The James S. McDonnell Prologue Room in St. Louis, Missouri tells this panoramic story of more than eight decades of aviation progress, from biplanes to space travel. Scale models, dioramas, paintings and photographs depict such important events as the first flight around the world in 1924, the first take-off of a jet fighter from a U.S. Navy carrier in 1946, the first aircraft to land at the South Pole in 1956, and the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Earth in 1962.
James S. McDonnell Prologue Room
Boeing-St. Louis headquarters Building 100
100 Airport Road
St. Louis
Missouri 63135
www.boeing.com/company/tours/prologue-room.page
+1 (314) 232-6896
June, July and August
- Monday – Friday 09:00 – 16:00
- Closed weekends & July 4
Free admission
From HWY 70:
Exit Hwy 170 North, exit Airport Road; turn left onto Airport Road. Turn right at third signal light into Main Entrance. The Prologue Room is in Bldg 100.
From HWY 270:
Exit Hwy 170 South; exit Airport Road; turn right onto Airport Road. Turn right at second signal light into Main Entrance. The Prologue Room is in Bldg 100.
From Lindbergh Blvd:
Turn east on McDonnell Blvd; turn left onto Airport Road. Turn left at first signal light into Main Entrance. The Prologue Room is in Bldg 100
Collection
| Gemini Capsule (replica)
Mercury Capsules |
The Prologue Room portrays more than a century of aviation progress through the innovative airplanes and spacecraft the men and women of Boeing and its heritage companies built.
Visitors can view large-scale models of the F-15E Strike Eagle, F/A-18 Super Hornet, AH-64D Apache and T-7A Red Hawk. An unmanned display features an operational ScanEagle and a scale model of the MQ-25 Stingray.
Wind-tunnel-size models include Boeing’s newest 787 Dreamliner, C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, a U.S. Navy Blue Angel and Air Force One.
Displays of rockets and missiles include full-scale models of a Harpoon radar-guided missile, a JDAM smart weapon and a Small Diameter Bomb.
At the exhibit’s center are full-size engineering mockups of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft that carried America’s first astronauts into space. Also on display are models of the Space Shuttle, Skylab and the International Space Station.