STEVEN F. UDVAR-HAZY CENTER

The 'Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center' is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. NASM has always had more artifacts than could be displayed at the main museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C (Most of the collection had been stored, unavailable to visitors, at the Paul Garber facility in Silver Hill, MD.) The Center was made possible by a US$65 million gift in October 1999 to the Smithsonian Institution by Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, an immigrant from Hungary and co-founder of the International Lease Finance Corporation.Small, L. M. "A century's roar and buzz: Thanks to an immigrant's generosity, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opens to the public". In "From the Secretary". ''Smithsonian''. Vol. 34, p. 20. Construction of the Center required fifteen years of preparation and was built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co.Triplett, W. "Hold everything!" ''Smithsonian''. Vol. 34, December 2003, p. 59.
Plans call for additional phases that will move the restoration facility and the museum archives to the site from their current location at the Garber facility.

Contents

Collection

External links

References

Photo Gallery

Collection

Opened in December 2003, the Udvar-Hazy Center displays historic aviation and space artifacts, especially items too large for the National Air and Space Museum's building on the National Mall, including:

★ the ''Enola Gay'', the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

★ the Space Shuttle ''Enterprise''

★ the Gemini VII capsule

★ an SR-71 Blackbird

★ an Air France Concorde supersonic airliner

★ the Boeing 367-80 jet transport, which was the prototype for the Boeing 707

★ a Redstone rocket

★ the Langley Aerodrome A, an early attempt at powered flight by Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley

★ the Northrop N-1

★ the only surviving Dornier Do 335 ''Pfeil'' ^[1]

★ the only surviving Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the ex-Pan American "Clipper Flying Cloud"

★ the only surviving Heinkel He 219 ''Uhu''

★ the only surviving Arado Ar 234 "Blitz"

★ one of three surviving Bachem Ba 349 Natter's

★ the only surviving Nakajima J1N1 Gekko

★ one of four surviving Northrop P-61 Black Widows

★ one of two surviving Boeing P-26 Peashooters

★ a Bede BD-5, a single-seat, home-built aircraft that was somewhat popular in the 1970s

★ the ''Beck-Mahoney Sorceress'', which is known as the "winningest" racing biplane in aviation history

★ a Japanese balloon bomb, such as killed 6 US civilians in Oregon during World War II

★ Lockheed Martin X-35 Joint Strike Fighter, prototype of the F-35 Lightning II

★ F-14 Tomcat

★ The Gossamer Albatross, which was the first man-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel

★ The primary special-effects miniature of the "Mothership" used in the filming of ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''
The museum is still in the process of installing exhibits, but more than 120 aircraft and 140 space-exploration exhibits are already on display as of 2006, and plans call for the eventual installation of over 200 aircraft.^[2] It also contains an IMAX theater.

External links

★ Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center site

★ Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Photo Gallery

★ Aerial view on google maps of partially completed building

★ Flickr Set of Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - 88 images

References

1. http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/dornier_do335.htm
2. Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - Looking Ahead Accessed September 30, 2006

Photo Gallery