Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar

The overlook is open for public viewing.

While the collections staff continues to move objects into the Restoration Hangar, artifacts and the specialists working on them can be seen from the mezzanine.

The newly constructed Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar is spacious enough to accommodate several aircraft at one time. The facility will give the Museum’s specialists the room and equipment required to reconstruct, repair, and preserve artifacts. From a glassed-in mezzanine, visitors are able to view behind-the-scenes work rarely seen by the public.

The Restoration Hangar will houses numerous support shops where Museum staff will complete the many highly specialized functions necessary to preserve this valuable collection.

What will be restored?

Since the National Air and Space Museum is as much about the future as it is about the past, objects continue to be added to the collection on a regular basis.

As the official repository of NASA artifacts, the Museum is preparing for the disposition of thousands of artifacts from the space shuttle program. Among the artifacts anticipated are a shuttle-era spacesuit, and a variety of vehicle components, crew equipment, and science payloads.

Many significant artifacts already in the collection are in the queue for restoration. One of them is the Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver, the type of aircraft former Museum director Don Engen flew in World War II.

The Museum has long planned to restore the Helldiver, but limited space and resources at the Paul E. Garber Restoration and Storage Facility have kept the project grounded. With the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar open, the Helldiver is one of the first aircraft scheduled to be restored.

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