humanitarian missions and naval aviation breakthrough and about two hundred thousand sailors have served aboard this ship.

The USS Midway was the only aircraft carrier that served during the entire period of the Cold War and even after the war. But now it is currently a museum ship.

It was opened on the 7th day of June in 2004 as a museum and because of their role in history, it easily became a popular tourist attraction. Their number of visitors every year was over one million by 2012 and by 2015, it became the most popular naval warship museum in the United States.

Unique and Beautiful Venue For Many San Diego Events

Over 700 events are hosted by the USS Midway Museum every year and it has more than 13,000 members. Also, every year, about 5000 children are hosted by the museum in its overnight program and about 50,000 students are hosted on field trips.

The admissions offered by the museum include a self-guided audio tour of about 60 places in the ship, narrated by former Midway Sailors. The tour covers the engine room, sleeping quarters, pilots’ ready rooms, galley, brig, officers quarters, post office, foc’s’le, bridge, primary flight control, and “officers country”. There are also other features to enjoy in the USS Midway Museum some of which include a narrated audio tour for youngsters, climb-aboard aircraft and cockpits, flight simulators and videos.

Apart from private events, the USS Midway Museum in San Diego County Seat has also hosted many other events.

There’s the NCAA basketball game between San Diego State University and Syracuse University that was nationally broadcasted, hosted in 2012. The San Diego International Film Festival and the GI Film Festival have scheduled screenings at the Midway. The popular show, “American Idol” has also filmed an episode on the USS Midway Museum. Other channels that have also filmed on Midway include FOX News, the Travel Channel, History Channel, The Bachelor, Discovery Channel, Extreme Makeover, and Military Channel.

The USS Midway Museum in Seat of San Diego County provides a different aspect of the ship to explore everywhere you look. There’s an amazing collection of jet fighters faithfully restored on the flight deck of the ship as well as bombers and attack helicopters. On the ship, you are given an incredulous glimpse of the process of taking off and also landing on an aircraft carrier and this glimpse is possible with the use of the Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System which also shows you how pilots are guided to safety in the process. Visitors are also allowed to go inside the bridge and precisely see where the admirals commanded the ship.