Planes, Rockets, and More Planes

The space shuttle Enterprise on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, a large hangar facility at Chantilly, Virginia, next to Dulles Airport and just outside Washington DC.

One of the world’s most visited museums, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has an incredible array of original artifacts from the history of flight and space exploration.

During its visitor numbers heyday in the late 1990s through the early 2000s, the Smithsonian‘s National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC was a contender for the most-visited museum in the world, besting even long-established institutions like the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London. In recent years, the annual tally has slipped somewhat ¹, even if the Smithsonian Institution seems reluctant to relinquish the crown ², but it still attracts something north of 5 to 6 million visitors annually. And perhaps most remarkably, it handles this crush of visitors with surprisingly few lines.

Thanks to an annex opened in 2003, the Air and Space Museum is now actually two venues, one on the National Mall in downtown DC close to the US Capitol and another hangar-like structure known as the Udvar-Hazy Center about 30 minutes away in Chantilly, near Dulles Airport. Considering the extraordinary size of many of the museum’s artifacts–there are only so many airplanes you can fit in a building–the Udvar-Hazy extension was purpose built to display a good portion of the 85 percent of the museum’s artifacts that simply didn’t fit in the building on the National Mall.

Highlights of the Udvar-Hazy Center include the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71 Blackbird, a Concord, and the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Highlights of the main building on the National Mall include the original Wright Brothers Flyer, the Apollo 11 command module, the Spirit of St. Louis, and a full backup Skylab.

Wide-angle shot of the planes on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center) in Chantilly, Virginia.

The chrome-plated Clipper Flying Cloud on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, a large hangar facility at Chantilly, Virginia, next to Dulles Airport and just outside Washington DC.

Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC listen to a guide explain the Mercury 7 re-entry vehicle, the capsule that too the first American in space, John Glenn, safely to space and back.

Detail of Charles Lindbergh's plane the Sprit of St. Louis, in which he flew the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927. On display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Pieces of planes partially unwrapped from their shipping crates in the restoration and preservation hangar at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.

A young girl visiting the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC touches a piece of moon rock near the main entrance.

The high-speed Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spyplane on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.

Main entrance hall of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

The historic and controversial Enola Gay (the B-29 bomber tha dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center).

360 Degree Panoramic Virtual Tours of the Udvar-Hazy Center

More Photos of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Check out more high resolution photos of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Information for Photographers

I’ve put together some information for photographers visiting the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: National Mall Building | Udvar-Hazy Center.

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