Using Movies to Teach Your Kids about Airplanes

The first step to getting the kids excited and educated in aviation and technology was to watch a lot of movies.  We watched titles like The Final Countdown, Iron Eagle and the Flying Tigers.  On the other side of the technology spectrum, we watched The Hunt for Red October, Run Silent Run Deep and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.   The movies provided kids with the basic concepts of how airplanes fly, airplane systems, aircraft recognition, and again on the other part of the spectrum, how ships and submarines operated in the water giving the kids a broader view of the world around them. 

Watching specific movies before and after visiting a museum or an air show is a big plus in the understanding of what they are going to experience or have just experienced.  Before the Air show, we watched "the Flying Tigers. At the air show we saw a P-40 Warhawk with the Flying Tigers teeth painted on the nose just as we have seen in the movie.  At the Quad Cities Air show we took a tour of a B-17.  When we returned home, we watched "The Memphis Belle" showing the B-17 in action. It was like we were really there.  This way the movie was more than a movie, it was a part of history. 

Before any air show or museum visitation, watching a number of aviation movies can greatly enhance a kids experience.  It gives them a base to place their ideas on.   An air show becomes not only a great experience, it becomes a link to what they have experienced in the movies.