Pictures from the National Air and Space/Udvar-Hazy Center

There are some lovely aircraft in there for sure, and my favourites are probably the P-38 and the Fw.190.

It is a magnificent collection, but I have to say it left me rather cold, don’t ask me why. In addition, given that there are around 80 aircraft in there at present, and that the total will eventually be 200 plus, it is going to get mighty crowded!

I don’t want to take anything away from it, it is an astonishing achievement, but it just did not give me much of a buzz when I was there. Perhaps it is just all too new at present. Sorry Smithsonian!

The P38 is beautiful, just superb. Thank you very much for the pictures, as others have said, it is great to see somewhere that I for one cannot get to at the moment,

I’ll admit that the lifts are a bit unusual but I rather liked how it displayed the aircraft. It’s my guess that the lifts allowed the cockpit to be elevated high enough so that it was clearly visible from the overhead walkway.

Many thanks for posting these Whiskey Delta…it is nice to see pictures from the other side of the pond 🙂

steve, the ceiling might not be up to the job to of hanging it 🙂

nice photo’s!

good to see its not a permanent fixture there.

would love to go see that ar234.

coanda

What a fabulous looking collection! As jbs says, this one’s also on my list. Enola Gay sitting there with sole survivors of the Arado 234 and the Aichi Seiran… spine tingling stuff.

Question – surely if they’ve gone to such lengths to make the place such an impressive looking museum, why stick Enola Gay up on bright yellow scissor lifts? Not entirely in keeping with the rest of the place… Overall though, it’s looking very tempting. I can feel an American holiday coming on….

What a fabulous looking collection! As jbs says, this one’s also on my list. Enola Gay sitting there with sole survivors of the Arado 234 and the Aichi Seiran… spine tingling stuff.

Question – surely if they’ve gone to such lengths to make the place such an impressive looking museum, why stick Enola Gay up on bright yellow scissor lifts? Not entirely in keeping with the rest of the place… Overall though, it’s looking very tempting. I can feel an American holiday coming on….

WD,

Great shots, thanks for posting

It’s on my list of “must visit” museums as it wasn’t complete when I was in DC 🙁

It’s still a developing collection with a lot of open space left for additional aircraft which made for a quick visit. Still, it was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone flying through the Washington-Dulles airport. I have more pictures if anyone is interested.

This last group is just of the Enola Gay. The aircraft was on large stands which elevated it quite far off the ground and gave a great view. It was also parked right up against a nearby walkway so you could look right down into the cockpit which was nicely lit.

Round 3: A few jets

Round 2