Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, VA

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Karen and I drove down from Beverly to Washington DC for ALS Advocacy days, May 10-12. We went down on Thursday the 8th and stayed with our old friends Andrea and Jim in Chantilly VA. On Friday while they were at work we visited the new Smithsonian Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly at Dulles Airport. What a remarkable display of aviation history. The building opened in 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. The building is an impressive size in the shape of a T and was named in honor of its major donor, and features the large Boeing Aviation Hangar in which aircraft are displayed on three levels. Visitors can walk among aircraft and small artifacts in display cases located on the floor, and view aircraft hanging from the arched ceiling on elevated skywalks. Many engines, helicopters, ultra-lights, and experimental flying machines are on display in a museum setting. Among the aviation artifacts on display are the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet in the world; the Boeing Dash 80, the prototype of the 707; the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay; and the deHavilland Chipmunk aerobatic airplane. There are over a hundred twenty five planes, military, commercial and recreational of every and type and style.
We took a two hour tour with a volunteer guide who was a retired test pilot. His love of flying was expressed in his knowledge of the planes and their history. We returned here on Tuesday evening with Andrea and Jim to see the new Star Trek movie at the Imax theater.

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