The National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, began construction to repair and resurface the exterior roof of its Boeing Aviation Hangar in April. This two-year project will be completed in sections and requires areas of the museum to be closed and some artifacts to be covered for their protection. This project is part of the Smithsonian’s planned maintenance and is unrelated to the temporary closure due to COVID-19. The project is scheduled to be completed in May 2022.

The Udvar-Hazy Center and the museum’s building in Washington, D.C., are currently closed as a public health precaution due to COVID-19. Because the roof construction is a multi-year project, the work will still be ongoing when the museum reopens to the public. In order to protect the artifacts from the construction work, visitors will not have access to parts of the building and will see some of the artifacts covered in protective materials, such as those in the “Modern Aviation” exhibition and the SR-71 aircraft.

The Udvar-Hazy Center opened in December 2003, and its roof has nearly reached its life span. The construction project entails making repairs to and replacing select areas of the building’s exterior envelope and putting down new polymethyl methacrylate overlay on the existing 320,000-square-foot Aviation Hangar roof. Updates will be provided on the museum’s website throughout the project.

The National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is located at 655 Jefferson Dr. The museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington Dulles International Airport. Both facilities are currently closed to support the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. Visit the museum’s website for more information.

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