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canyonwalkerOver the last umpteen years I've flown through Washington-Dulles Airport (IAD) more times than I can remember. Actually I don't have to remember; I have a flight tracking service I use. A quick query there indicates the number is 83. I have flown through IAD 83 times. Anyway, on a good many of those trips I have driven VA highway 28 south from the airport entrance and passed exit signs for an oddly named attraction seemingly in the middle of nowhere: The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the National Air and Space Museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Links: Udvar-Hazy Center at Smithsonian Institution; Udvar-Hazy Center on Wikipedia.
Most of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution are in downtown Washington, DC, arrayed along the National Mall. There they share frontage with the US Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument. This annex was built out in farm country, or at least what used to be bordering on farm country when it opened in 2004, because the National Air and Space Museum downtown had always had way more artifacts than it could exhibit.
Finally this past week, after years of meaning to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center, Hawk and I did visit.
The building is shaped like a large hangar. This is appropriate to the nature of its content: dozens of aircraft and spacecraft from the WWI era up through the 21st century. Among the notable craft are the Enola Gay, a Concorde jet, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the Space Shuttle Discovery.
When I visited the main building of the National Air and Space Museum several years ago— actually my fourth visit, the first having been as a child of about 9— I pondered whether the museum had become boring. My 11 year old nephew certainly thought it was. Likely so did nearly every other child his age ± a few years there with their faces buried in their portable game machines. I think this museum would impress them more with its real-life aircraft standing on right in front of them or hanging overhead suspended on cables. I know it felt special for us, as middle age adults, to stand almost close enough to touch an actual space shuttle.
Most of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution are in downtown Washington, DC, arrayed along the National Mall. There they share frontage with the US Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument. This annex was built out in farm country, or at least what used to be bordering on farm country when it opened in 2004, because the National Air and Space Museum downtown had always had way more artifacts than it could exhibit.
Finally this past week, after years of meaning to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center, Hawk and I did visit.
The building is shaped like a large hangar. This is appropriate to the nature of its content: dozens of aircraft and spacecraft from the WWI era up through the 21st century. Among the notable craft are the Enola Gay, a Concorde jet, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the Space Shuttle Discovery.
When I visited the main building of the National Air and Space Museum several years ago— actually my fourth visit, the first having been as a child of about 9— I pondered whether the museum had become boring. My 11 year old nephew certainly thought it was. Likely so did nearly every other child his age ± a few years there with their faces buried in their portable game machines. I think this museum would impress them more with its real-life aircraft standing on right in front of them or hanging overhead suspended on cables. I know it felt special for us, as middle age adults, to stand almost close enough to touch an actual space shuttle.
