Page 68 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Washington, DC

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Exploring the National Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum on the Mall has a from an era when flight was
massive exhibition space of 23 galleries. The most visited new and daring. The Barron
museum in the world, it has to cope not only with millions Hilton Pioneers of Flight
gallery celebrates the men
of visitors but also with the range and sheer size of its and women who have
artifacts, which include hundreds of rockets, planes, and challenged the physical
spacecraft. In 2003 the museum opened a sister exhibition and psychological barriers
space: a huge new state-of-the art facility, the Steven F. faced when leaving the earth.
Udvar-Hazy Center, located near Dulles Airport. Now Adventurer Cal Rogers was
with two sites, more of NASM’s the first to fly across the United
States, but it was not non-stop.
historic collections are In 1911 he flew from coast to
on display for the coast in 49 days. His Wright
public to enjoy. Ex Vin Fizz is on display here.
(Twelve years later, a Fokker
T-2, also on view, made
the trip in less than
27 hours.)
Amelia Earhart
was the first woman
to fly solo across
the Atlantic, just five
years after Charles
Lindbergh. Her red
Lockheed Vega is displayed.
The Boeing F4B Navy fighter
Close by is Tingmissartoq, a
Lockheed Sirius seaplane
is the Apollo 11 belonging to Charles
Milestones of Flight Command Module, Lindbergh. Its unusual name is
Entering the National Air and which carried the first men Inuit for “one who flies like a bird.”
Space Museum from the Mall to walk on the moon. The Some of the greatest strides in
entrance, first stop is the soaring Wright brothers’ Flyer (in gallery aviation were made in the
Boeing Milestones of Flight 209) was the first plane to period between the two world
Hall, which gives an overview sustain powered flight on wars, celebrated in the Golden
of the history of flight. The December 17, 1903, at Kitty Age of Flight gallery. The
artifacts in this room are some Hawk, North Carolina. public’s intense interest in flight
of the major firsts in aviation resulted in races, exhibitions,
and space technology, as Developments in Flight and adventurous exploration.
they helped to realize man’s Here a visitor can see planes
ambition to take to the air. Travelers now take flying for equip ped with skis for landing
The gallery is vast, designed granted – it is safe, fast, and, for on snow, with short wings for
to accommodate the large many, routine. The National Air racing, and a “staggerwing”
aircraft – many of which are and Space Museum, however, plane on which the lower wing
suspended from the ceiling – displays machines and gadgets was placed ahead of the upper.
and spacecraft. Some of these
pioneering machines are
surprisingly small, however.
Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St.
Louis, the first aircraft to cross
the Atlantic with a solo pilot,
was designed with the fuel
tanks ahead of the cockpit
so Lindbergh had to use a
periscope to look directly
ahead. John Glenn’s Mercury
spacecraft, Friendship 7, in
which he orbited the earth,
is smaller than a sports car.
Near the entrance to the
gallery is a moon rock – a
symbol of man’s exploration
of space. Also in this gallery The propeller-driven Douglas DC-3 aircraft in the America by Air gallery

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