{"id":6429,"date":"2014-05-12T17:48:35","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T21:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=6429"},"modified":"2014-05-18T20:07:40","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T00:07:40","slug":"air-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=6429","title":{"rendered":"Air & Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday – May 12, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

The time had come<\/span> to leave Washington and return home. \u00a0We checked out of our comfortable room in the Willard and drove through Arlington on our way to Chantilly, Virginia. \u00a0Our destination was the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum – the Udvar-Hazy Center which is located near Dulles International Airport.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC_2099\"<\/a>Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air & Space Museum<\/p>\n

The center was a modern space-age building which was opened in 2003 and named for Steven F. Udvar-Hazy the wealthy Hungarian-born man who financed this annex to the National Air & Space Museum. \u00a0The original Air and Space Museum is still located on the mall in downtown Washington, DC. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC_2123\"<\/a>The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird<\/p>\n

The museum was huge and was a living history of flight from early aviation to space exploration. \u00a0One of the highlights was seeing an SR-71 Blackbird. \u00a0It was a supersonic reconnaissance aircraft made of titanium in 1964. \u00a0On its last flight in 1990, the pilot set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. in 1 hour and 4 minutes. \u00a0On that flight, the Blackbird flew 2,124 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2118\"<\/a>A Hangar and a Flying Plane<\/p>\n

We had fun walking\u00a0among some of the most famous airplanes in the history of aviation. \u00a0The air craft were organized in categories, for example Aerobatic, Cold War Aviation, Human Spaceflight, Pre-1920 Aviation, Korea and Vietnam, Ultralight, etc. etc. \u00a0The museum was large with several connected hangars. \u00a0There were multi-level stairways in the hangars which led \u00a0to higher observation platforms. \u00a0A visitor could spend an entire day at this museum.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2111\"<\/a>Flight Simulator<\/p>\n

We saw several different flight simulators. \u00a0Several people were inside getting shaken up as we watched the pods rotate and move up and down. \u00a0I passed up this stomach-churning activity!<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2145\"<\/a>Front View of the Space Shuttle – Discovery<\/p>\n

The Space Shuttle\u00a0Discovery<\/em> was located in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar. \u00a0It was considered a “national treasure” by the national Air and Space Museum. \u00a0According to historic records, Discovery<\/em> flew 39 times from 1984 through 2011 which was more missions than any other shuttle.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2152\"<\/a>Side View of the Discovery<\/em> Space Shuttle<\/p>\n

We did not have enough time to see everything in this amazing museum. \u00a0However before we left we visited the hangar with several important airplanes. \u00a0One of these was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress,the Enola Gay<\/em>. \u00a0This was the propeller driven bomber of World War II which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2169\"<\/a>Specialized Hangar<\/p>\n

A variety of smaller planes were suspended from the ceiling which gave the illusion of airplanes flying in the sky. \u00a0Below these were several noteworthy commercial airplanes. \u00a0There was a Boeing 367-80 jet Transport which revolutionized commercial air transportation it was developed and became the Boeing 707, America’s first jet airliner. \u00a0Nearby was a real Air France Concorde, the first supersonic airliner which flew passengers across the Atlantic for 25 years.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2182\"<\/a>A Wing in the Sky<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday – May 12, 2014 The time had come to leave Washington and return home. \u00a0We checked out of our comfortable room in the Willard and drove through Arlington on our way to Chantilly, Virginia. \u00a0Our destination was the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum – the Udvar-Hazy Center which is located near Dulles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6429"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6445,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions\/6445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}