Air And Space Annex

Date: 12th Feb

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, was very very cool. Located just next to Dulles Airport, it was a fair distance to get to (about 90mins by public transport) is definitely worth the visit, and for a nut like myself, a full day is needed.

This is where the Smithsonian has been hiding all their cool stuff. Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery, the Concorde, and the SR-71 were notable highlights. I had to keep reminding myself that these aren't just mockups, or hollow shells. Some of these aircraft took their final flight into Dulles and were then rolled almost as is into the museum (they removed all the various liquids, fuel, oil, etc). 

The Orbiter did have its engines missing as NASA wanted to keep those for another mission. NASA were also kind enough to remove the various toxic materials from the Orbiter. They did offer to clean Discovery up, replace the tiles etc, but thank goodness the museum said No Way. There she is, almost exactly as she was when she last touched down from orbit.

I couldn't help but snap a lot of photos of the Orbiter. But I didn't leave the other vessels out...

There's a huge amount of aircraft here, but they've got room for more!

Yes, it's actually that Enola Gay, the original, real one.

Washington DC

Date: 11th Feb

First night in DC was spent recovering from the travel. Those flights are becoming quite the killer. Next time I think I'll just explore everywhere by ship.

Second day was Air & Space Museum, the air side. Its been about 20 years since I was last here, and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that a lot of it is very familiar. Whilst museums are suppose to hold artefacts of the past, should they also keep fresh?

I will say they've done a good job at being at the level of kids and adults, the information is almost literally displayed at two levels. 

Day 3 has me in the morning doing the Space side of the Air and Space, including the planetarium. I think that they are limited by physical space, as there is definitely a lot more they could go in to, and hint that they have, but not display.

The afternoon is at the National Art Gallery which I feel was for me, better than the Lourve. Here I actually got to see some famous works by famous artists, without there being an overwhelming amount of it. I also found it fascinating that I could look up close at the paintings, no rope lines, no glass cases. It's also disturbing that some great works are only one mad mans knife slash away from being damaged forever.

The afternoon found me at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I didn't have time to do the entire museum, obviously, but I did stumble into the geology and minerals section. It's possible that they've just got replicas on display, but there behind simple glass cabinets were some very expensive pieces of carbon. The Oppenheimer Diamond is 250 or so carat uncut diamond, just casually next to other equally expensive stones.

The temperature is only -2°C at the moment, but the windchill is significant, which is making DC rather cold.