Air Pavilion

More than 15 metres overhead, high up in a translucent airship in the rafters of Magna, is the Air Pavilion. This giant suspended ‘Zeppelin’ is home to an array of exciting, hands-on, air-themed activities.  In the Air Pavilion, visitors can create stunning patterns with air cannons, feel the force of wind and watch a tornado collapse and rebuild. Witness a selection of humorous and disastrous attempts at early flight and explore how sound is made.

• We can’t see it, smell it or taste it.
• There’s 5,200 million, million tonnes of it surrounding the Earth.
• We need it to breathe.
• This is the story of air. How it creates forces, motion and sounds.

All the exhibits provide hands-on learning, links to steelmaking and consider the impact humans have made.

The Four Pavilions

The steel industry of South Yorkshire has its roots in Roman times when iron was made from rocks extracted from the EARTH locally. FIRE was used to smelt the iron ore. AIR was used to aid combustion. Later the rivers provided WATER for cooling and powering machinery and the steel industry grew to dominate the area.

These four themes of AIR, EARTH, FIRE and WATER are the inspiration for Magna’s interactive pavilions.