San Diego’s many outstanding attractions include USS Midway Museum — a floating metropolis home to 30 aircraft, exhibits and more. Decommissioned on April 11, 1992, USS Midway became a museum in summer 2004. Interactive audio and guided tours through exhibits include the Flight Deck, Hangar Deck, Below Deck and Aircraft Gallery.

Visitors can take a tour break at Battle of Midway Immersive Theater and enjoy onboard activities that include flight simulators, overnight adventures, and “catapult and trap talks” that explain how aircraft landed and took off from the runways. Talks happen daily on the Flight Deck. The museum is located at 910 N. Harbor Drive, and is open Monday–Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

This summer marks the unveiling of Midway’s Engineers: Service, Sacrifice and Everyday Life, a new exhibit exploring the lives and jobs of the ship’s engineers, and also delves into the use of steam power.

In the area designated as “Fire! Fire! Fire!,” visitors can safely come close to the sensation of the devastating effects of a fire at sea. A combination of realistic sounds, lights and other visual effects serve to bring home this life-or-death emergency, when everything is at stake — including the lives of the sailors on board.

USS Midway ranks as the longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20^th century. Now retired, Midway’s role on the world stage included the Cold War, when, in 1946, it became the first U.S. carrier in service during the sub-Arctic midwinter. Later, the ship and her crew made history when a captured German V–2 rocket was launched, participated in combat in 1965 and provided a temporary home to more than 3,000 refugees during the 1975 Operation Frequent Wind.