Florida Air Museum - Lakeland
I had an opportunity today to visit the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland. This small museum is located a little over an hour driving time southwest of Disney World in Lakeland Florida.
We spent about 1-1/2 hours in the museum which, from their website, is about the time for a typical visit. There are a number of aircraft displayed outside the museum which are interesting to see. The interior of the museum is, essentially, one large room featuring aircraft on floor level and suspended above. In addition to the aircraft on display, there are propellers and aircraft engines to be viewed. There are some Howard Hughes artifacts such as his office desk. The location also has a small gift shop featuring aircraft related items for sale.
While there is no restaurant on site, there is space outside to sit at benches and eat food you bring with you. Before entering the museum, we went to Hallback's Bar and Grill located in the terminal of the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. Although both the museum and the restaurant abut the airport, the restaurant is on the opposite of the airport so it about a 10-15 minutes drive from the museum. The restaurant overlooks the runways of the airport. The booth in which we were seated also had headphones available so that one could listen to the pilots who fly in and out of this airport. We found the food to be decent.
It was very uncrowded the day we visited but, there are times, when crowds could be an issue. For example, the Fun 'n Sun International Flyin will take place here in April. I'm told that the week of this event brings in 4000 airplanes making it one of the busiest airports that week and that this event is the second largest of its type in the world.
