#61 Air and Space….Chantilly VA

#61 Air and Space….Chantilly  VA

Thursday October 3, 2019

The Steven F. Undvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum located in Chantilly, VA may be on a “must see” list.  I am not a big fan of aircraft, but even I found this museum very interesting. I do apologize to all of you into aircraft for my lack of knowledge in this area.

Two enormous hangers provide space for about 180 aircraft and thousands of artifacts to be displayed.

The front hanger displays aircraft where larger planes sit on the ground, others are suspended in a mid-layer, and other hang closer to the ceiling.  The back hanger holds all things to do with Space.

 Each plane has its own reader board.

This shows the categories by which the planes are grouped.

These are in the WWII group.

The Enola Gay commanded a lot of floor space.  I couldn’t get over how big it is.

The Acrobatic planes probably rated as my favorites for their bright colors and what they do.

This Boeing plane sits with the General Aviation for Commercial air travel. 

 The Concorde fits in this category too.  It is so big I couldn’t fit it into one photo.

Check out a regular FedEx plane next to the Concorde!

Pepsi Skywriter

This was a strange one.  Many of this little flyers made us wonder if the  pilots had to be small men to fit in them.

Business aviation...the ever popular Lear Jet 23

Ever popular Cessna...the Spirit of Columbus

Pretty shiny plane......its aluminum skin looked as shiny as aluminum foil.

Gliders of all kinds hung in the general aviation section.

The basket from the Double Eagle II Balloon hangs where you can look down into it. Don't think I would like to spend days in this floating across the Atlantic Ocean.  Maine to France.

Coast Guard Chopper

Derrille says this is the type of jet used in the movie Top Gun.

Here’s an  old one that hasn’t been restored yet.

Check out the wings.  I didn't know wings could do this.

I found this marine chopper impressive also.

But nothing can compare to the big Blackbird SR 71!   The Blackbird looked menacing just sitting there. VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!  Lynn’s dad was a chief mechanic for these planes.

A large section displayed all kinds of engines.

Passenger planes take to the air and commercial flying is born.

Other planes.  On to the space section.

The Shuttle Discovery provides the focal pint in the Space Hanger dedicated to James McDonnell.

WOW it made a total of 39 missions.  I didn’t realize it had been that many.

A section on the nose cone flotation devices from our manned space flights line up next to the shuttle.

A variety of artifacts from space travel can be viewed here.

Communications satellite

This items are grouped as Space Science.

Satellites and space probes hung suspended from the ceiling.

The Spartan 201 Satellite

This trailer is for quarantine after the astronauts return.

Rockets, engines and missiles sat on the other side of the shuttle

Several types of missiles and rocket engines were on display.

Really tall missiles.   I had a little trouble viewing the weapons of war.

 Space Lab Module

The museum has the usual gift shop, the unusual food provided by McDonald’s and an IMAX theater show 3-4 full length movies.

An airplane aficionado could possibly spend days here.  We enjoyed our day.

Tomorrow we head for Williamsburg!