« New Years | Main | Practical Jokes »
January 03, 2004
Travels with Pat
Recently I took a trip down to see the National Air and Space Museum's new opening of the Steven F Udvar-Hazy center with Pat. A massive aircraft hanger located off the Dulles airport area that houses many of the aircraft NASM has had in restoration. Upon walking into the building one of the first sights seen looks remarkably like the picture here. 
I think there will be a lot of pictures that look similar to this from many others. This was a first time I've traveled with Pat and he's not brought his camera, so you'll be subjected to images created by me.
Things of note throughout the gallery are that it is still very much under construction. Laying about the floor were unused pipes, boards, wiring conduits, and containers of paint/sealant that should really be put away. I had some issues with the layout in the sense that one isn't able to easily travel from one floating walk way to another without having to traverse the entire hanger. The cement floors wouldn't be nearly so bad if there had been some areas to sit introduce along the way to exhibits. After having spoken with one of the volunteers, she made it quite apparent that the floor was not fun to stand on all day.
The exhibits themselves were amazing. The SR71, an Air France Concorde, the space shuttle Enterprise, the Enola Gay, a couple of P51s, the collection of modern jet aircraft, hangers, gliders, and some of the original airline inspirations were just impressive. It helps to convey a sense of how large this hanger, especially when you realize these are all under the same roof. There's even room to expand.
Unfortunately, due to time, I didn't get an opportunity to explore the control tower. Parking cost $6 which seems like an entrance fee, but really wasn't that bad. The fact that you have aircraft coming into Dulles overhead the whole time certainly makes it feel more alive and busy too. It's worth going to check out if you're in the area, just bring soft shoes.
[EDIT: corrected the HTML link to NASM]
Posted by Dan at January 3, 2004 08:23 AM