National Air and Space Museum - Dulles Airport, Virginia

CptCurl

CptCurl

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National Air and Space Museum - Dulles Airport

On July 25, 2014 I visited the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport, something I have been wanting to do since it opened. I was not disappointed!

There must be well over 100 historic aircraft on display. To thoroughly study the exhibits you need at least a full day. Take your camera.

Let me share four aircraft here. These are the four that I find most impressive.



ENOLA GAY

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SR71 BLACKBIRD

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SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY

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AIR FRANCE CONCORDE

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Enjoy these photos, but make a point to visit the museum.

Curl
 
National Air and Space Museum Dulles

Great photos, been there several years ago before the shuttle arrived. I will be visiting the Museum next year while staying in Virginia. Being a past aviator and airplane buff, I did not have enough time the last visit. When you are with the family, you need extra time to view the history of each aircraft and admire the vast beauty of the gone by era of aircraft. I would highly recommend the Air and space museum in DC first and visit the one in Dulles as number two.

Nick
 
I really want to go. We have the Boeing Museum of Flight here in Seattle, and it is a great one as well. If you get up this way you should stop in! My grandson has frequent flyer miles on the flight simulators!
 
I visited the Museum last May while on a vacation trip to Virginia, and was blown away by what is there on exhibit. Living in Calif., where there are multiple aviation museums, I was no novice at what a real museum should have on display. The Dulles facility stands tall, very tall, in relation to other aviation museums around the country. Ed.
 
LOL, the only thing I don't like about it is the cost of parking. The museum entrance is free, but it costs $15 to park. :rolleyes:

But, it's a great museum and well worth it! You get overwhelmed with all the neat exhibits. Need a bunch of visits to really appreciate all the exhibits.
 
I was lucky enough to see the first SR-71s go operational, including this one. I have mixed emotions about seeing them "stuffed and mounted", although it's only right that future generations be able to see what we could build with imagination and slide rules.

Still...in grade school we learned this poem by heart...I understand it better now.

OOD IRONSIDES
BY Oliver Wendell Holmes


Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon’s roar;—
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o’er the flood
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor’s tread,
Or know the conquered knee;—
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

O, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every thread-bare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,—
The lightning and the gale!
 
Been there - got the t-shirt (and I wear it to the range frequently...)

Impressive museum. It certainly ranks up there with the best I've seen (Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB and the Imperial War Museum at RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire)
 
Yes, among the very best museums I have ever attended. It is so large that the Concorde at the far end looks small. When I was there they had a display of machine-guns used in aviation. That was simply awesome too. I recommend this as a destination for anyone who has an appreciation for aviation.
 
Is this a branch of the one at the Smithsonian, or did they move it? I haven't gone in a very long time.
 
What're the Japanese planes in the first photo? I can't decide if one is a Judy and the other a George?
 
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Lots of other great planes in the background; Corsair, P-40, Peashooter, Blackwidow, V-1 in USN colors, Ju-52 in what looks like Lufthanza colors, A-6, F-4, and I believe a MiG-17...
 
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