Reviews of South Dakota Air and Space Museum (Tourist Attraction)

Charles C

Amazing. The planes that they have displayed are great. The staff is great as well.

ben horn

Really fun to be up close and to see all the airplanes! My 3 kids had a great time! You also can't beat free!

Orrin Weyrauch

Nice place, clean, FREE. Thanks to all veterans who served and still serving.

Donna Leiendecker

The missile silo tour was awsome. Our tour guide, Steve, was the best. He was knowledgeable, informative and all with a sense of humor thrown in. A 2 hour tour felt like 15 min I was captivated whole time.

Anthony Katosh

Great place to check out if you have small kids or love aviation

The Flatbed Chick

Great stop if you're in the area. Planes are in great shape. Wish I had time to take the solo tour, maybe next time.....

Kathi Bosilovatz

Such a great way to see these planes close up.

Debra Benton

This was awesome. We purchased the tour and that was the coolest tour ever. Must have physically ability to go up and down stairs. Not a good tour for super young kids but school age and up awesome.

Betsy

Interesting historical museum. Kids love the training cockpit and gift shop.

Ryan Massey

Awesome museum with a fantastic selection of aircraft and military memorabilia! Totally recommend a visit if you’re in the area!

Casey McCarty

Nice free attraction with a parklet of historic planes and missiles with descriptive plaques. Inside is gift shop and some exhibits. Near the AF base.

Jim C.

For an AF vet, this is an amazing place to spend some time. They have interactive activities too! We loved it.

Beverly Hoeftman

They have some aircraft you can't see many other places, like a B-52 & a B1B. It's only a few miles from the interstate & can be toured in less than two hours. The vast majority of the aircraft are outdoors, so check the weather & plan accordingly.

Paula Brooks

Got a personal tour from a retired air force service member. Outstanding! A must when in Rapid City, SD area.

Ashley Lehman

Love being able to get up close to the planes! Easy to get around! Clean!

Jessica Backman

I loved to see the planes and liked the base!

Alyssa Ehrat

Awesome and free activity for the whole family! My husband and our 2 year old son are obsessed with airplanes and they loved every second of it. The planes are mostly outdoors and the museum is indoors...the whole event can take 30 min to 2 …

Tyler Altenburger

We had some time to kill before our flight and was able to spend an hour here. Very cool place! I highly recommend allowing for more time and looking into it before hand. While there, we found out there were tours of a local Titan missile silo. The museum it self is free but the tours you have to pay for but seem worth it! Lots of cool local air and space history.

Ron Eikenberry

Fantastic display of Americas best flying machines! Makes me proud

Tonia

The air planes are outside to view before you walk around inside! I like how you can get close to the planes and see them. In fact, some planes you can see underneath them as well. My kids really enjoyed going and learning about the military. When you walk around inside you can really get the feel of the history!!

QueenMaster C

Everything was mostly outside. Cool display. It’s nice to stop and visit if you’re nearby but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it.

Jesse Ryan

Very cool place. I'd recommend stoping by and checking this place out

Daniel Hoey

Wonderful walk through, well laid out. Very much worth your time.

Joel H

Excellent collection, well presented. Lots of aircraft and informative exhibits. I was pleasantly surprised with the scope of the collection. I also liked the fact that it is easy to find.

marco rocha rocky

So nice

Witold Kepinski

Rapid City is home to Ellsworth Air Force Base… ✈️

george robertson

Great displays, tons of information, and completely free! Do yourself, and your kids and go visit, very cool place

Ghost Marine 2023

It is an AMAZING!! attraction for the family and for those enthusiasts this place is a 10/10 no doubt.

Avery

Amazing museum! Found planes and helicopters here. If you are into aircraft related stuff, this is your place to see!

Grant Grabert

Great stop with many aircraft to view. None have security fencing so you can walk under and touch the planes.

Jrod K

Amazing stop for kids of all ages. Kids will love to run around and touch massive airplanes whereas older generations might love the history involved in the decades of airplanes shown. Fantastic museum and free!

Shelly Wingate

Air and space museum. Is a wonderful place to take the whole family. If you get the chance to visit please do so.

John Guy

A small place, but had several interesting planes there.

Sue Pruski

Top notch displays, informative. Impressive amount of American fire power. MAGA.

Lacy Arnold

It was pretty good for being a free museum. Didn't get inside but the planes outside were awesome. They have a B-52 which was awesome to see.

Melissa Hatch

Free. Easy walk through. Lots of information. Very family friendly.

Camille Alden

Very good museum, most complete planes and jets are outside surrounding the building. Gave me a sense oh calm and awe.

Shreddin Hood

Very informative and a great place to kill time while waiting for flights.

John Mills

Nice museum. They did a nice job of explaining the history behind every plane that they have. It's not as big of a collection as the museum in Dayton, or the SAC museum in Omaha, but if you are in the Rapid City area, it's definitely worth the time.

Chris Lang

Good free exhibit. It’s nice to walk around without being hassled and at your own pace.

Jessica

Fun for all ages and educational for sure.

Lorraine Mantz

This was a pleasent surprise. The tour guide was well informed and worth the price of the tour.

Josiah Flint

Great tour and guide. Very Good price. Lots of info for history plane or military interest.

Rita Huffman

Learned a lot. People are friendly.

Mykal Barker

The guide was very nice and fun. He made everything seem interesting!

Luke Nervig

A very good quality museum with a lot to look at. A great many planes outside of different types. Fighters, reconnaissance, bombers, electronic warfare and more. Rockets too! The B1 cockpit display is very cool. I enjoyed the outside displays a lot as I was free to walk all around the airplanes and get up close for detail photos. If you are in or passing through Rapid City and you like planes, I highly recommend a visit here.

LeAnne Baker

Great place to learn about the area, and the military presence in it.

Sheldon Bauer

Very interesting things to read about. There was a pilot named Clyde Ice and among many things he was a flight instructor. The interesting part is how he was the flight instructor for other aviators that went on to do something significant in aviation. He is mentioned in a few other bios and in the video that is shared there. Plus they got cool planes.

Hanoch Raviv

Nice museum to learn about us Air Force history including few videos inside

Tyler Karns

So cool. I can't believe it's free!

Jerry Stordahl

Just a great place . A lot see

Kurt Leiendecker

Great museum. Reccomend the tour.

Darrin Devine

Large number of planes outdoors and a couple inside. Inside has a good amount of informational displays. Very great experience and free!!!!

Karen Wright

To see all the planes ✈️ they are absolutely beautiful. Plus you can read about them.

William

Nice place to visit and it's free.

Chase_Rocks_101

It’s a pretty place. Also it’s really nice that it’s right next to an Air Force Base

Bob Snyder

Was awesome to visit and see all the old retired aircrafts

Gary Simmons

Loved it. Also took the tour of the Ellsworth AFB and Minuteman Missile Silo. Our guide was so knowledgeable as he is a veteran of the AF and missle technician.

James Davis

The only thing I see that they have are the aircraft outside. Not much on the inside. Good thing it is free. Not a bad place to take your small kids.

Charles Drumm

Love the planes outside and the displays inside.

Anne Simmons

Loved being able to get up close to the airplanes and seeing the memorabilia inside and outside (self guided). The bus tour onto the airbase to tour the inside of a minuteman missile silo was the best. Our tour guide was very pleasant and extremely knowledgeable on the history of the missile program. You could tell he himself lived and served his country. Thank you so much!

Christopher Smith

Awesome place to take your loved ones. History of planes, satellites, helicopters, rockets and more. Great Museum! Awesome Displays! Great History! Thanks!!!!

David H

A variety of war eras. Would have enjoyed the outside display except for the rain. Very well kept displays. Donation only! Have fun.

Madisun Izzard

Amazing amount of information, and our guide was a retired servicemen. There are exhibits I never even expected to see, and to be able to walk next to so many planes and be able to understand the sheer size of them better was awesome. I can’t wait to take my son when he gets older.

Gwen Clemenson

You should do the tours. You can see the silo that a missile is in. Then when you get back to the building you can see the launch facility. And see all different types of jets that they used in the army.

Grand Pa Mike

Small ok museum. Not a lot here. Tour of missle silo was closed that day.

Brian Molthen

Worth a visit if you're in the area. Check to make sure the bus tour is running prior to visiting if you want to see the decommissioned missile silo. Nice little gift shop.

Shell Walker

The history alone is worth the trip. The air planes are just amazing and the museum has so much to see. The gift shop has something for everyone.

Brian Speck

We had a most enjoyable free admission visit to this venue. The exterior display aircraft park is most interesting and with the info placards for each piece informative. We spent about 45 minutes roaming the display park. It was really great to see a B-1, B-52, B-29, B-25 & C-47 up close in a static display. While we were there the Dakota was getting a power wash and the UH-1 Huey was being masked off in preparation for a new paint job.

Colleen Dunford

Enjoyed looking at the planes & seeing history of SD AF

Jim Anderson

Freaking awesome and fre.. cold war was the most intense!

Thomas Stanfill

Very cool museum with many aircraft on display. Would go back again.

Sam Taylor

This place hadn't changed a bit from when I was a kid and my dad took me here. Now being the parent with my son, it's amazing to walk through and show him what my dad showed me. The planes are pretty sweet and it definitely a good place to take an afternoon.

Bryan Habeck

Good exhibits. The missile silo tour is 2 hours long. Need to be prepared.

Paul Elder

This place is a hidden gem. Some of the finest status aircraft anywhere. Finest artifacts anywhere and a chance to visit and enter a minute man II rocket silo. Your was full of history

Bonnie Wenners

The outside display was fantastic. Easy access on cement walkways. A little far out of Rapid City. Most stores and restaurants in area shut down. Pizza Hut nearby. Inside the museum the staff were incredible and they let me carry my small dog around the displays. The movie about the WASPS narrated by a former woman pilot was good. Reminded you how far we have come in the 21st century. Empower women! Clean building, grounds and restrooms. Great gift shop. Reasonable admission.

Cathy Kerwin

Great experience! Very well done and informative.

Ritesh Shrestha

A must go place. They have various aircrafts on display. Pretty Cool

Steven Swift

Great static displays of all sorts of aircraft including the B-1B. Lots of history inside the museum.

Dan Kent

Very informative and fun. Can't believe it is free.

Alejandro Santana

While there with my family a B1 took off. Very nice place for people that love history and war birds in general.

T Spenman

A lot to look at. A lot of history. Really nice staff. Souveniers way over priced. Make sure you leave a donation I noticed a lot of people didn't. I'd definitely return if im ever going through this part of the country again.

Devin Beder

Very cool planes and missles on the outside and alot of historical information on the inside.

mike offerman

An awesome little museum with a good variety of usaf aircraft from WWII through current. Also a neat display about early high-altitude balloon flights which were launched near Rapid City. No admission charge.

Michael Anderson

Always love to stop here. Great history lesson.

Scott Sprenger

Very educational for all ages. Museum is well put together. Great job to all who put this piece of history together.

Mark Spoelhof

Just happened upon this museum while staying in Rapid City. It was a nice way to spend a few hours before we went to Rushmore. It was free to tour around the plans, and we payed for the Minuteman silo. The Guides “material” could have been better rehearsed, but the location was really interesting.

Theresa Mariman

Very cool if you're into this kind of stuff.

Faceless Goddess

There is so much to see and so much amazing history!

Christopher Coyle

Lots of great planes on display with informative placards. Inside museum has many good exhibits.

Jeff Walk

Amazing, a lot off history. A must see when going through Rapid City SD.

Ben Percy

Awesome place to visit and it's free. B-52 sitting outside.v

Mitzi Miland

So interesting. Amazing how big the planes are.

D Johnson

I really like this place. It is free and there is a lot of planes to look at. The museum is nice too. There are some cockpits to sit in which is fun for the kids. Had a great time here.

mike fox

There’s a lot of educational value here, you can learn many things about the old airplanes and missiles! I totally recommend taking your kids here!

Alex Wallace

Fantastic aircraft, great displays, hard to believe it is all for free.

Steven Long

Great stop, outside the Air Base so no problem there. They had a lot of planes and a lot of good info inside. It is worth stopping for, a great hot or rainy day adventure.

Terry Trigge

Well displayed and cared for aircraft seeing a vast majority of the aircraft are displayed outside. Kudos to the staff and volunteers.

Alex_Rocks_101

If you love "air and space", come here. I spent a little over two hours here. Boy, there is a lot to see. Outside is a large arsenal of airplanes and rockets with plaques containing information about the aircraft on rocket. Inside is a gift shop. Personally, I loved and purchased a Saturn V rocket pencil sharpener. There are accessible bathrooms. To the left and right of the gift shop are the rest of the museum. Lots of information. I loved it here and would definitely recommend coming if you have one to two hours and want to make good use out of it!

Phil Grenier

This place is incredible. The displays are great. It was just amazing to me to walk under a B52. It's huge! The inside museum is pretty cool, too. They have a tour is a missile site; unfortunately we didn't have the time to take it. If you are a military aircraft buff (WWII up) it is definitely worth a trip. Did I mention free admission?

Daniel Rogers

Lots of interesting things to look at.

Jason Murgas

Lots to see!! Great place to visit

Alex Pellegrineschi

Very cool museum with a lot airplane to see. Personally I really liked the B 29, but all planes are interesting. The exhibition inside are very informative, I particularly enjoyed the video talking about the Women Auxiliary Service Pilots program during WW2.

Cody Adamson

Awesome. Could spend an entire day here.

Eliza

Really fun place, a lot of interesting things to read and learn about, my younger siblings (9 and 6) thought it was very fun.

Jason Stapert

Amazing place...took us two days to see and do it all. Stick around to see/ hear/ feel a B-1 take off or land

Jason kenzieq Bishop

What an incredible assortment of memorabilia. The planes were incredible and the info inside was great.

Land Shark

B1 bomber is unusual to see at a air museum. Very nice facilities with both indoor and outdoor displays.

Derrick Radtke

We stopped here as a spur of the moment stop on our recent trip. So glad we did. Nice to be able to get an up close and personal view of the aircraft.

ruth weiland

Planes outside were awesome. Inside museum was very nice also.

Jennifer Deshaw

Very interesting site. Mostly local history about Ellsworth AFB but good stuff about the minutemen also. Inside is A LOT bigger than it looks from the outside.

Daniel Bry

Great place to go if you wanna see some of the militaries bombers and fighters. As well as some other treats.

Casey Fuhrmann

Great place for military or history buffs. Great outside area for kids to run around. Huge variety of planes. Best of all it's free!

bill sylvis

Small place but has a lot to see and good information and free

Tara O'Brien

Absolutely loved it!! Lots to see and learn about if you love history. My 11 year old nephew actually got involved.

cebuttn 10

Excellent display of aircraft used over the years at Ellsworth AFB. Also museum and gift shop. Located adjacent to the Air Force Base. We were lucky enough to see B1 bomber taking off while we were there.

John Johnson

Informative engaging and historical good use of time and money

Akamax

Large variety of aircraft outside with informative plaques and exhibits inside featuring satellite tech, missiles, history of AF service men and women. All absolutely free!

Michael Wallace

Excellent selection of airplanes and jets. Would highly recommend it.

Tomas B

This place is a hidden gem. Its pretty extensive and very well done. Our family of 5 thought we would be spending no more than an hour and treated it as a 'drive by' on our way out of Rapid City going East. Our stay lasted closer to 2 hours and could have gone on longer if our plans provided for it. If you are remotely interested in air & space science, and military history (the US Air Force's involvement in the Cold War), you will LOVE THIS PLACE. (Its also opened 7-days a week. We stopped by on an early Sunday morning - go figure.) Oh yeah, AND ITS FREE!

Bethany B.

This place is amazing!! Such neat history! They have so many old aircraft! Inside is a great display of historical events! A must see if you are in the area... and it’s FREE!!!

Wyatt Gunzel

This truly was an inspiring expierience. Ask about the F16 fighter jet simulation that they have open on special occasions. Its well worth it, they let you fly in the real cockpit of a F16 fighter jet that was in active use and was later turned into a simulator.

Rick Joyner

Over 20 planes from WWII through the Cold War. Good displays with history of each plane. Also missels and even a helicopter. Definitely stop by and plan on spending time at the exhibits.

Michael Hoffman

Smallish museum with a few indoor displays and several aircraft outside. Hey, it's free

John Stark

Free! The kids enjoyed seeing all the planes like me. Not too far from Rapid City so it is an easy things to do if your looking for something to do. The inside exhibits are informative with a lot of history about the minute missiles and the base. We didn't have time to take the tour which does cost some money. Be careful walking near some of the aircraft wheels... I got surprised by birds nesting inside.

David LaValley

Great museum! Could of spend days here

Ashleigh VanBoening

Great little museum, awesome that it's free!

Chad Harter

We are probably harsh on the star rating simply because we have seen more air museums over the past 3 years than most people. We give it 4 stars when compared to the Air Force Museum in Dayton OH and as 2 people fortunate enough to tour Delta 1. This is a GREAT museum... not quite the level of those other two... but well worth the time.

Kristen Oaks

Nothing needs to be said. Great museum!

Robert Geissman

Small but well done.

Lynne Cole

Excellent signage and enlightenment by the docents. Well worth the time. Spent 1 hour inside and about 35 minutes with the outdoor exhibits. We enjoyed it immensely.

Joseph Bryan

One of the airplanes took off and stole my Nintendo DSi. They aren't supposed to do that! Good exhibits and interesting information made up for that blunder.

Sky Ortiz

They got some pretty cool stuff and a decent amount of aircraft that you can walk up to. It's a nice way to spend a couple hours with the family

Craig Holstedt

Very good displays and lots of information both inside and out.

Jonathon Austin

This a great place to stop on a trip to the Hills. With plenty of planes and an remarkable amount of history. Make sure to bring your camera.

Danielle Hansen

The tour guide could have been better but the concept of the tour was fun. Kid enjoyed going on the air base and seeing all the planes the museum had.

Tyler Williams

Great place to explore the marvels and the evolution of U.S military missile systems and aerospace defense. They also had different types of jet engines and a flight simulator. 10/10

Terence McKenna

Too cool, I want to go back! Keep up the good work!

Lissa Kelley

Excellent outside display of airplanes. Indoor museum was interesting. It was free.

Scott Newby

Very cool. It's free, so worth a tour to check out and honor those that served/serve.

Nicholas Dendanto

Very visual and love the information and depth in details provided on its history and purpose.

James Frye

This is a lot larger then you'd think. You'll need two hours to really see everything long enough to give it justice.

Matteo Stucchi

Quite practical while on your way from or to Mount Rushmore. Nice for once to visit an outside plane exibit! And it is free! And you get to see B1 flying by aswell if you’re lucky!

Jeremy Zorkocy

Nice Museum, took about an hour. Nice gift shop.

Kendel Hofer

This was a really great stop the kids loved every second.

Donna McCullough

Loved to learn so much. This was an eye opener. We took the tour also and that was also very educational.

Dustin Hansen

Great place to take our boys! They loved being able to see the planes up close. The indoor museum had a gift shop with great prices and even a couple plane cockpits the kids could crawl in! Best of all, it is completely #free!

Kathy Baldwin

Really cool but I forgot my licence so no bus tour. But the rest was great!