Fairly late breaking in the planning of our vacation, I found out about the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. It is the companion facility to the National Air and Space Museum that is already on our list of things to do in Washington, D.C. At the Udvar-Hazy Centre there are hundreds of planes and space crafts, along with thousands of smaller items like engines, on display in a hangar-like building. My plan was to visit this museum when we flew into Washington DC at the beginning of September, however as our flight was 2 hours late and as the facility was soon to close, we had to postpone the visit to when we returned to Washington DC. Oh, how I misjudged just how wonderful this museum was going to be! We had plans to do BOTH this museum AND the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC today and we only made it to this one near Dulles Airport as it was so good! We also returned the rental car and then took the metro back into DC to our hotel.
First, the entrance and overview of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Centre at Dulles Airport.
The “runway” or path leading to the huge buildingThe “Wall of Honor” for important aviation individualsPanels of people’s namesAfter security, the huge entranceMap of the facilityPitts Special S-1C Little Stinker
Okay, I promised my father not to post the precisely 312 pictures that I took – I think I can narrow them down to make a good compilation! From the entrance on the 2nd floor, to my right were mostly military based panes. To the left are commercial planes, following with space being in the back of the building. Finally, we went up to the 3rd floor to take some sky shots. Here are overview shots from the 2nd floor entrance balcony before we went down a nice LONG switchback ramp 🙂
To the right or military sideTo the left or commercial sideLooking towards the back space area
Time to go down to the 1st floor and check out the military side first!
The ramp going down – steep grade too!Cessna where kids can take “flight”NASA Oblique Wing Research AircraftFemale Air Force UniformsRepublic F-105D ThunderchiefSA-2 Guideline MissileBell AH-1F CobraBell UH-1H IroquoisBoeing-Vertol CH-46E Sea KnightSikorsky JRS-1 (in bad condition)Loon MissileNorth American F-100D Super SabreMcDonnell Douglas F/A-18C HornetGrumman F-14D(R) Tomcat (2nd floor above)Grumman EA-6B ProwlerVought RF-8G CrusaderLockheed Martin X-35B Joint Strike FighterGrumman A-6E IntruderLockheed T-33A Shooting StarNorth American F-86A SabreMcDonnell F-45 Phantom IIMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21F “Fishbed C”Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis “Fagot B”Sikorsky HOSS-1NASA Flight Research RocketHWK 109-509 A-1 Rocket Motor with German Me 163 B-1 Komet Cessna kids can get into and “fly”
Now we will walk over to the other side of the hanger where things really get fun and BIG! In between the BIG planes are some other countries planes and some early flight apparatuses…
German Curtiss SB2C-5 HelldiverGerman Dornier Do 335 A PfeilGerman Focke-Achgelis Fa 330AGerman – Arado Ar 234 B BlitzGerman – Heinkel He 219 Uhu (Eagle Owl)German – Focke-Wulf Fw 190 FLufthansa – Junkers Ju 52/3mBoeing 367-80 “Dash 80”Ceiling – Sport Wings Valkyrie Ground – Bellanca C.F.Delta Wing Phoenix VI.BStits SA-2A Sky Baby Smallest Plane in WorldBoeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying CloudBoeing 307 Stratoliner Panorama of CockpitSikorsky x2 Technology DemonstratorBoeing CV2 Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV) (drone)MacCready Gossamer Albatross (cabin and part of wing span)Sikorsky YH-19A – engine case openOshkosh T-3000 Rescue Truck “Foam 331” same brand YVR uses!The cool – Bell XV-15 Tilt Rotor Research AircraftWorld’s most favourite turboprop! Beechcraft King Air 65-90Flew around the world! Bell 206-1 LongRanger II Spirit of TexasUS Marine Corps Single Person Collapsible for Special Missions – Hiller YROE-1 RotorcycleAir Tractor AT-400A “Dusty the Crophopper”Curtiss F9C-2 SparrowhawkGoodyear Airship Control Car C-49Two attempts at around the world balloon flight – J. Renee Balloon CabinGondola for 1st around world balloon flight – Breitling Orbiter 3Red Bull Stratos Balloon Capsule used to launch Baumgartner to break speed of sound in a free fallCanadian Armed Forces uniform!Olmstead Pusher – prop is at the rear of plane so “pushed” through airBoeing Superfortress “Enola Gay”Panorama view of Enola Gay cockpitRepublic P-47D Thunderbolt with “Enola Gay” in backgroundJapan – Kawanishi NIK2-Ja Shiden Kai “George”Japan – Nakajima KikkaJapan – Kyushu J7W1 Shinden missing wingsJapan – Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko “Irving”Northrop N-IM “Flying Wing”Northrop P-61C Black Widow
The Concorde was also in this hall with the other commercial planes, however due to its size, was hard to get a good picture of it. Here are a couple of angles! While this is an Air France plane, it has been about 40 years since I have stood under a Concorde – that was a British Airways one, with the Queen and Prince Phillips on board, while it took off from YVR at 6am one Richmond morning. My dad and I almost dropped our cameras as the pilot turned on the afterburners and the ground shook at that point in time!
From floor – spanning the walkwayPanorama of cockpitThe wing of the concordeAnother wing shot of the concordePointed tail of the concordeView of concorde from 3rd floor balcony
Now we move to the centre of the hanger and this black stealth plane – beautiful sight!
Now for the awesomeness that is at this museum – I present the Challenger – the most used space craft in the history of the US Space program! While this display was a bit less awesome than the one at Cape Canaveral with the Atlantis – it still was awesome to see this close! First though a tour around the shuttle…
Presenting “Challenger” Space ShuttleRegulus I Cruise MissileCorporal Cruise Missile with LIttle John Missile and Launcher in frontNike-Ajax Missile and LauncherBat MissileRheintochter R I MissileAndrew walking next to small Missile displayIDEX II Workstation from Command CentreScale examples of different rocketsMercury Capsule 15B “Freedom 7 II”Mercury Capsule “Big Joe”Spacelab ModuleSpacelab Transfer Tunnel – Joggle SectionVega Solar System Probe – Bus and Landing ApparatusMars Pathfinder Lander and Sojourner RoverBack to the Space Shuttle!Rear view shot of afterburners and AndrewSide of Challenger and Satellites aboveSide of ChallengerWell “toasted” nose of ChallengerNose shot – head on!Cockpit high in air like 747Panorama of Shuttle CockpitShort wingspanItems on board Space ShuttlesMobile Quarantine Facility for early flightsLooking back on Shuttle area from 3rd floor
Now, let’s look at all the displays from the 3rd floor! A panorama image that I took… Entrance straight ahead and shuttle is behind me.
Now we have left the building and are on our way back to the hotel in Washington, DC. Hmm, $100 US Uber or taxi fare or take the Metro for a total of $9? Well, the Metro won!
Dulles (IAD) airport from Metro platformSuch CLEAN trains on this system!Moving overhead display – very cool!
Food – gluten free and awesome! Ordered from a local pizza chain which had high ratings for Celiac safe meals. Andrew of course had pizza and beer. Oh and that is apple juice NOT beer!
Cheesy chicken with GF ravioli!GF chocolate torte cake for the win!
Tomorrow – we are off to discover Washington, DC. Thanks for making it to the end of this day – for someone who loves airplanes and flying, it was a surprising experience finding this museum and all that it had to offer and on top of it all – it was FREE! Also going from over 300 pictures to 100 was a bit of a challenge!
