![]() space program, featuring stories and artifacts from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. The gallery next door focuses on the U.S. The rest of the room delves into the origins of the universe, the sun and the planets, and how scientists today are working to uncover the many mysteries of space. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery and its impressive model of the solar system. Haas We All Fly exhibit, which looks at aviation-related careers, and such extraordinary flying machines as the Lear Jet 23, Cirrus SR22, and Aviation Specialties Unlimited Challenger III. ![]() The final first floor gallery showcases the Thomas W. Another first-floor gallery highlights how the commercialized flight experience has changed over time, with displays showing early flight attendant uniforms by major airlines, and what the golden age of travel once looked like (spoiler alert: more style and legroom, less cramming passengers into tiny seats). Next door to Gallery 1, the Early Flight gallery offers a look at how humankind developed the first airplanes, from the early days of the Lilienthal Glider to the French aviation era’s Blériot XI aircraft. Just beyond that, the story starts where it should, with Wilbur and Orville Wright and the story of how they got a plane in the air in the early 1900s, and how the world reacted to their new invention. You’ll enter through the South Lobby, where Star Trek fans can geek out and snap photos of a studio model of the Starship Enterprise. Visitors of all ages, but mostly families, take pictures of each other against the backdrops of the towering Pershing II (34.8 ft.) and SS20 Pioneer (54.1 ft.) missiles, or the Hubble Space Telescope (42 ft.), or just about anything in the museum, as most of the artifacts dwarf humans. Enormous aircraft and spacecraft dangle from the ceiling or are placed in floor exhibits throughout both levels. ![]() The place is huge, as is much of its collection. Today, the inventory of historic aircraft and spacecraft artifacts numbers more than 66,000, the world’s largest such collection. By the time the National Air and Space Museum opened on the National Mall 100 years later, the collection had grown to tens of thousands of objects. The seeds of this museum were planted when the Smithsonian Institution acquired its first aeronautical objects in 1876: 20 kites from the Chinese Imperial Commission. And it does so in a multi-layered fashion, mixing extraordinary artifacts with IMAX movies, videos, and hands-on exploration of displayed equipment. The National Air and Space Museum manages to tap into that most primordial of human impulses: the urge to fly. ![]() And even in its current state, it’s not hard to understand why. Louis, the 1903 Wright Flyer, Bell X-1, the Apollo Lunar Module, and Skylab are all housed here, currently in a massive ground floor hall that traces the history of air transportation and explores how technology revolutionized air travel.īased on visitation numbers (7 million annually, prior to the renovation), this is among America’s favorite museums. In October 2022, half of the museum reopened, debuting eight shiny new galleries.Įven with renovations ongoing, there's lots to see here. Big news: The National Air and Space Museum has embarked on an enormous, multi-year, nearly $1 billion makeover that will transform the entire visitor experience and is expected to be fully completed by 2025. ![]()
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