The national air and space museum of the smithsonian institution

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museum, Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Alternate titles: National Air Museum

National Air and Space Museum, American museum of aviation and space exploration, part of the Smithsonian Institution, housed in two facilities: a building on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport, Virginia. Together they house 60,000 artifacts and welcome more than eight million visitors a year.

The National Air and Space Museum was founded in 1946 under the name National Air Museum. The first major artifact added to the museum’s collection was the biplane used for the Wright brothers’ first successful flight in 1903. In 1966 the museum began collecting items from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions as well as more historical objects, and its name was changed to the National Air and Space Museum. The museum moved to the Mall in 1976. It displays many famous artifacts of flight, including Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, the Bell XS-1 that Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier for the first time (1947), the Apollo 11 command module, a sample of lunar rock, and SpaceShipOne, the first privately developed crewed space vehicle, which carried three people into suborbital spaceflight (2004). It also features a public observatory and planetarium. In 2018 the museum began an extensive renovation of the building.

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History of Flight Quiz

What was the famed “Sheet Metal Donkey”? How did the Wright brothers control their aircraft while in flight? Buckle your seatbelt, prepare for takeoff, and test your knowledge of the history of flight.

Because the museum on the Mall was able to display only a small part of the collection, a second facility was opened in 2003 near Washington Dulles International Airport, just outside the District of Columbia. Named for aviation businessman and major donor Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, the Udvar-Hazy Center was built to simulate an air hangar, allowing for a large exhibition space. The facility displays larger artifacts, including a Concorde (the first supersonic transport), the space shuttle Discovery, and a Sopwith Camel from World War I. It also houses the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar and the Emil Buehler Conservation Laboratory.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Alicja Zelazko.

To slip “the surlybonds of Earth,” as World War II aviator and poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. famously described it, is a freedom long aspired to by humankind, uniquely capturing our imagination. One of my favorite displays at the National Air and Space Museum, where I began my Smithsonian career, has always been the Wright Flyer. The humble aircraft and its improbable flight still spark the boyhood wonder I felt upon seeing it decades ago. On October 14, the west end of the museum reopens to the public, allowing imagination to again take flight.

The museum’s unparalleled collections of important aeronautic artifacts will still be familiar. But its redesigned wing containing eight new exhibitions, part of an ongoing renovation, will also transform the way we tell the story of flight. Forty percent of the new galleries’ artifacts will be on display there for the first time. Its new objects, stories and experiences, featuring historical aviation accomplishments and contemporary aerospace events, will inspire the next generation of innovators and explorers. Just as importantly, they will reveal a deeper, more expansive aerospace history, telling stories that have often been overlooked.

For instance, take Neal V. Loving, the aviation pioneer who helped create an all-black Civil Air Patrol squadron during World War II to train pilots. After he lost both legs in a glider crash, he continued to design, build and fly his own airplanes, becoming the first African American to earn a Professional Race Pilots Association license to race airplanes. His Loving WR-3, a two-seat aircraft with foldable wings to allow it to be towed by car, will be featured in the redesigned galleries.

Of course, aviation has not only transformed the way we travel; it has changed the way we see the world and inspired everything from art to literature. When filmmaker George Lucas was making the first Star Wars movie, he used footage of World War I and II aerial dogfights to show the special effects team what he wanted the action to look like. Visitors to the reopened museum will be able to see an X-Wing Starfighter used in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, its wings spanning 37 feet, on loan from Lucasfilm.

From the first tentative 120-foot flight of the Wrights’ aircraft to the Apollo 11 command module Columbia that traveled a total of 953,054 miles on its moon voyage, the National Air and Space Museum embodies our innate desire to learn, to experiment and to explore. It also shows that a belief in making the impossible possible is no flight of fancy.

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