Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

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We visited one of the holy grails of aviation buffs; the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.  It is a large hangar at the Dulles International Airport.  It is the place where the bigger things that can’t fit in and the things that don’t have a place in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the capital mall get put on displace.
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Upside down plane is upside down.

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An SR-71 Blackbird.  You can get much more up close and personal with the SR-70 at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.

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This place is HUGE!  I hope that they start cramming more planes into this place in the near future.  The Smithsonian has to have quite a few additional planes in storage.


IMG_3904On the military aircraft side of the hangar.


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IMG_3911 This is an incredible piece of technology.  It is a jet engine and turbofan assembly from a STOVL test aircraft that was the forerunner of the Joint Strike Fighter that will be used by the Navy.

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I love the looks of this old Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.

IMG_3927 IMG_3928A MiG-15.


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Space suit concepts.

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A Loon Missile derived from a V-1 Vergeltungswaffe.

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A Messerschmitt Me 163 B-1a Komet in its original unrestored state.


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The Space Shuttle Discovery.  It was just recently moved into the spot that the Enterprise used to occupy.

IMG_3961A wooden rocket!


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Engines on display.

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Me standing under the port wing of the Discovery.

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The business end of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

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Wheels and very expensive tiles.

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Each one is unique and went into space.

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Space-themed telephone booth and R2-D2 post office box.

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A TDRSS mock-up hanging over the Discovery along with a few other satellites.

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Heather and me on the raised platform behind Discovery.

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Lots of little satellites!

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Closeup of the TDRSS.

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The restoration hangar.

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A Saturn 5 instrumentation and guidance ring.

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Discovery in her final resting place.


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A space suit floating above the shuttle.

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Space capsule.

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If only any country in the world had something to replace and surpass the shuttle program.  Someday…

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Hang glider concept for a space capsule return.  For those astronauts afraid of water?

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Apollo capsule setup for a water landing.

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My what a big nose you have!


IMG_4053It was absolutely incredible how few people there were at this museum.  We nearly had the entire place to ourselves!



IMG_4065 The Mobile Quarantine Facility built out of an Airstream to keep space germs from infecting Planet Earth.

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An early prototype of Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation?


IMG_4088Biplanes from the early days of flight.

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Langley’s attempt at an airplane.

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IMG_4153A fully little flying wing.


IMG_4155The only J1N1-S Gekkou in existence.

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The Kugisho MXY7 Ohka Model 22, a suicide rocket plane meant to disrupt shipping.


IMG_4164 IMG_4165The Smithsonian is like a who’s who of extremely rare Japanese and German aircraft from World War II.


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Pieces waiting for something to happen.

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A Nazi glider.

IMG_4192Lots of hang gliders in this part of the hangar.


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That little plane doesn’t look particularly safe.

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A predecessor to the V-22 Osprey.  The Concorde is hiding in the background.


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A plane car.

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Nose of the Concorde.


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Helicopters and autogyros.

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This place is very big!

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The Virgin Atlantic Global Flier.

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An old Pan Am plane.

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Bud Light was well-represented in the hangar.

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The Enola Gay, the first plane to drop an atomic bomb in war.

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The Enola Gay from another angle.


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The Boeing 367-80, prototype to the 707.

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Old school jet engines.

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The Clipper Flying Cloud.

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A helicopter that flew around the world.  I saw another helicopter that flew around the world in Australia a few years ago.

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The interesting thing is that there is a helicopter in Australia that makes the same claim.  Dick Smith flew it in 1982.  The difference is he did it solo where this helicopter had a couple people in it.  I think I will celebrate Dick Smith rather than Ross Perot Junior.


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A very old and very historic blimp cockpit.

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Mementos from the ballooning days.

IMG_4416There was even a banjo from the early days of airplanes! I do believe Zach should be made aware of this…


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Pepsi had a nice product placement, too.


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Another banjo.  Zach, do you have your DC-3 certification yet?


STA_4249-STE_4253This place sure is amazing!

 

 

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