The National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Annex

I was lucky enough to be a member of the Air and Space Society of the Smithsonian and receive an invitation to a members only preview of the new museum. 

I invited a few buddies and we roamed around it museum for hours on Saturday, December 6, 2003.

It opened to the public on Monday the 15th.

Here is a small sampling of the exhibits currently on display. 

According to Jack Bailey, the NASM Director, only about 40% of the planned artifacts are on display.

The museum architecture features several elevated walkways that give the visitor some incredible views.

  Front entrance to the museum

John, Biff and I pose before the SR-71 

SR-71 Blackbird.  This was very difficult to photograph due to the unique finish.  

You can see some of the walkways, a P-26, and the Space Shuttle.

Space Shuttle Enterprise  

The missing wing leading edge was used in the Columbia tragedy investigation

* The Enterprise was exchanged for the Discovery in 2012

B-29 Enola Gay

Famous for dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

Air France Concorde 

The largest aircraft in the museum, so far

Amazing Arado AR243.  A German WWII jet bomber.  It was recently restored by NASM.

Dornier Do335 Arrow - the only surviving Arrow

  Lockheed P-38 Lightning

The aircraft is unrestored, and looks the way the museum received it after WWII.

Vietnam Nemeses, F-4 and MiG 21

Korean War Nemeses, F-86 and MiG 15

  View from the highest walkway

4 rows, 9 banks, 36 cylinder radial aircraft engine  

Small cruise missile turbojet in front of the most complicated reciprocating engine ever made.

This is probably the first triple 

  Grumman F6F Hellcat

Northrop N1M  

The only surviving flying wing until the B-2.

   Bell XV-15 Tiltwing

Junkers JU52 Trimotor 

  Boeing FB-5 Hawk

F4U Corsair and N3N 

  Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIc 

  Nieuport 28

Ohka, Kamikaze piloted bomb 

  Aichi M6A1 Seiran

Arrow Sport A2-60 

Northrop P-61 Black Widow

  Laser 200 

Many of the aircraft are suspended from the ceiling in flight attitudes

John Glenn's Mercury capsule "Freedom 7