North of Seoul, the KAU Aerospace Museum is a nice look at the progress made in airplanes and space vehicles. Since most of the museum is in Korean, come for the sights, not the descriptions.

A recent JoongAng Daily story listed a few things to do north of Seoul’s border along the new Gyeongui line – and an Aerospace Museum near Seoul certainly sounded interesting. That it’s also at Korea Aerospace University gives you a chance to see a college campus, or so I thought:

Uh, yeah, not so much – this campus is seriously in the middle of nowhere. That’s good, when you remember this is an aerospace university – you probably don’t want any planes crashing in the middle of a populated city. The barbed wire to the right guards the runway, while the university just to the left.

Pay 2,500 won (about $2 USD) to get in, then begin walking through two floors of exhibits, signs and various technology. The overarching theme is airplanes, space exploration, and the like, although it tends to jump around a bit. Above is a brief display of the history of flight.

So this is how landing gears are tested – put it together behind a piece of heavy-duty plastic, then wire up a button that anyone can push to watch it come out or retract.

An astronaut’s suit, carefully protectedby a glass case.

As with quite a few places my girlfriend and I have visited in Korea, English is in short supply. Why copy-editors give an English title and nothing else, I’ll never know. The pictures were somewhat helpful – and you could look at it as a chance to practice your Korean, were you taking lessons.

Start your engines!

A fuller-scale model of a older airplane. The wall had plenty of smaller models, and I’m sure all the aerospace geeks out there would be able to identify many of the models shown.

Naturally, no museum dedicated to air and space would be complete without a working model of the Enterprise of Star Trek fame.

I knew that each mission had their own patch; I had no idea how cool some of them looked.

Korea’s own home-grown airlines – they’ve changed names a few times.

Some different propellers used over time.

Unsure if this would be a design FAIL or just a design flaw. When one makes a timeline going right to left, you might want to make sure you leave room for future history…

Not pictured were a couple wonderful exhibits difficult to photograph – a couple 3D rooms, one showing a plane taking off and the other showing a Mars landing. Also not pictured were a couple flight simulators available to try – while nothing a dedicated gamer couldn’t replicate, it was still a nice touch.

After leaving the museum, we took a look at the outdoor exhibits:

The F-5, also known as the Freedom Fighter.

The FA-200-180 – since the sign is entirely in Korean (not pictured), I can only guess at the text. At least there’s plenty of stats.

The T-41B – not the fastest at 290 km/h or longest at 7.92 meters, but I’m sure it got the job done.

The Aerospace Museum is worth a visit, I guess. While it doesn’t earn a place on my ‘most interesting’ list, it does have a number of sights you’re unlikely to see elsewhere in the Seoul area.

Directions to KAU Aerospace Museum: take the Gyeongui line to the Hwajeon station. Go out the only exit, then turn right, and right again to the underpass. After emerging from the other side, turn right towards the only buildings in sight, then left to walk on the main road. Look left for the Aerospace Museum – it’s the building just before the planes. Admission costs 2,500 won for adults, 2,000 won for children, and is open from 10am to 5pm.