This VS-44A Flying Boat is on exhibit at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Conn. Among the largest aircraft of the mid-20th century, it was designed to take off and land on water, since few runways could accommodate it.

Next Sunday might be the ideal time to discover one of our region’s best-kept secrets, the New England Air Museum near Hartford. It’s a leafy drive, and the foliage should be at or near peak by then. And next Sunday is “Open Cockpit Day” at the museum, when kids of all ages can climb into approximately 10 aircraft from the World War II era or later and play pilot. — Ed.

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — It was called a flying boat, and it was able to stay airborne for nearly 5,000 miles, a record for its era. It was enormous, with a 124-foot wingspan and a gross weight of 57,000 pounds, yet it could fly at more than 200 miles per hour.

Among the largest aircraft of the mid-20th century, the Sikorsky VS-44A flying boat Excambian is on display at the New England Air Museum, one of the most extensive collections of aviation memorabilia on the East Coast.

The Excambian was designed to take off and land on water, since few runways could accommodate it. It carried passengers round trip from New York to Ireland, offering luxuries such as full-length beds. And it is the only commercial trans-oceanic American-built flying boat still in existence.

Among the museum’s other holdings: an 1870 Silas Brooks hot-air balloon basket, which is the oldest surviving American aircraft; a K-28 Navy blimp from World War II; an F-100 Super Sabre, the world’s first mass-production supersonic fighter; a Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter, mighty enough to lift a small house; and early jet fighters such as Lockheed’s Shooting Star and F-94 Starfire.

Yet despite this impressive lineup, “a lot of people don’t know we’re here,” said Michael P. Speciale, executive director of the museum, which draws about 65,000 visitors a year to its site at Bradley International Airport.

“We’re a world-class aviation museum in a somewhat remote spot,” Speciale added. “If we were in a highly traveled tourist area, I think our attendance would probably quadruple.”

The Excambian, built in 1941, dominates one of the museum’s three exhibition hangars, which house more than 75 aircraft (including balloons, gliders, helicopters, and jets), 200 aircraft engines, and an assortment of aviation paraphernalia including ejection seats, optical devices, and navigation instruments.

Historical displays tell the stories of the Flying Tigers, the nickname for the American Volunteer Group pilots who fought with the Chinese against the Japanese in World War II; the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the first women to fly American military aircraft; the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first black military pilots; and other aviation pioneers.

Hands-on and interactive exhibits include a flight simulator, open cockpits, and audiovisual kiosks that teach, for example, the principles of flight. A research library boasts roughly 65,000 periodicals, 18,000 books, and 3,000 technical manuals. One hangar serves as a repair shop for aging aircraft, which are painstakingly restored for display.

The private, nonprofit museum grew out of an aeronautical history organization formed in 1959. Founded primarily as a study group, it quickly began receiving aviation artifacts that had often been stored for decades in private homes and garages. In the early 1960s, the organization created a museum to display these relics. Many of the museum’s founders previously worked for several of the aviation companies located in Connecticut, including Hamilton Sundstrand (formerly Hamilton Standard), Pratt & Whitney, and Sikorsky.

Its collection, which spans three centuries, includes ballooning equipment that dates to the 1800s. After all, “aircraft are more than just airplanes,” said Speciale. “They’re also gliders and helicopters and even balloons, because that’s where aviation started.”

Some of the early aircraft look fragile and delicate. Indeed, it was critical they be lightweight because early engines produced little power. For instance, the 1909 French-designed Bleriot, the oldest airplane on display, looks like a souped-up hang glider.

Others are hulking and bulky, thanks to the development of high-horsepower, air-cooled engines, which enabled all-metal airplanes to stay aloft loaded with cargo and passengers. A case in point: the B-29 Superfortress, the biggest and heaviest bomber of World War II.

The museum keeps changing.

“Part of the appeal here,” Speciale said, “is that people enjoy being able to look at things up close, so our goal is to have more exhibits that actually engage the visitor.”