One of the most popular destinations in Washington DC is the Air and Space Museum, and for good reason. The Smithsonian institution uniquely covers one of the coolest pieces of 20th century American history: aviation (in peace and war) and space travel. If you ever visit our nation's capital, and have never been, it should be on your shortlist of locations to see. At the moment it's undergoing long-term renovation (it was dated) so I'm not sure what it looks like in the meantime, but the main building on the Mall isn't actually what I want to elaborate on anyway.
Seemingly every American has heard of the Air and Space Museum, and I'm not introducing many, or any of you, to its existence. But did you know there's another, far larger building that's part of it? It's called the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center (yeah, a mouthful), or more generally the 'Air and Space Annex,' in Chantilly, VA. This is right next to Dulles airport, so it's like 30 minutes outside of DC proper and understandably more difficult for people to get to. Even so it's absolutely worth it.
What makes it so special? Well, the primary Air and Space Museum focuses on exhibits, and while there's still a lot to see in the lobby and central areas, there simply isn't room to include everything they own or anything all that large. The Annex, instead, is a giant hanger filled to the brim with aircraft and spacecraft, in many cases literally stacked on top of one another. Go to the Museum on the Mall to learn, and see a few (very cool!) items. Go to the Annex near Dulles to see a ton of vehicles.
I don't know a ton about aviation, but I do know some history and when we visited in 2019 (good timing in retrospect) I recognized a number of the craft inside. Not only do they have one of the massive B-29 'Superfortress' WWII-era bombers, it's actually the Enola Gay, the craft that dropped 'Little Boy,' the first atomic bomb. There's also a SR-71 'Blackbird,' the game-changing stealth, high-altitude recon plane that set the still unbroken air speed record for manned flight in 1976. Even if it's nowhere near as important historically, I enjoyed seeing a UH-1 'Huey' helicopter up close. These were the ones used in Vietnam and always featured in movies about the war (like, for example, the Ride of the Valkyries). But as cool as it was seeing all that, and everything else packed in there, nothing compared to Discovery.
At the back of the Annex sits Space Shuttle Discovery. It was the third space shuttle built (after Columbia and Challenger, both now gone) and went into space 27 times between 1984 and 2011, spending almost a full year up there in total. During its service life it helped build the International Space Station and carried the Hubble Telescope into orbit. I was awed standing next to this thing, especially considering its size, and couldn't stop thinking about it launching into space and returning only to land on a runway. The heat-resistant paneling that covered the exterior and allowed it to re-enter Earth's atmosphere was one of the more memorable aspects. I'd go here again just to see it.
A few other notes and stats before we're done. The building is 760,000 sq feet, or 17 acres, in area. It exists due to a $65 million donation (by Steven F Udvar-Hazy) in 1999 and first opened in 2003. There are nearly 200 aircraft and spacecraft on display, part of Air and Space Museums largest collection of such vehicles in the world. There's an IMAX theater too, if you're into that.
If you visit you should know it's free to enter but you do have to pay for parking, $15 per vehicle. So load up in as few cars as possible is my advice and, if possible, go during the week. It's likely a busy place on the weekends.
That's enough for today. The Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center is a really cool place and I'm glad we visited there before 1). we moved away and 2). Covid hit. I'm bringing it up because it's nowhere near as well-known as other Smithsonian buildings and more people should hear about it. I'm not an aviation nut and it was an impressive experience for me and a great time for our vehicle obsessed toddler. It's too bad we didn't make it back.
Thanks again for the great blog. I love this museum. I visited the main on on the mall in 1977. My father was a naval aviator so it was very interesting to me. At the time the had a replica of the interior of an aircraft carrier which was very cool. The annex is so amazing. I like to look at the restoration hanger to see all the old parts. Last time I was there they were restoring the Wright flyer. Btw, the SR-71 set the record for the fastest flight from west coast to east coast on its last flight before being retired and placed in the museum. It took about 66 minutes.