Washington DC-Part 5 - Air and Space Museum

Wednesday, 11/25/15 - Tom and I went to the Air and Space Museum in DC.  In 1946, Congress authorized the establishment of the National Air Museum, but it took 30 years to actually get built.  It opened in 1976. It is a large building (3 city blocks long) and was an immediate hit.  It soon became the most-visited museum in DC, hosting 8 million people per year.  Just one problem, where to you put a large aircraft such as the space shuttle inside the building?  In 1984, the Smithsonian Institute submitted its first request for authorization to build a second facility to house larger aircraft.  It only took 19 years to get it built and opened, and it was largely built with private donations, as Congress said there would be no construction funds from the government.  The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center was opened in December of 2003, 100 years after the first flight by the Wright Brothers in December of 1903.  Today, the National Air and Space Museum is located in two sites, one in downtown DC and the other near Dulles Airport (about 40 miles away).

I plan on printing all of my pictures and making a book, as I can only put a few pictures in this blog. Dad - You would love these two museums, and I am looking forward to showing you all of it.

When you enter the DC museum, you are greeted by a large three story open room, with planes hanging from the ceiling, and parts of large plans stuck to the walls, and some setting on the floor.  The display is named "Milestones in Flight".   It takes several moments to grasp all that is in the first room, but there are a few stand-outs, and I hope I picked the best for this blog.

First, in front left, is the Spirit of St. Louis, flown by Charles Lindbergh from New York to Paris.

The Spirit of St. Louis

 It isn't a very big plane, and it looks to be very uncomfortable, but it did make the trip and made history in the process.   Next is the docking of a U.S. space capsule docking with a Russian space capsule (the first joint effort).

US and Russia docking

On the ceiling in the back is the X-1, known as Glamorous Glennis.  This small plane was launched from the belly of a B-29.  It broke the sound barrier on 10/14/47, piloted by Chuck Yeager.

Glamorous Glennis X-1

On the floor is the Apollo 11 capsule Columbia, and the Lunar Module.  It took the first men to the moon, manned by Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and 'Buzz' Aldrin.  The historic moon steps were made on 7/21/69.

Lunar Module

Apollo 11--Columbia

I still remember that day, as one of my cousins got married that day  ('Hi'  to Steve), and we were all parked around the TV set watching Neil Armstrong make his historic steps down the Lunar Module during the reception at his wife's mother's house.















These were just the beginning.  Next we went to "Early Flight".  We saw many models of the beginning of the airplane age, but all failed.  I wondered where Orville and Wilbur's 1903 Flyer was - not here.  Here is the oldest thing I saw--a small wooden carving of a bird, called the Sakkara Object.  It was found in an unearthed tomb in 1898, and dated back to 200 B.C.  This is a copy - the original is held in the Egyptian National Museum.

Bird of 200 B.C. 

More pictures of other rooms:

Rockets and Boosters

America by Air

Tommyhawk Missile

Here are some photos of Skylab, the first orbiting space station by the U.S.  Tom worked on this project for McDonnell Douglas in Houston 1970-1974.

Story of Skylab

Skylab inside

Skylab (from the second floor)

At Last, we found the Wright Flyer on the second floor, along with their bicycle shop and a Curtis motorcycle.

1903 Wright Flyer

Actual rebuilt 1903 Wright Flyer

Curtis Motorcycle

It seems that the more I talk about these museums, the more pictures I put in the blog.  It is very hard to pick one or two when there is so much to see.  Tomorrow we will stay back at the RV and have our Marie Calendars' Turkey Dinner, and cherry pie.  Friday, we plan on going to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center for the big planes.