Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Last week we went to the Steven F.Udvar-Hazy Center is the National Air and Space Museum at the Dulles International Airport. There was a free tour which was awesome and well worth taking. We had a small group of about 5 people when we started and then 2 more people joined us. Our guide was David Passmore and he was excellent so if you get to go, ask for him! He loved what he was doing and was extremely knowledgeable. He projected his voice well and didn’t need to use a microphone which made him easier to understand.

Here are some things that I learned from him:

1.     They are having to decide whether to go with Preservation vs restoration when looking at artifacts.

2.     Billy Mitchell was courtmartialed for insubordination because he said that the US didn’t need battleships anymore.

3.     Pilots used scarves to wipe goggles

4.     Rotary engines were used to keep the engines cool

5.     Wrights painted their airplane silver so it wouldn't show up on black and white photos.

6.     FedEx plane

a.     was named Wendy after the founder’s daughter.

b.     N on the tail means it is US registered

c.     Started with #8 so people would think he had more planes than he really did.

d.     Gambled money in Las Vegas to save the company

7.     the Concorde

a.     100 tons of fuel to fly

b.     Nose droops so pilot can see runway

8.     1st pressurized airliner -Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud

9.     Boeing Dash 80 became the 707

10.  Incendiary bombs in Tokyo killed more people than the ABomb

11.  BMW logo came from propeller spinner.

12.  Google search Seiran for PBS secrets of the Dead series

13.  Sr71 blackbird

a.     is the fastest plane ever built.

b.     It is a reconnaissance plain.

c.     Can fly at 65000 feet altitude

d.     2000 mph

e.     550F when flying

f.      It grows 6 in when it heats up in flight

g.     2 1/2 hrs before it needed more fuel

h.     Nose would get 1500F

i.      None were ever shot down

14.  Discovery

a.     spent 365 days in space over 39 missions;

b.      the most time in space

c.     John Glenn flew in it

d.     Fewest operational problems

15.  Launched the Hubble space telescope

16.  24000 tiles to protect the shuttle

17.  Inject every tile to get them ready for the next mission.

18.  To reuse it we spend $1 billion

19.  Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Shuttle

20.  Endeavor is in the California Science Museum

21.  We pay $60 million for our astronauts to go to the ISS.

Have you ever been here? What did you think? Please share