National Air And Space Museum: Udvar-Hazy Center

I saw The Dark Knight in the IMAX theatre. There was quite a wait, and no popcorn, or any food, in the theatre, but it was worth it.

Take a guided tour, and also be prepared to exchange your return bus ticket for a later one- I was planning on spending the morning here and spent the entire day.

i’d never seen the concorde in real life, so it was neat to see since i’ll never have the chance to ride it now. lots of neat planes and history

Just went there this weekend. It’s a giant hangar with full-size aircraft, rockets, and other spacecraft. Where to begin? Some highlights include the SR-71 Blackbird, which happens to be my favorite. That’s the funky black spyplane that can fly at Mach 3.3 or so, quite a bit faster than a speeding bullet. There’s also the Space Shuttle Enterprise (yes, the whole thing is inside), and even one of the supersonic Concorde jets. There are a lot of World War II aircraft there from America, Germany, and Japan. Included is the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber which dropped the first atomic bomb.

I was both surprised and impressed by just how many of the aircraft on display are listed as the only one of their kind still in existence.

Udvar-Hazy is a huge hangar space that offers the Smithsonian a way to display more of their aircraft and aviation collection than they possibly could just with the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. This new museum features a ton of aircraft from throughout modern history, including military aircraft, several passenger jets (including a Boeing 707) and a prototype space shuttle.

It’s still being filled out a bit — the last time I went, the only food/beverage vendor was Subway, the gift shop was cramped and poorly laid out, and there were empty display cases along some of the walls — but it’s a neat space, and definitely worth a visit.

One note: While admission is free, parking is $12.