Another Air and Space Museum

June 25th, 2008

This is the piece of art that greets you as you enter the museum.

Well I have offcially completed my tour of the Smithsonian museums (well my first visists anyways.....there are a few I will make a second trip to). I made my way out to Chantily Virginia to visit the Air and Space Museum Udvar Center. It basically is a giant hanger that is filled with old planes. Not as much to read as the other one but lots to see. They say the Air and Space museum all the Mall in Washington actually only holds about 10% of the museums articles even though it gets the most foot traffic. Chantily is only about 45 minutes down the road so it was a quick trip (it seems everything is a quick trip from here). As with all the other Smithsonian museums, admission is free, however you do have to pay $12 for parking, which almost seems expensive now that I have been to so many free museums.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of thinngs that I saw and enjoyed.

Looking into the museum from the top of the stair case.

Although it looks like an air traffic control tower, it is actually part of the museum.

This is the Blackbird, a reconnaissance aircraft. It logged over 2,800 hours of flight times over 24 years. On its last flight on March 6, 1990, it set a speed record, flying from Los Angeles to Washington DC in 1 hour and 4 minutes. It made its final landing at Dulles International Airport and then was turned over to the Smithsonian Institute.

This is the Enola Gay. It flew advance weather reconnaissance in the second world war. It actually did the weather reconnaissance before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The big white plane is one of the original concordes. When they were in service they could cross the Atlantic in less than 4 hours. Of course they cost too much and eventually went out of service but Air France agreed to donate one of the aircrafts to the Smithsonian when it was retired.

A replica of the space ship. I think it is made of foam blocks or something like that but looks pretty real...until you get real close. It really is as big as it looks though.

This is a Huey most well known for thier service record in Vietnam. They originally went into service during the Korean War.

A view of the air traffic control tower at Dulles International Airport from the fake air traffic control tower at the museum. It really did offer a great view from up there.

The outside of the museum from the fake air traffic control tower.

I found a couple things amusing as I was looking at the planes. All over the planes and helicopters there are warnings and instructions , like "don't step here" and "pull here to open". Here are a couple that I really liked.

This was on the front of a helicopter. And yes the press to unlock is amusing but so is the fire fight instructions.

Below is the warning on this one.

Potentially problematic considering its intended purpose.

Julie