The past two days I was in Washington D.C. visiting my grandmother and she said we were getting a personal guide at a museum called Udvar-Hazy (pronounced: ood-var-ha-z). I didn’t find out until later that this museum was named after aviation businessman, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, who donated $60 million of his own money to build it. Well, when she told this to me, I said “where?”, thinking she was bringing me to this obscure crazy museum that would probably bore the hell out of me. Well, like usual, I was wrong. Instead of utter disappointment, the museum was actually just as awesome as the original Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum located around the National Mall.
Udvar-Hazy is located on the southeast corner of the land that hosts the Dulles International Airport. The building is shaped like a giant hangar and this Boeing Aviation Hangar is filled with aeronautics from floor to ceiling. The museum featured planes and helicopters from every U.S. war. The museum actually houses the first helicopter, along with military planes from every U.S. war, from WWI to the Korean War. The cool part was that they had each planes counterpart in combat paired with them. So, you could really see different advantages and disadvantages each plane had, such as the size, location of the turrets, etc. Nevertheless, while there should be mention of all the aeronautics in this place, there were really four highlights of the museum.
- Lockheed SR-71 – [Aka. Blackbird] This plane, which was developed in 1964 to hold reconnaissance missions in the Vietnam War, proved to be extremely effective due to it’s supersonic speed and slim body style. None were ever lost in enemy combat.
- Enola Gay – The B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first nuke in our world’s history on Hiroshima to end WWII.
- Space Shuttle Enterprise – One of six space shuttles that were built by NASA for space exploration, however Enterprise was built with no engines and was never used to go into space. It has been used by NASA for atmospheric tests since its inception.
- The Concorde – Another supersonic jet that was used, however this one was for commercial use and was retired in 2003 by Air France. Only to eventually be donated to the Udvar-Hazy Museum.
These were the “Big Four”, but I want to make mention of the Hurricane (WWII), Spitfire (WWII), F4 Phantom (Vietnam), and the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer (first nonstop flight around the world). If you are a fan of aeronautics, then you would love this place. If you are a fan of military history, you would love this place. All in all, I strongly recommend that you check Udvar-Hazy out.
Image Used In Post
SR-71 “Blackbird” image courtesy of Flickr user srossi published under CC license.
8 Comments
This sounds like a pretty sweet place. Would you say it is nicer than the original Air & Space Museum?
Its hard to say because I haven’t been to the original Air & Space in a very long time, but this museum was just as cool as the original I remember. I think having a personal guide that was a friend of my grandmothers made everything a lot more informative and fun.
I would love to check this place out.
However…
The SR-71 was not exactly a successful plane. Though technologically ahead of it’s time, it was proven obsolete by satelite imagery long before it’s first test flight.
The SR-71 was never shot down in combat because:
a. It was not a combat aircraft it was a recon jet
b. it flew very few recon missions
Technically it was a utter failure because it was grotesquely overpriced and difficult to maintain and it was designed to replace the older U-2 spyplane even though the SR-71 is already retired and the U-2 is still in service.
It is still the fastest jet powered aircraft to this day, only being beaten by an unmanned experimental NASA aircraft, the X-43, which went faster than mach 3 (which was what the SR-71 did). But, and theres always the but, the X-43 had rocket boosters and shortly after going top speed it would plummet.
Just because they ran recon missions doesn’t mean they weren’t shot at. From what my grandmothers friend was saying was that they were extremely difficult to control and thats why they were retired.
Isn’t it funny how stealth technology (radar absorbant material), fiber-optics, and microprocessors were developed all within a few decades of the supposed “crash landing” in Roswell? I always thought this was an interesting timeline.
Also the space program! Yeah the USSR had a space program too, but its not like Russian spies were trying to get a hold of our technology or anything.
There is no doubt the SR-71 was a technological masterpiece – that was a tremendous leap forward from the propeller planes that were flying 15 – 20 years earlier.
Somehow we go from the P51 Mustang (a super sweet plane in its own right) to flying at Mach 3plus on the edge of Space. Kinda makes you wonder.
the voyager w/rutan as the pilot made the first unrefueled cicumnavigation,virgin’s plane was the first jet to do it
Thanks for the info. Its interesting that the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer was based on the Voyager body style. Whats even more amazing is that this was performed in 1983! wow