On entering the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in DC, you cannot fail to be impressed. In the entrance hall alone are housed the first aircraft to fly from New York to Paris, America’s first jet powered aircraft, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, the fastest and highest flying aircraft ever and the first civilian aircraft to reach space. And that’s just the planes – there are also three space capsules; the one used by the first American in space, the one used for the first ever space walk, and the one that transported the first men to walk on the moon. That’s an incredible amount of history in one room!
The Smithsonian collection is one of the greatest museum collections in the world and consists of artefacts from all aspects of American history. Obviously that includes aircraft, and the Smithsonian Institute has managed to amass probably the world’s most extensive and complete collections of aviation and space related exhibits.
The NASM now consists of two public facilities – the long established museum in the centre of Washington DC and the newer Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. A full report on the Udvar-Hazy Center will follow in the future – this much larger facility tends to attract a lot of attention but the original building on the National Mall in DC houses most of the really historic material.
The building consists of galleries devoted to a particular period of flight and each gallery contains some remarkable aircraft and artefacts. It’s impossible to go into detail about every single exhibit here as this would take up far too much time and space. However, I will try to pick out what I felt were the highlights.
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the entrance hall alone contains many unique “firsts”. The earliest of these is the original Spirit of St Louis, the Ryan NYP aircraft used by Charles Lindbergh to fly from New York to Paris in 1927. Lindbergh completed the flight in 33 hours and 30 minutes, the first man to fly non-stop between the two cities. After returning to the US, Lindbergh took his aircraft on a tour taking in the US along with countries in Central and South America, before making one last flight in the aircraft a year later – to Washington DC in order to donate the “Spirit of St Louis” to the Smithsonian.
Hanging alongside the “Spirit” is another very notable first, the bright orange Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis” which became the first manned aircraft to fly faster than sound. The X-1 on display was the aircraft which was flown by Capt Charles “Chuck” Yeager on 14th October 1947 and reached a speed of Mach 1.06 at an altitude of 43,000 ft over the Mojave Desert. It remained as a test aircraft until presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1950.
Prior to the rocket powered X-1 becoming the first manned aircraft to fly supersonic, the jet age had been ushered in in the US with the arrival of the Bell XP-59A Airacomet. The museum has the first XP-59A built, which made its first flight in October 1942 in the hands of Bell test pilot Robert M. Stanley. The development program was shrouded in secrecy – this included maintenance crews fitting a dummy propeller to the nose of the aircraft when it was not being test flown! The XP-59A was underpowered and though production aircraft were fitted with more powerful engines they still did not have performance to compete with the advanced piston engine aircraft of the day, but the Airacomet was a vital stepping stone towards more advanced and better performing jet aircraft which were to follow.
The North American X-15 was an aircraft which bridged the gap between manned flight in the atmosphere and space flight. Three aircraft were produced, with the NASM having the first aircraft built, the X-15 #1. The second aircraft (X-15 #2) was rebuilt into the X-15A-2 which went on to be the fastest aircraft ever, attaining a speed of Mach 6.72 at an altitude of 108 km.
A similar area was explored by Spaceship One which was designed by Burt Rutan and built by his Scaled Composites company at Mojave, California. It was launched from its White Knight mothership and reached an altitude of 112 km on a test flight in 2004. This took it beyond the Earth's atmosphere and into space, being the first craft designed and produced by private enterprise rather than a government program to achieve this feat.
Also exhibited in the hallways of the museum are two further impressive machines. The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket was the result of a US Navy research program into high speed flight. On 20 Nov 1953, the Skyrocket was flown by A. Scott Crossfield to become the first aircraft to fly at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. On the opposite side of the hallway is a Lockheed F-104A Starfighter, bearing a smart NASA colour scheme.
Either side of the main entrance atrium there are further large, glass fronted display areas. The first of these charts the history of civilian air transport in the US, focussing on the early days in the 1920s and 30s. One of the earliest aircraft on display is a smart Pitcairn Mailwing biplane, used as an Air Mail delivery aircraft in the late 1920s. Passenger transport aircraft from the same period include the Ford Trimotor, with the aircraft on display being painted in the colours of American Airways, the forerunner of today’s American Airlines.
The Boeing 247 is regarded as the first modern airliner and entered service in 1933. At the time it was streets ahead of the competition in terms of technology and passenger comfort. The aircraft on display is the first production 247-D, and placed third in the 1934 England-to-Australia International Air Derby (the MacRobertson Race). It later flew with United Airlines along with several other operators before being donated to the museum in 1953. It carries its United markings on one side and the 1934 air race markings on the other.
From the Douglas stable come examples of the DC-3 and DC-7. The DC-3 is displayed in the colours of Eastern Airlines, and the DC-7 is a nose section in the colours of American Airlines. From a more modern era, the museum also exhibits the forward fuselage of a former Northwest 747-100.
On the other side of the museum is the space gallery, which includes rocket engines and a full size model of the former Sky Lab space station. There are also examples of the German V-1 and V-2 weapons, the forerunners of today’s cruise missiles and ballistic missiles (and therefore space rockets) respectively. Of interest from an aviation standpoint is the Northrop M2-F3 Lifting body research aircraft which provided valuable data for the Space Shuttle program.
In a separate gallery are artefacts from the Apollo program. These include one and a quarter F-1 rocket engines, cleverly arranged using mirrors to simulate the awesome sight of the five engines which supplied the powerplant for the Saturn V rocket. Looking at this fantastic piece of technology was genuinely moving – the Apollo project perhaps represents the pinnacle achievement of the 20th century, made even more remarkable by the fact that less than 70 years separate the lunar landings from the crude contraption of wood and fabric exhibited in an adjacent gallery.
Of all the historically significant items on display at the Smithsonian, surely none is more important than the original 1903 Wright Flyer. The aircraft on display is the machine designed and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Dayton before being transported to Kitty Hawk in North Carolina to make the first powered flight of a heavier than air machine on 17 December 1903. The aircraft has been restored and the fabric replaced twice since 1903 – once by Orville Wright in 1927 and later by Smithsonian staff in 1985. The recovering is as close to the original as possible and the aircraft is truly the centrepiece of the museum collection, representing the start of the era of flight.
Further galleries illustrate other early aircraft, produced by the Wright brothers and also other designers such as Curtiss and Bleriot. The Curtiss D-III Headless Pusher is actually a replica of the original aircraft, but dates from 1919 and incorporates parts from the original (1912) aircraft, and was built under the supervision of Glenn Curtiss himself. The museum also has an original Bleriot XI, built in 1914 and flown by John Domenjoz, a Swiss aviator who brought the aircraft to South America and eventually the US during WWI.
In common with the early flight galleries, the WWI gallery is kept very dark and as a result is difficult to photograph. There are some wonderful aircraft on display though, including the Voisin Type 8, the oldest surviving aircraft which was designed as a bomber. Another French designed aircraft from that period is the excellent Spad XIII, also used by American pilots during WWI. The German opposition is represented by two of the finest fighters of the WWI period – the Albatros D.Va and the Fokker D.VII.
Further galleries contain pioneering aircraft from the interwar period, including the Lockheed Vega 5B flown by Amelia Earhart on two of her pioneering flights in 1932. Sadly this particular gallery was closed for refurbishment at the time of my visit.
The WWII gallery contains a collection of the finest fighter aircraft from all of the major powers involved in the conflict. On the Allied side, the two best know fighters are represented – the American P-51D Mustang and the British Supermarine Spitfire. From the Axis powers come the Italian Aeronautica Macchi C.202 Folgore, the German Messerschmitt Bf109G-6/R3 along with the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero.
There is an excellent display dedicated to naval aviation, which features some rare aircraft as part of a small aircraft carrier diorama. Rarest of these is the Boeing F4B-4 biplane, one of 20 delivered to the US Marine Corps in 1932. The F4B-1 is joined by a WWII vintage Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter and a Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless dive bomber. From a more modern era comes the Douglas A-4C Skyhawk, carrying the markings of VA-76, the unit it was assigned to on the USS Bon Homme Richard during the Vietnam War.
An interesting display on the history of early jets contains three pioneering designs – the Messerschmitt Me262A-1a was acquired by the US military during Operation Lusty, the program to gather high technology German aircraft at the end of WWII. Alongside the Me262 is the first practical American jet fighter, the Lockheed XP-80 “Lulu Belle”. This aircraft was the first XP-80 built and provided important data for the development of the Shooting Star, and was also used to develop tactics to counter the advanced German jets. Also on display is a McDonnell FH-1 Phantom I, although this is displayed in a position which makes it impossible to photograph!
A gallery dedicated to airborne reconnaissance contains two contrasting types. The de Havilland DH-4 was a reconnaissance and bomber aircraft during WWI . The museum’s aircraft was the first American built DH-4, and did not see service during the war, being a test aircraft only. The observer is shown using a camera to take reconnaissance photographs – a role which the DH-4 excelled in. Representing perhaps the most famous reconnaissance aircraft ever produced is the Lockheed U-2C. Unusually, the aircraft is displayed in the camouflage scheme it wore whilst operating with the USAF from British bases in the Middle East, although this aircraft is known to have been flown by the CIA from bases in Europe, including RAF Lakenheath.
A new display at the museum illustrates what is probably the future of reconnaissance, and indeed many other combat operations. The pilotless UAV is taking over many of the traditional duties of manned aircraft, with attacks regularly being reported from drones over Afghanistan (and indeed over the border in Pakistan). The display includes a MQ-1L Predator, one of the first three UAVs to operate over Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. More modern, high tech UAVs on display include the Boeing X-45A and the Lockheed-Martin Boeing RQ-3A Dark Star, both of which represent large, stealthy and very capable platforms. UAVs are not universally loved, but I must admit I find them quite fascinating and this new display was a very interesting addition to the NASM.
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2010-08-04 - Tony Creasey
Great coverage and well photographed, was there only last week and anyone who hasn't been must make the trip.
2010-08-03 - Derek Waters
Great article Paul! Many thanks.
2010-08-03 - Chris Globe
Another fantastic article, thanks for reminding me that I really do need to go back!
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