Stories of daring, stories of technological feats, stories of prevailing against the odds ... these are the stories we tell at the National Air and Space Museum. Dive in to the stories below to discover, learn, and be inspired.
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All the military aircraft and some of the civilian ones in our collections have to be demilitarized before they go on display or into storage.
Wherever Soviet submarines went during the Cold War, they were likely being watched by P-3 Orions.
A global warning system keeps active volcanoes from shutting down commercial aviation.
The fully restored P-61 black widow is on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
The Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk was a light 1930s biplane fighter aircraft that was designed to launch from the United States Navy airships USS Akron and Macon.
During WWII one plane survived more missions than any other in Europe. Named 'Flak-Bait,' this medium bomber was saved from the scrap heap after the war and immediately donated to the Smithsonian. However, public display and outdated restoration techniques have taken a toll on the plane.
The National Air and Space Museum’s World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation gallery will highlight the war's central role in defining the nature of military aviation and the remarkable experiences of World War I aviators.
How the National Air and Space Museum acquired the Boeing 747 for America by Air exhibition.
It's a bird? It's a plane? Its a guy pretending to be a bird?? We have a very odd aircraft in the collection.
When the K-III’s designer James Vernon Martin offered the diminutive aircraft to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum in 1924, he presented it as “the first aeroplane in the entire world to incorporate the retractable chassis.” The aircraft is a one-of-kind, experimental World War I era single-seat scout biplane.