National Air & Space Museum - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

...well have wandered through the National Mall - the grassy area running through the centre of the city. At one end is one of the Smithsonian Museums, the National Air and Space Museum. This museum is part of that. It is however located about 25 miles away, right at the end of the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport.
The museum was built there to house many of the aviation artefacts that couldn't be located in the National Mall ...
...of a number of interlinked buildings/hangars


The Centre was named in honour of its major donor Stephen Udvar-Hazy who apparently donated $60 Million, and was opened in December 2003

*** What is there? ***

Basically anything to do with flying - Aircraft and Spacecraft . For me this is a great interest, as I used to work in the aircraft industry, so I have a bit of a soft spot for aviation related ... more

Those that have been to Washington DC, may well have wandered through the National Mall - the grassy area running through the centre of the city. At one end is one of the Smithsonian Museums, the National Air and Space Museum. This museum is part of that. It is however located about 25 miles away, right at the end of the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport.
The museum was built there to house many of the aviation artefacts that couldn't be located in the National Mall (like a full size Space Shuttle!)
The site comprises of a number of interlinked buildings/hangars

The Centre was named in honour of its major donor Stephen Udvar-Hazy who apparently donated $60 Million, and was opened in December 2003

*** What is there? ***

Basically anything to do with flying - Aircraft and Spacecraft . For me this is a great interest, as I used to work in the aircraft industry, so I have a bit of a soft spot for aviation related subjects.

Now I could go on to list all the aircraft there are in this museum, but I won't, I'll just mention a select few, the same with the spacecraft, and hope you look at the web site to see them all.

I found it a very education trip, there are information boards alongside all the exhibits, so you can read at your leisure. There are also lots of boards with panoramic views from the pilot's seat of most of the aircraft.

*** How do you get there? ***

Driving seems to be the way in the USA, so I drove along Route 28, and basically followed the Brown Tourist signs the museum is located between Chantilly and Dulles Airport.
Once you have found the place just drive into the car park. You have to pay $12 to go in the car park, but the museum is free entry!

*** Walking in ***

Once parked in the very expansive car park, you make your way to the front door. In the middle of the car park, is a kind of obelisk, leading from this is a walkway lined with curved metal plaques, with names of supporters of the museum, and those that have served the US in flight.

Going into the light and airy main entrance, you are greeted by security guards, who search your bags. Once in you look around - straight on is the museum, to the left the shop and coffee shop, to the right the information desk, the IMAX (this is chargeable), and the observation tower.

The first thing I did was go to information, to get a map of the museum, they promptly informed me that if I made my way to the main hanger under the clock, there was a guided tour about to take place. So off I went.
As I made my way to the main hanger - you are 2 floors up, so you look down on the aircraft in the hall, straight in front of you is the space hanger, nothing can prepare you for what you see, a full size Space Shuttle, sitting there looking at you - it was massive! Looking around I could see aircraft from all ages, antiquated pre World War 1 aircraft right through to modern jet fighters, some on the floor, some hanging up from the roof.

So I found the clock, and went to the desk, I was greeted by the tour guide - most of the guides seem to be veteran Vietnam pilots, and all were immaculately dressed in blazer & tie. The guide I had was really informative, he spent time explaining lots of detail about personalities involved with the various aircraft - some of them were "All American Heroes" who As a Brit I would have never heard of!
The one thing that spoilt it was if I had a point, he sort of ignored me, obviously as a Brit I couldn't know anything! Especially when it came to discussing Concorde (they have a French one there)
The guide only took me around the Aircraft part of the museum; he didn't do the space part of the museum, which was fine. As he was a Vietnam Vet, he spent quite a lot of time explaining the aircraft that he used to fly, and how some of his missions went!.

The military aircraft seem to be grouped into eras, so all the WW1 aircraft are together, all the Vietnam aircraft are together and so on.

What I would recommend to anyone going, is to do a guided tour, as you do find out lots of really interesting bits of information, then you can meander around the museum yourself taking it all in. The guided tour took well over an hour and a half.

*** Aircraft ***

The aircraft are all static, no gimmicky moving bits here. You are not allowed to climb on the exhibits either.
The aircraft are on the floor, and hanging from the roof, which is interesting to say the least. There are some 300 aircraft of all shapes and sizes here, from some seriously dodgy looking wooden contraptions right through to the massive SR-71 Blackbird which was one of the cold war spy planes, and I believe the fastest plane in the World.

Some of the 1930's "Golden Age" of flying aircraft were very impressive to say the least, all polished aluminium.

So onto the World War 2 Aircraft, it seems that most of the captured German aircraft, bristling with cutting edge technology for the time had been give to the US during the war, by the British! Imagine if we had kept the technology we had found, we could be the dominant technological force in the world - oh well! They even had a Hurricane!
The one aircraft that really makes you really think deeply is the B29 Enola Gay - this was the aircraft that dropped the first Atomic Bomb over Japan! Not everybody's cup of tea I know, but it is an impressive looking aircraft. One point is that this aircraft has lots of high glass panels around it, as in the past people have defaced it with paint, and blood! As a kind of protest I guess. You could see the tour guides chest expand with pride as he relayed the story of this mission to me!

Look out too for all the display cases situated close to the aircraft, lots of fantastic curios - like the parachute one pilot had made for the Lion cub he used to have fly with him (the Lion is now stuffed and in the archives!)
Remember as you are going round to look up, at one end of the hanger they have solar powered aircraft, and "man powered" aircraft, they all looked a bit too flimsy for me!

As a technical type of bloke, I really liked looking at the engines (there are lots of different engines dotted around the place), I just like the way things work.

*** Space Craft ***

The USA is synonymous with the Space race, and everything is here from Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, right through to the latest satellites. You could spend the best part of the day looking at this area in its own right. The centrepiece of this area, and rightly so is the Space Shuttle Enterprise - this shuttle has never been in space, but it was used in the original testing for the shuttle program - it was flown up to the heavens on top of a 747, and let go to glide down to its landing strip.

Around the edge are various space related items, capsules, suits etc. When you look at some of the first space capsules that were used to orbit the Earth, such as Gemini, you really start to realise how brave these astronauts really are.

Another very interesting thing (for me anyway) were the Ground Control consoles that were used for the space missions - cutting edge at the time (and top secret!), but it still looks like something out of an old Sean Connery James Bond film!

They even had the original space craft model that was used for the movie Close Encounters - I think the model makers had fun with that!

*** Observation Tower ***

One of the attractions is a "control tower" you access this from an area close to the entrance. A guide takes you up in the lift to the top, here you have commanding views over Dulles International Airport, now Dulles has 2 parallel runways for take off, and 2 for landing. The museum is located directly between 2 of the runways, so you can stand there watching aircraft take off or land, depending which way they are using the runway.
The next level down is a simulated control room, so they have recorded air traffic control messages, and a recorded radar screen. There are lots of information screens, giving you lots of facts about how air travel works.

*** IMAX ***

I didn't go in the IMAX - there is a charge of $8.50 for each of the presentations, these change form time to time, so best check out the web site for more information.

*** Facilities ***

Water fountains are plentiful around the museum, as are the toilets (which are very clean). The temperature of all buildings was maintained at a comfortable level, I could walk around in a shirt (there was a blizzard outside at the time!)

The ever present McDonalds are the on site caterers, needless to say I didn't go for the burger! There is a McCafe which is a McDonalds coffee shop, they sell a range of drinks and sticky cakes, pricing was quite reasonable 2 coffees and 2 cakes came to $7 The seated café area has a massive plate glass window, which you look out over the car park. The main thing to watch here is you are looking across one of the flight paths, so you can sit and have your coffee watching aircraft take off or land (depending on the weather) The whole eating area was immaculately clean.

The shop has a vast range of books and toys - obviously all flight related. I didn't buy anything but looking at the pricing, most was reasonable, and what you expect to pay at an attraction such as this.

*** Details ***

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Chantilly, Virginia
Address:
14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway
Chantilly, Virginia 20151
Hours:
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
Open every day except December 25.
Admission: Free
Parking:
Yes, public parking is $12. Limited free bus parking. Annual parking passes are available.
Security Screening:
All visitors screened upon entry. Certain items are prohibited. Basically the security guards have a look through your bags.

*** Web Site ***

http://www.nasm.si.edu/udvarhazy/

If you are planning to visit, the web site should be your first port of call, full of fantastic information, you can download various maps and self guided tours, certainly worth spending some time browsing.

*** Disabled ***

The whole museum is totally suited to disabled/infirm visitors, there are lifts going between all levels, there are also ramps between the different levels.

*** Warning ***

Time your visit well, I went on a snowy Wednesday in March 2007, and the whole place was fairly empty. I suspect that you can get vast numbers visiting (they had over 1 million visitors within the first year of opening!), so be prepared for that. Also I noticed that they did have a couple of school parties moving around.

*** One word of surprise. ***
The security guards who wandered around the building all carried firearms, now I guess this is America, but it did seem strange to me to have fully tooled up guards mooching about, maybe it was the fact that it was near the airport. They all seemed friendly enough though.

*** In Summary ***

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable trip, I spent about 4 hours there, but could have spent much more time poking around.
It was really interesting to see how the development of aircraft has changed over the years. In the space area, you look at all the missiles and think what a waste of money, all that equipment developed to destroy people and places! You also suddenly start to realise the size of things, when we fly we go from an air conditioned lounge across a covered walkway straight into the aircraft, at this museum, you are walking on the ground looking up at them.

Another thing you can do, is go to the web site, and download of self guided tour of the museum - I didn't do this, but maybe when I go back I will.

They are proposing to expand the facility with areas for restoration and conservation.

Thanks for reading this, and if you do get over to that part of the USA, I can't recommend this museum highly enough. Leave yourself at least half a day to go round.

Larry
 

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