Air Museum Attendance?

[AirJimL2]

Just because these question popped into my mind yesterday... We all know the Air and Space Museum has the highest attendance of any aviation museum in the U.S. I would assume that the National Museum of the USAF, Hazy, and Pensacola are next in line probably in that order.

So what would be next? Especially of the private museums?

MoF? San Diego? Pima? I would assume that MoF and San Diego have a much larger tourist draw then Pima simply because of location. I'm sure AirVenture does very well during the convention/show, but I can see it being a huge draw the rest of the year.

Which flying Museum boast the biggest gate revenue? Fantasy of Flight? Again, does the tourist draw play into the figures?

Outside of the national and military museums where do aviation museum attendance figures rank when compared to other museums?

Please note, for clarity sake, I'm only thinking of Air Museums, not technology museums few a few airplanes viz a viz Chicago.

Jim

P.S.: My theory is that as aviation enthusiasts, we overstate the popularity of private aviation museums, especially private military aviation museums. I also think that the Collings Foundation, et al., have made a very savvy choice, determining that barnstorming does more to bring their aircraft to the general public, then having them operate/display out of their home base/museum.

[tulsaboy]

I can only speak for our museum... we have one medium sized hangar with an F-14, Spartan C-2, Lear 24, Bell helicoptor and some other smaller aircraft, along with quite a bit of historic material. We also have a full-dome digital planetarium. Total attendance in 2007 for both facilities combined was approximately 94,000 in Tulsa, OK.

We don't have any flight operations... yet.

kevin

[jamesintucson]

Here are a few I just looked up in the 2008 AAM museum guide.

Museum of Flight, Seattle - 469,000
San Diego Aerospace - 175,000
Planes of Fame - 50,000
CAF - 37,283
USAFM - 1,000,000
Pensacola - 717,649
EAA - 126,342
Pima - 200,000
NASM - 5,023,565

James

[Paul Krumrei]

I am sure that the SAC museum gets a lot too.

[spookythecat]

Here are a few I just looked up in the 2008 AAM museum guide.

Museum of Flight, Seattle - 469,000
San Diego Aerospace - 175,000
Planes of Fame - 50,000
CAF - 37,283
USAFM - 1,000,000
Pensacola - 717,649
EAA - 126,342
Pima - 200,000
NASM - 5,023,565

James

Just based on when I go out there (which is pretty darn often!) i'd say the Museum of Flight is doing pretty well. Almost always a full parking lot as well as into the overflow.

[Jack Cook]

Here are a few I just looked up in the 2008 AAM museum guide.

What are the stats on Tillamook, Olympia & Evergreen?

[jamesintucson]

Here are a few I just looked up in the 2008 AAM museum guide.

What are the stats on Tillamook, Olympia & Evergreen?

Here you go Jack.

Tillamook - 80,000
Olympia - 20,000
Evergreen - 167,500

James

[Obergrafeter]

I just got to say it people......................."I told you so" ; vis a vis the staggering attendance in Midland. Go ahead and rip me, but it won't change the facts.

[Chris]

I don't disagree with you Ober that Midland is not a tourist mecca but are there any attendance figures for when the museum was in Harlingen. If nothing else, the climate in Midland is better for the airframes. Maybe they can move the entire operation in with Cavanaugh.

[RickH]

San Antonio or San Marcos were probably the best choice from an annual attendance standpoint. As far as the climate being better for the airframes, that really only makes a difference to the statics. The rest of the fleet is pretty transient .

But there's really no reason to start beating that dead horse again. He aint gettin' back up.

[k5083]

I would not take all of these AAM numbers as gospel. Some of them look fishy to me.

August

[skymstr02]

I just got to say it people......................."I told you so" ; vis a vis the staggering attendance in Midland. Go ahead and rip me, but it won't change the facts.

And I think that half of those numbers were during Airsho?

[jamesintucson]

I would not take all of these AAM numbers as gospel. Some of them look fishy to me.

August

Is it just the round numbers that you think are fishy? Everything in the book is reported by the institutions so numbers could be inflated a little and some are listed as estimated, some as actual numbers and some it doesn't specify. It also depends on how visitors are counted, do tour groups or school groups get counted individually or is every 80 seat tour bus counted as 80 people even if only 10 get off, do you count all the people who attend a night time contracted event and if you do do you count the number who actually show up or the number booked.

I don't know of a single institution that could give a 100 percent guarantee that their attendance numbers are totally accurate. That having been said I think that these numbers are probably reasonably correct but I would not try to use them as a mesure of whether an institution is succeeding or failing. There are many more factors that go into that kind of calculation that then just the number of people that come through the door.

James