Everyone knows the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. - it's a staple of the National Mall experience for kids and adults alike. Thinking of visiting? Well here, let me give you some unsolicited advice:
It's a waste of your time.
No really! Hear me out. I love air. I love space. I love them more than just about anyone you'll ever meet, so much so that I've been to that very museum three different times - once for each of my visits to D.C. Sure, the exhibits are well composed and it does house some amazing aeronautical artifacts but let's be honest here, you're only at that museum because you want to see some big friggin' airplanes, am I right? Well, that and the convenience. The NASM is, like, right there, how can you not spend a few hours inside?
I'll tell you what you need to do instead, you engineering nerd you. Take the Metro back to wherever you're staying, grab the kids, grab the wife and get ready to have the time of your life at Washington Dulles International Airport!
"But Colin," those of you familiar with the area are probably saying, "That airport is the absolute worst! You'd be better off flying out of BWI in Baltimore!" Okay yes, that airport is garbage, I know but hear me out. You're not going to the airport itself, you're going next to the airport. Specifically, to the NASM hanger annex, also known as the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
That is where you're going and you will thank me when you get there.
Completed in 2010, the annex consists of a 760,000 square foot display hanger, observation tower and restoration hanger. Inside the main hanger alone, there are over two-hundred aircraft! These aren't just dinky little crop-dusters, either - we're talking about some massive machines.
There was one aircraft, however, that I came specifically to see - one with which I have a personal connection. I've saved that one for the very end.
Full disclosure: If you haven't figured it out by now, this post is just airplane porn. Enjoy!
Above: SR-71 Blackbird - the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft
Above: The Enola Gay - the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb ever detonated during wartime over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
One of only a handful of surviving aircraft from Pearl Harbor.
Above left: The capsule Felix Baumgartner used for his record setting skydive in 2012. I remember watching this live, so seeing it in person was pretty exciting.
Above right: Moments before the jump. (Source)
The scale of this museum is truly staggering. When all was said and done, I probably spent in excess of four hours here, which is one of the perks of traveling alone - I was at the mercy of none, save for my own aching feet.
After hours and hours of nerding out in the worst way, I had saved the best for last. I wandered into the rear hanger dedicated to all of the space equipment, for the one thing I came all this way to see - the space shuttle Discovery.
Discovery and I go way back. One day during my senior year of college, I skipped class with my girlfriend and a classmate I barely knew in order to drive down to Cape Canaveral to watch Discovery's final launch. It was a 16 hour round trip, so I remember being nervous about spending so much time in a car with some dude from studio whom I barely knew. We ended up having a blast and became fast friends - in fact, he was the one who told me where Discovery's final resting place would be.
We watched from Titusville, which, at that time, was the closest you could get to the launchpad. At ten miles away, I still remember how deafening the sound was as the shuttle lifted off, how the rocket engines of that dime-sized spacecraft in the distance burned so brightly, like the white-hot flame of a welding torch. We'd been lucky - due to an issue with one of the downrange cameras and an errant boat wandering into the "danger zone" off the coast, flight control came within minutes of scrubbing the mission. That's the reality of driving so far for a shuttle launch - you could end up spending sixteen hours on the road for nothing. But we got what we came for and it was an experience I'd never forget. To see Discovery again, so close and intimate, was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip.
(Source: All images are the author's own unless noted otherwise)
CWO