Oakland Aviation Museum — Attraction in Oakland

Wanted to go to a museum and after a quick search stumbled upon the Oakland Aviation Museum. Upon entering we were greeted immediately by a friendly face and was given a quick overview of what we were going to find. After walking in and getting the rules we found many old planes with information in front of them. There are also old engines, helicopters, and military planes. If you don't read the plaques and information you'll get through this one pretty quickly. Personally, I like to read everything so it took me a bit longer.

Sure the planes, parts, models, and other things are really cool but let me tell you about the gem in this place. His name is Dale. I don't want to give it all away, but Dale knows his stuff. I had a question about the Skywarrior and not only did he answer it for me, he started to tell me more stories and just showed me things and pointed out other things that I merely glanced over. The man is full of knowledge and I really enjoyed talking with him and listening to what he had to say.

For those who want to get into the planes they do have a open cockpit days which are listed on their website. You can bet I'll be back for that!

I went for the planes and left with...

RACIST PEOPLE WORK HERE! I want to give negative rating to this place due to my horrible experience; my family along with couple of my friend's family visited this place few months ago. The museum was almost empty. One of the museum staff gave a tour of the flying boat and requested donation. While coming out my friend's bought about 5 toys from the store and paid for it. I didn't buy any toy and started walking out. The staff in the store came to me and said I see you sneaking out without making any donation. I told him donation is given at will, you cant demand for it. He started using bad (f**k) words and scolding me. I shouted at him saying you cant demand donation. Then he said they will never take any tours for INDIANs; I felt so ashamed and told him he has no rights to talk about all INDIANs. He said he will call the cops. I said I am ready to talk to cops. Then he went back to the museum.

This was a horrible/hurting experience for the whole group of people. I still couldn't digest that he insulted my country and its people. I hope the management of this museum will take some action regarding this feedback and keep these kind of racist jerks/money...

We were impressed with this museum. It’s small but has some very interesting exhibits and is well worth the time. My son particularly liked the F18 VR simulator. Dale gave him preflight instruction and worked him through the whole flight. Well worth the money. There were volunteers willing to answer questions, and they know quite a bit of the history which makes it more interesting. The Jimmy Doolittle room is great. It’s got an excellent model of the USS Hornet. It gives you a sense of how little room the B-25’s had to take off on that raid. I hadn’t realized that Jimmy Doolittle was from Alameda, but I guess that’s one of the reasons the USS Hornet is in Alameda. I particularly liked the A-3. I hadn’t seen one before and this one was in great condition. It’s a beautiful looking plane. The planes are very well maintained. They have an interesting collection of engines, prop and jet. I particularly liked one of the earlier rotary engines from a 30’s mail plane. They have a lounge with some of the coolest chairs I’ve seen. They must be custom, made of airplane aluminum and leather. Too bad they don’t sell them in...