Washington DC -Part 6--American's Hanger

MY DISCLAIMER--I have a lot of airplane pictures in this blog.  I did not expect to be so excited by this museum, but I was.  Just ignore anything you are not interested in, or ignore this blog altogether,  If you do like airplanes, hope you enjoy.


Friday, 11/27/15 - Tom and I are off to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - America's Hanger, and the 2nd Air and Space Museum.  It opened in December of 2003 (which was the 100th anniversary of the Wright flight).  It is located just Southeast of Dulles Airport, about 35 miles from DC downtown.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

We had no idea how large it was and really thought it would take us two days to get through it.  Wrong again.  It is large - over 760,000 square feet.  It is comprised of 3 hangers and houses over 300 machines (airplanes, space modules, helicopters, kites, missiles, and even the Space Shuttle Discovery), but it is so well organized, it is easy to see in one day.

We were greeted at the Welcome Center by a docent (I thought he was a retired military man).  He handed us a map and reviewed the high points in the museum.  He clearly loved his job.  We headed down the main hanger.

The first section was Pre-1920.  Here we saw the Langly Aerodrome, which was launched from a houseboat on the Potomac in October of 1903 (2 months prior to the Wright flight), and he crashed. He crashed again December 8th (9 days prior to the Wrights).   Nice try, but no cigar.

Aerodrome

Here is the French Caudron G4 which was primarily used for reconnaissance during WWI.

French Caudron

And here is a reproduction of the Wright Flyer (12/17/1903).

Repro of the Wright Flyer (the original is in the DC Museum)

The next section was WWII planes.  The star of the show was clearly the Boeing B-29 Superfortress-- the 'Enola Gay', which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  It was rebuilt in the Restoration Hanger (#3 hanger) here - it took over 300,000 man hours to put it back together and make it look like it does today (the stainless steel plating was hand polished and waxed).

Enola Gay

Enola Gay Cockpit

 Here is a Lockheed P-38,one of the most successful twin engine fighters ever flown by any nation.

P38 Lightning

Here is the Northrop P61, also known as the Black Widow.  It was designed to locate and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in bad weather, a feat made possible by on-board radar.

P61 Black Widow

Here is the German Donier DO, which was the fastest piston engine aircraft ever built.  It had a push-pull propeller arrangement.

German Donier DO

Not to leave out any Japanese planes, here is the Ohka (Cherry Blossom) Model 22, commonly called the  kamikaze plane.  Over 5000 Japanese pilots were lost flying these planes.

Japanese Ohka (Kamikaze plane)

  Here is the Grumman Hellcat, a Navy fighter plane, that actually flew on the USS Hornet during WWII.

Hellcat

Here is the flying wing, built by Northop, this N-1M was a true flying wing.  While its flying characteristics were marginal, the N-1M led to other designs, including the B-2 stealth bomber.

Two more planes which were very important during WWII were the Tiger P40 and the Corsair.

Tiger P40

Corsair

 And last, but least, Dad's model plane, the P-51 Mustang. 

The next large section was General Aviation, Commercial Aviation, and Sport Aviation.  Here we have the Junkers Ju (German), the most successful European airliner of the 30's, and later used as a transport plane by the Germans during WWII.

German Junkers Ju

This is the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first airliner with a pressurized fuselage.  It carried 33 passengers at 20,000 feet in comfort. They called it the Clipper Flying Cloud.

Boeing 307 Clipper Flying Cloud

Here is the P-51 Mustang Excalibur III.  On May 29, 1951 it flew from Norway across the North Pole to Alaska in a record-setting 10.5 hours.

P51 Mustang Excalibur III

Here is the Concorde, the first supersonic airliner to enter service.  It flew thousands of passengers over the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound for over 25 years (2 views).

French Concorde

View from the top of the Concorde

 And now, the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, a long range plane.  It flew in March of 2005 around the world in 2 days 19 hours at a flight speed of 590 mph.  It set the absolute world record for the fastest nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation.

Virgin Atlantic Long Distance Plane

The next section was Korean and Vietnam Wars. and the Cold War. t
Korean War:  Here are two opposing planes - on the left is the North Korean MIG 15 and on the right is the North American F86 Sabre jet.

Korean MIG and North American F86

Here is the Lockheed Shooting Star.

Shooting Star (I thought it was beautiful)

Vietnam War: Here is the Thunderchief, complete with missiles.

Thunderchief

 This is the Huey helicopter.  This helicopter came into its limelight during the Korean War, but was retrofitted for the Vietnam War, and was the main rescue helicopter .It became an indelible symbol of the conflict.

Huey Helicopter

Cold War: Here is the fighter call the Tomcat, used in the movie 'Top Gun", manufactured from 1969 to 1991 and remained in service until 2006.

'Top Gun' fighter

And last, but by no mean least, is the Blackbird -the Lockheed SR-71.  No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world's fastest jet-propelled aircraft.  In 1990 this plane flew from Los Angeles to Washington DC in 1 hour, 4 minutes, setting an air speed record averaging 2124 mph.  It can reach a high speed of mach 3.3 (over 3 times the speed of sound).r

Blackbird

Top of the Blackbird (from the second level)

 And this picture is my favorite picture of all - The Smiling Blackbird.  They had lights on under the plane, and from the front, it actually looked like it was smiling.

The Smiling Blackbird

That is it for the main hanger.

Next, we visited the McDonnell Space Hanger, which houses the space shuttle Discovery.  It performed 39 missions into space  (almost 150 million miles) and was brought here without any restoration.  In my pictures you can see the burnt heat tiles and marks from re-entry.  It is spectacular.

Discovery (from the entrance to the hanger)

Burnt tiles

Right side of the Discovery

Left side of the Discovery

If you notice the ceiling on my previous shot of the shuttle, you will see what I called 'umbrellas'.  They were actually tracking and data satellites put in orbit for communication to the shuttle.

Communication satellites

Here is a satellite launched by the Russians in 1984,  called the Vega Solar System Probe.  It flew by Venus and dispatched data on atmosphere conditions.

Vega Solar System Probe to Venus

On the left is the Mercury Freedom 7 capsule.  On the right is the model used in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind (made from model kits and miscellaneous other junk.  The museum also has the model of the original Enterprise from Star Trek, but it was out for cleaning.

Mercury Freedom 7

Model used in Close Encounters

Next, we visited the 3rd hanger, the Restoration Hanger. This hanger is large enough to accommodate several aircraft at once.  It provides museum techs with the room and equipment they need to reconstruct, repair, and preserve artifacts.  This is nothing more than an amazing garage. Here are some pictures of the hanger.

Restoration Hanger

Restoring a big plane

Restoring capsules

The last pictures are of Flak Bait, a bomber that flew in WWII.  Notice the bombs painted on the fuselage, and bullet marks on the entire body.  It flew over 130 missions

Restoring Flak Bait

Cabin of Flak Bait

Even though I put too many pictures in this blog, I must have at least 3 times more left out of the blog.  Hope you all enjoyed them.