New exhibit at Museum of Idaho will showcase interactive flight experiences
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IDAHO FALLS — Walk into the newest exhibit at the Museum of Idaho, and you will be immersed in aviation and feel as if you are in a futuristic landscape.
The exhibit is called “Above and Beyond,” and it opens on Saturday, June 1, in Idaho Falls. It “explores the science of flight and celebrates the transformative force of innovation in turning dreams into reality.”
It’s dubbed as the ultimate interactive flight exhibit.
“I think one thing that sets this exhibit apart from others that we have had in the past is just the level of interactivity. Just about everything that you can see in here, is something that you can interact with specifically,” said Jeff Carr, the museum’s executive director.
There are about 20 different interactive experiences throughout the exhibit, he said. There are buttons to push, videos to watch, and planes to fly with a joystick. It’s fun for both children and adults.
“You can try to fly in a V formation like a bird, you can explore what it might look like to prepare yourself to go on a trip to Mars or to even fly a jet,” said Chloe Doucette, the museum’s managing director.
She said it took about two weeks to set up the new exhibit.
“We always have exhibits come in on semi-trucks. This exhibit came in on about five semi-trucks and it all got unloaded,” she said.
A version of Above and Beyond is also currently on display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in southern California.
“Above and Beyond entails a little bit of everything about the science of flight. So I mean, even from birds onto aviation and spacecraft,” Carr added.
The exhibit pairs with the Museum of Idaho-curated local exhibit, “Idaho Takes Flight,” which showcases the stories of local innovators who have impacted the aviation industry.
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“We just put it up about a month ago, and it’s a wonderful look at sort of the past of aviation, especially right here in Idaho, and then you see Above and Beyond, which is all about the future, and so you get this past and future,” Carr said.
This is the 40th exhibit at the Museum of Idaho. The museum typically hosts two world-class traveling exhibits per year. Above and Beyond was created by Evergreen Exhibitions and is presented by Boeing and Aero Mark, Inc.
It will be on display until Jan. 5. If you are interested in tickets to the museum, click here.
