Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey, director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, announced today that the mild winter in Northern Virginia put construction of the museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center ahead of schedule.
The center at Washington Dulles International Airport, set to open in December 2003, will allow the public to see the 80 percent of the national collection not displayed at the museum's flagship building on the National Mall in Washington or on loan.
Construction of the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center began in June 2001 with thrust blocks formed to hold the 10-story arched trusses of the facility's aviation hangar. Assembly of the 21 trusses began in November 2001, with the first truss complete and in place at the end of January 2002. The first portions of the ceiling/roof were completed soon after. The final truss will likely be set on its thrust blocks late this spring, ahead of schedule.
Swift progress also has been made in forming the walls, screening pit and seating tiers for the center's IMAX® theater; erecting almost 100 feet of steel for the 164-foot-high Donald D. Engen observation tower; and completing the frame and much of the exterior of the facility's central utility plant. In addition, slabs are in place for the center's classrooms and the center's loading dock has been formed. The tower is named for the museum's late director.
The Udvar-Hazy Center's opening will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight. The center is named for International Lease Finance Corp. founder and chief executive officer Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, who contributed $65 million for the facility.
"Nothing beats strong tailwinds during construction of a project that has been in the planning stages for decades," Dailey said. "The public has looked at blueprints, models and computer-generated images of the Udvar-Hazy Center but there's no substitute for seeing the buildings themselves take form." The center is now visible from nearby roadways and it is a distinct landmark for passengers flying in and out of Dulles Airport.
The 293,700-square-foot aviation hangar is set to be completely covered this summer, with doors installed during the fall. Equipment to be installed in the central utility plant began arriving earlier this month. The Engen tower will be topped this spring. The first artifacts to be housed at the center will be transferred in February 2003.
The National Air and Space Museum is the most visited museum in the world, welcoming more than 9 million people every year. It is home to the original 1903 Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia.
The Udvar-Hazy Center is expected to draw 3 million to 4 million visitors each year. The aviation hangar alone will display more than 200 aircraft including an SR-71 Blackbird, the
B-17 Swoose and the Dash Eighty original Boeing 707 prototype.
The center's space hangar, adjoining the aviation hangar, will hold more than 135 space vehicles including the space shuttle Enterprise.
In honor of the Air and Space Museum's building on the Mall and the new Udvar-Hazy Center, two small museum flags are flying onboard space shuttle Atlantis during its current mission that includes transporting the first major external truss section to the International Space Station.
Dailey says the flags are "a wonderful way to commemorate the most exciting expansion project on Earth as the most exciting one in orbit takes shape."
The Udvar-Hazy Center is being built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co., an employee-owned company with headquarters in Greeley, Colo., and its Mid-Atlantic regional office located in Chantilly, Va. The Smithsonian awarded the Udvar-Hazy contract to Hensel Phelps on April 10, 2001.