USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum

The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum is a museum ship, located on the southernmost pier of the former Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California, US.

Quick Facts Coordinates, NRHP reference No. ...

Significant dates

USS Hornet (CV-12) (Aircraft Carrier)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
California Historical Landmark

ex-Hornet docked in Alameda
Coordinates	37°46′21.15″N 122°18′10.23″W
NRHP reference No.	91002065
CHL No.	1029^[1]
Added to NRHP	December 4, 1991^[2]
Designated NHL	December 4, 1991^[3]

The museum is composed of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, exhibits from the NASA Apollo Moon exploration missions, and several retired aircraft from the Second World War and the transonic and early supersonic jet propulsion period. A number of compartments contain exhibits concerning contemporary carriers that are supported by related associations. The flight deck, hangar deck, and first deck below are open for self-guided tours. Docent-led tours are available into the ship's navigation and flight deck control areas of the island and down into one of the engineering spaces containing two of the four ship's propulsion turbines.

The exhibits are on and in the USS Hornet itself, a retired aircraft carrier that was launched during WW2 and served in many historic battles such as the Liberation of the Philippines and naval battles in the Pacific. After the war she was used to search for submarines and secure airspace, and had a special role in space exploration, being used to recover returning space capsules in the space race. The ship was decommissioned 1970, and held in storage, but in the 1990s was registered as a historic landmark and made into a museum which opened in 1998.

Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation preserves and honors the legacy of USS Hornet, a national historic landmark,^[4] and its role in naval aviation, the defense of the United States, the Apollo Program, and exploration of space.

Opening ceremony

The USS Hornet Museum officially opened to the public on October 17, 1998. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the principal speaker. Attending dignitaries included Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Honorable Jerry Brown – Mayor-elect of Oakland; Honorable Ralph Appezzatto – Mayor of Alameda; General Richard Hearney – Vice President for Domestic Business Development, Boeing Company; and Rear Admiral Robert Chaplin – Superintendent, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.^[5]

Aircraft on display

Summarize

Perspective

The USS Hornet Museum has many of aircraft on display including propeller aircraft, jet aircraft, and rotorcraft including several Naval helicopters. The aircraft are from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Museum guests can get up-close to the aircraft displayed on the flight deck and on the hangar deck. Aircraft are sometimes moved between decks utilizing the ship's #1 aircraft elevator. Exhibit highlights include:

TBM-3E Avenger – Torpedo bomber from World War II
T-28B Trojan – Military trainer
US-2B Tracker – Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) utility aircraft
FJ-2 Fury – 1950s swept-wing fighter jet
TA-4J Skyhawk – Trainer from the last aggressor squadron, VC-8
F8U-1 Crusader – Vietnam War era supersonic fighter
F-11 Tiger - Late 1950s supersonic fighter (Cockpit only)
S-3B Viking – All-weather, multi-mission, long-range aircraft
F-14A Tomcat – Veteran of the Gulf War
F-4J Phantom II - Vietnam era multirole jet fighter
HUP-1 Retriever - Ship based utility helicopter for search and rescue
SH-2F Seasprite - Shipboard utility helicopter retired in the 1990s.^[6]
SH-3H Sea King - All weather helicopter designed for anti-submarine warfare
UH-34D Seahorse - Vietnam era personnel transport and combat assault helicopter
FM-2 Wildcat - WW2 fighter
F/A-18C Hornet - Modern era multirole attack and jet fighter

Apollo splashdown display

USS Hornet was selected in 1969 to serve as the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) for the Apollo 11 Moon mission. Hornet led the recovery of the first astronauts to land on the Moon following their splashdown back on Earth. Four months later, Hornet recovered the all-Navy crew of Apollo 12. The USS Hornet Museum has the largest Apollo Program exhibit on the West Coast of the United States. Artifacts on display include:

Apollo Command Module CSM-011 used for the AS-202 uncrewed suborbital flight test^[7]
Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) used by the Apollo 14 astronauts following their return to Earth
SH-3H Sea King used in the 1995 movie Apollo 13
Memorabilia and photos from the Apollo 11 and 12 splashdowns

CarrierCon

Hornet also hosts CarrierCon, a fan convention for anime, video game, comic and cosplay fans. In 2023, CarrierCon collaborated with Azur Lane, a mobile game that features anthropomorphic "shipgirls" including Hornet herself, as well as featuring a separate shipgirl called "Hornet Chan" as the mascot of the event.^[8]^[9]^[10] Later that year, Hornet was chosen to host Azur Lane's live event celebrating the 5th anniversary of its English/worldwide release.^[11] In 2025, the con hosted a variety of VTubers, many from VFleet Project, which provided an in-person virtual concret to attendees.^[10]^[12]^[13]