The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum acquires an Air France Concorde on June 12 when the airplane - on its final flight - travels from Paris to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia for display at the museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The museum's new companion facility, adjacent to the airport, opens to the public Dec. 15.
The aircraft, F-BVFA, will be the first Concorde exhibited by a museum in the United States and is the oldest of five in the Air France fleet of the world's only supersonic passenger jetliner. The airline ended 27 years of Concorde service last month and, through an earlier agreement, had promised the Smithsonian the airplane on its retirement.
The sleek, delta-winged Concorde cruises at more than twice the speed of sound at around 1,350 mph, and at an altitude of up to 60,000 feet. A trip on the Concorde is about twice as fast as on conventional aircraft. A Concorde flight from Paris to Washington takes less than four hours with proper winds.
"Thanks to the generosity of Air France, this aircraft that captured the imagination of the world will now dazzle visitors at the Udvar-Hazy Center," museum Director Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey said. "As we approach the next century of flight, the story of this remarkable airplane lives on as testament to the next generation of aerospace design as well as our trans-Atlantic friendship."
In donating the aircraft to the Smithsonian, Air France Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta said the airline is confident "Concorde will be seen and admired by as many people as possible."
The airplane will be kept at a Dulles airport storage location for several months while the museum continues to move smaller aircraft and space artifacts into the new museum facility.
The Concorde, almost 204 feet long and with a maximum landing weight of just over 109 tons, is far too large and heavy for display in the Mall building. It will be exhibited at ground level in the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center aviation hangar.
The Concorde F-BVFA launched Air France's supersonic service, flying Paris to Dakar to Rio de Janeiro in January 1976. The airplane made a round-the-world trip in 1998 in 41 hours, 27 minutes. Before delivery to the Smithsonian, it had accumulated 17,820 flight hours during 6,966 flights. The museum's Dr. F. Robert van der Linden, who will be curator for the Concorde, has accepted Air France's invitation to be on the airplane's last flight.
More than 200 aircraft are ultimately destined for the Udvar-Hazy Center's aviation hangar, which is 10-stories high and the length of three football fields - enough space to hold the museum's flagship building on the National Mall inside with room to spare.
The center will eventually display the 80 percent of the national air and space collection not currently housed at the building on the Mall or on loan to other museums and institutions.
Smaller aircraft at the center will hang at two levels from the aviation hangar's trusses. Rising walkways will allow visitors to see the suspended aircraft up close while providing a sense of soaring.
Construction of the Udvar Hazy Center aviation hangar was substantially completed in March; work began in June 2001. The first airplane delivered to the facility was the diminutive Piper J-3 Cub, which arrived March 17 from the museum's storage facility in Suitland, Md. The first airplane suspended was the aerobatic champion Loudenslager Laser 200, which was lifted April 30 and hung with the fuselage pointing straight up in a climb typical of its history.
Artifact and exhibit-related deliveries to the center continue on an almost daily basis leading up to the December opening when some 80 aircraft will be in place - more than are currently displayed at the Mall building. Many have been dismantled because of their size and must travel in pieces. Those aircraft are being reassembled in the hangar and moved to their display locations. After the Udvar-Hazy Center opens, deliveries will resume early next year at a slower pace and continue until the facility is full.
The first construction phase of the center also includes the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar, named for the aerospace pioneer; the 164-foot-tall Donald D. Engen Observation Tower, named for the museum's late director; the Claude Moore Education Center, named for the Virginia philanthropist; an IMAX theater; and a food court.
Construction work continues on the McDonnell Space Hangar, which will house America's first space shuttle, Enterprise. The space hangar will be completed by opening day with the Enterprise installed and visible; however, the structure will not be accessible to the public until 2004 as Enterprise undergoes refurbishment. During the interim, some 50 large space artifacts will be previewed in the aviation hangar. The space hangar will ultimately house some 135 large space artifacts.
Thousands of smaller objects from the museum's collection will also be displayed throughout the Udvar-Hazy Center in customized cases, many adjacent to exhibit stations that will provide historical context through graphics and text. Some of the display cases will be more than 20 feet long.
A second phase of construction for the Udvar-Hazy Center - including a restoration hangar, archives, conservation lab, collections processing facility and a study collections storage unit - is planned, with the start date for construction dependent on fund-raising. The entire facility will be approximately 760,000 square feet. No federal funds are being used to build the Udvar-Hazy Center.
The National Air and Space Museum, comprised of the Udvar-Hazy Center and the museum's building on the National Mall, will be the largest air and space museum complex in the world. The flagship building is the most popular museum in the world, attracting more than 9 million visitors each year. Attendance at the Udvar-Hazy Center is projected at 3 million people a year.