June 9, 2013 - Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum

My parents were visiting and we were looking for something to do this Sunday afternoon.  Someone suggested the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum.  My parents had seen it but it had been a long time ago -- back in 2004 -- and a lot of planes have been added since then, including the Space Shuttle Discovery.  So we drove down to the museum down by Dulles Airport.    Here we are outside the entrance.
   
This is the Mary Baker Engin Restoration Hangar.   Can you guess what plane they are restoring below?  It is a Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver.  The U.S. Navy flew them in World War II and it was the successor to the famous SBD Dauntless dive bomber.
   
A Sikorsky JRS-1 flying boat.  This particular airplane was actually stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
   
NO idea what these planes are.  But I am wondering why everything is covered in plastic.
   
Checking out the Space Shuttle Discovery.
   
The Discovery has definately been around the world a couple of times ....
   
 
   
My Dad checking out one of the Mercury capsules.  It's amazingly small.  It was a single-seat ship.  All I can say is those early astronauts were some brave hombres.
   
This Stearman N2S hung from the ceiling in Dahlgren Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy for many years.
   
This particular F-14 was one of the two Tomcats that shot down two Libyan MiG-23s in the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1989.  Link.
   
A Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk which operated from the U.S. Navy's flying aircraft carriers, the dirigibles Akron and Macon.
   
The little homebuilt -- the Little Bee Gee -- flew from Oregon to Washington D.C. in 1947 and 1951, flights that paved the way for the homebuilt movement we have today.
   
This is an original Curtiss JN-4D Jenny.  And looks it.
   
Focke-Wulf  FW-190
   
We went up into the Donald D. Engen Observation Tower.  My first time.  Up here you get an appreciation for how big the building really is.
   
I landed my RV on that runway to the right of the Dulles Tower last year.
   

The Observation Tower from the ground.

We watched the IMAX movie "Air Racers" about the Reno Air Races.  Recommended.

   
 
   
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