Showing 11 - 20 of 37

Story Explore the Wright Flyer Posted on Mar 24, 2021

Explore all of the rich content about the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer that can be found on the Museum's website.

Topics: Aviation Aircraft Early flight Records and Firsts
Story Tingmissartoq! Charles and Anne Lindbergh Tour Greenland Posted on Mar 22, 2021

Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, hosted the Lindberghs for three weeks in the summer of 1933 and one of their stops was the southern town of Julianehaab, now known as Qaqortoq.

Topics: Aviation Interwar aviation People
Story Imagining Faster-Than-Light Travel Posted on Jan 27, 2021

After the 1950s, fictional depictions of space travel needed to suggest conceivable ways to cross interstellar distances to seem plausible. Some authors suggested faster-than-light drives, hyper drives, jump drives, worm holes, and black holes.

Topics: Spaceflight Society and Culture Science fiction
Story A Mars Rover Lands in Virginia Posted on Sep 23, 2020

A new Mars rover has landed at the Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Surface System Test-Bed (SSTB) is nearly identical to the MER twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity that landed on Mars in 2004. What makes the SSTB different, however, is that it was designed for use on Earth.

Topics: Spaceflight Robotics Solar System
Story Touching a Piece of the Moon Posted on Dec 03, 2019

In the over 40 years our lunar touchrock has been on display, millions of people have walked through our doors and touched a piece of the Moon. Intrigued by this idea, staff photographer Jim Preston took over 60 photos of visitors touching our little piece of the Moon.

Topics: Spaceflight Apollo program Moon (Earth) Behind the scenes Physical science
Story The Power of Black and White Photography: Learning to See in Shades of Grey Posted on Sep 30, 2019

A museum staff photographer reflects on photographing in black and white and learning to see in shades of grey.

Topics: Aviation Aircraft Art Behind the scenes
Story The Big Three Posted on Sep 25, 2019

This summer, visitors had a unique opportunity to see the transformation of American commercial aviation on the floor of the Mary Engen Restoration Hangar: the Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor, the Boeing 247-D, and the Douglas DC-3

Topics: Aviation Aircraft Commercial aviation
Story The Many Lives of Buster the Air Racer Posted on Sep 06, 2019

Since the earliest days of flight, air racing has been an exciting motorsports activity. We have in our collection many of the aircraft that made history by winning races and setting records, like Steve Wittman’s Special 20 Buster, which lived two lives in air racing and proved to be an inspiration for an entire class of air racers.

Topics: Aviation Aircraft Sports aviation
Story Star-Spangled Artifacts Posted on Jul 04, 2019

In honor of Fourth of July, we explore artifacts in our collection with American flags.

Topics: Aviation Aircraft Spaceflight Spacecraft
Story A Year of Anniversaries for Record-Setter Bill Odom and the Beechcraft 35 Bonanza Posted on May 20, 2019

2019 marks the 70th anniversary of two long-distance light plane records by William P. Odom. Those records were set in the Museum’s Beechcraft 35 Bonanza, which is displayed at our Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. In addition, it is also the 100th anniversary of William Paul Odom’s birth, on October 21, 1919, in Porum, Oklahoma.

Topics: Aviation People Records and Firsts