Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

What fun we are having in the DC area and so here it is day 2 of our time here and off we go on the bus to the metro station to catch the subway which has a drop off right into the National Mall.  Now we think we are going to see all the museums but now realize with there being 19 of them it's not going to happen unless your here a month or two.  So the very first museum we decided to visit was the National Air & Space Museum.  It is the most visited of all the museums.  With twenty-three galleries exhibiting hundreds of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, rockets, and other flight-related artifacts it was definitely a great choice to start.
  

Lockheed Vega 5B

The National Air and Space Museum has thousands of artifacts on display, including the Wright 1903 Flyer; the Spirit of St. Louis; the Apollo 11 command module Columbia; and a Lunar rock sample that you can touch. Since we had just visited Kitty Hawk the Wright Brothers exhibition was really great to see.  Now we have been where they first flight was flown and now we have seen their original airplane they flew.  These were my three favorite aircraft to see:
This bright red Lockheed Vega 5B was flown by Amelia Earhart on two history making flights in 1932. The first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean and the first solo flight by a woman across the United States



Orville and Wilbur Wright changed the world. Together, they solved a complex and demanding problem—controlled, heavier-than-air flight—which had defied other inventors for centuries. In its first flight, the Wright Flyer flew 120 feet in 12 seconds, but it represents humankind's first leap into the air.
Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis is suspended from the ceiling in the National Air and Space Museum's Milestones of Flight gallery.
 

Spirit of St.Louis

The Spirit of St. Louis (Registration N-X-211) is the custom-built single engine, single seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles  Lindbergh on May 20-21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris, for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize. Officially known as the Ryan NYP (for New York to Paris)



Apollo 11 was the first mission in which humans walked on the lunar surface and returned to Earth. On 20 July 1969 two astronauts (Apollo 11 Commander Neil A. Armstrong and LM pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.) landed on the Moon in the Lunar Module while the Command and Service Module with pilot Michael Collins continued in lunar orbit. During their stay on the Moon, the astronauts set up scientific experiments, took photographs, and collected lunar samples. The Lunar Module took off from the Moon on 21 July and the astronauts returned to Earth on 24 July.

There is so much to see in this museum and it took us around 3 hours to explore it. From the beginning of flight to Space exploration. Here is a small slide show to show how many things we saw at the National Air & Space Museum.

 

Have Fun, Travel Safe & Stay Healthy!!!