I remember when I visited the museum for the first time. The impression was great. Finally be there experiencing my dream to know every square centimeter of this amazing place, it was a dream come true. Enjoy the history of aviation and space and acquire knowledge about everything that has been done it was very rewarding. Thank you very much.
I was born in Washington and grew up in Kensington MD. I remember when the rockets were displayed outside by the castle and was thrilled when a new museum dedicated to Air and Space was announced. When it opened it was the talk of the town. It was mobbed and visits were so exciting. I especially enjoyed the movie "To Fly" on the massive screen. It was so immersive. Also, The Spirit of St Louis and touring early airliners...and astronaut food in the cafeteria!
I remember when my mom took me and my childhood best friend to the Air and Space Museum to see Barbara Bush. She read a book to a group of children, including the two of us, in the front open room underneath a plane. I don't remember the name of the book she read, but that memory has stuck with me for years.
I remember when I was dating my first love. She told me about how much she had loved to visit the Air and Space Museum as a child, and how she loved the opportunity to touch a moon rock. She would always think about how many other people had touched that same rock, and how it was like holding hands with hundreds of thousands of people who had touched that rock before her. When she told me that story, I fell even more in love with her. Now when I think of the Air and Space Museum, I think about that time in my life and smile. I like to think the artifacts in the collection really do unite us humans through our collective urge to explore. Whether through the touch of a hand, or the touching of a rock from a million miles away, it reminds me that I'm not alone.
I have been a salesman for many years . In April 2000 I had the privilege to sell a car to an elderly gentleman who's name was Heber Lloyd Jr . ( he was in his late 80's at the time and drove extremely well !) . In my conversation with him he stated he was an Eastern Airlines pilot at Bradley Airport in CT. from the 1930's into the early 1960's . He flew many airliner's from Martin 202's to 404's , but he was the first pilot of the actual DC-3 that currently is in the NASM ! Every time I visit , I always pause at that DC-3 and think of him . My Thanks and Happy 40th Birthday NASM !!!!!!!!!!! George L. Goggi
I first walked into the Milestones of Flight gallery when I was a child, roughly 35 years ago. I remember being completely in awe of all the awesome air and spacecraft on display. It's been a constant draw for me throughout my life, and is a big part of who I am. I got to see the newly renovated Milestones of Flight gallery and it's so great to see all my old favorites in new locations with updated information. Especially my good friend the Viking Lander, which I visit every time. I've been to the museum dozens of time and never get tired of seeing the exhibits.
NASA had me and John, (We were Parachute riggers) work on their re-entry systems, first a folding Regallo wing, then a Parachutes. We modified John Glenn's Parachute for Friendship 7.
Seeing the capsules that made space history up close, I always remember that it was actual men who chose to strap themselves into those tiny machines on the top of giant controlled explosions in order to do things nobody else could do. Just to see those machines up close is awe inspiring. What insanity or bravery. As much as the idea of space intrigues me, those guys did it in those tin cans. Truly amazing.
Seeing the capsules that made space history up close, I always remember that it was actual men who chose to strap themselves into those tiny machines on the top of giant controlled explosions in order to do things nobody else could do. Just to see those machines up close is awe inspiring. What insanity or bravery. As much as the idea of space intrigues me, those guys did it in those tin cans. Truly amazing.
On business from the UK , I was in Pennsylvania for 2 weeks in the winter of '93 and spent the middle week-end of the trip driving a rental Ford in a snowstorm from Pittsburgh to Washington and back to visit the Air and Space museum. I remember the Mercury 7 capsule, Spirit of St. Louis, Lockheed Electra and much more. Definitely worth the hours on the (very slippery) road to experience this museum!
When I visited the Air and Space Museum, I remember seeing the flimsy little Wright Flyer. In 1903 it was the first craft to achieve heavier than air flight, when its intrepid pilot famously traveled 260 metres (852 feet) before crashing. This year, in a single day, I flew a six-city, cross-Atlantic route for a distance of approximately 7000 km (3800 miles), at a cruising altitude of at least 9 km (30,000 feet) with hundreds of other passengers and crew. We obviously didn't crash. And that was a very ordinary journey. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is a fascinating showcase of how much progress has been made in just one century!
I was in DC for a conference and visited the National Air & Space Museum for the first time. I spent hours and hours wandering the galleries, reading most of the text, becoming more and more spellbound by the artifacts from one exhibition to the next. One of the last things I stumbled on were some exhibit prototypes fashioned from Styrofoam and cardboard--testing interactives for the future "How Things Fly," which was still years from opening then. I left that day so proud of a national museum that was rooted in preservation and explanation but also pushing the boundaries for the future and seeking a better understanding of its visitors. And I keep going back.
My family ancestry passion has taken me in search of any details that I can uncover especially regarding my uncle, Lt.Col. Louis Benne. He (and my mom and their siblings) was a son of immigrants, raised in rural Somerset County near Flight 93, was captivated at age 6 by Charles Lindbergh's flight to Paris, earned money to learn to fly while in high school, and when he graduated in 1940, he enlisted in the AAF eventually leading an escort squadron on his 52nd mission flying a P-38 over Budapest before he was shot down 14 Jun 1944. After his POW experience, he remained in the USAF until 1960 taking part in atomic testing (the effects of which led to his death at age 56) and then to Sperry Company where he was a test pilot and worked with some of the early astronauts as a result of a NASA contract. Consumed not to just learn the timeline of his life to write his story but to be able to connect with him through other means, I was thrilled to discover earlier this year that the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center had a P-38 on display. I went to the facility and now have a photo of me standing next to it --it was the motivation that took me from my home in Gettysburg to Shreveport, LA to meet the last survivor of my uncle's squadron. Jack is now 95 years old and was flying with my uncle on the mission when he was shot down. Seeing that plane before hearing Jack's story added so much context and dimension to the experience that otherwise I wouldn't have had. My uncle committed his life to flying at age 6 after the 1927 Lindbergh experience; my commitment to complete the narrative of his life was boosted immensely after seeing an actual P-38---the plane which made him a military ACE and a family hero.
On May 16, 1994, on the football field of a public middle school in rural Louisiana, a one-person airplane lifted off the ground to the cheers of the fifth graders who had built it. The plane lifted only a few feet into the air, but it was enough. This short flight represented a two year labor of love for a team of educators and two classes of students. This was no model or kit. It was designed and built by children who learned about physics, the scientific method, and construction along the way. The wings were made from foam wall insulation donated by a local company. The seat was made from an extension ladder and a seatbelt taken from an abandoned jeep. The pilot- a classroom teacher- wore a motorcycle helmet and a bulletproof vest borrowed from the town sheriff’s department. The pilot was my dad. -More info here: https://fammedvitalsigns.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/taking-flight-five-lessons-from-fifth-graders/ -Back in the 90s Louisiana Public Broadcasting did a brief feature on the Devall Flyer. The segment starts at 05:20, and the plane takes off at 07:27. http://ladigitalmedia.org/video_v2/asset-detail/LDDAD-109
I was an engineer on the launch teams for Gemini and Apollo in Florida. After leaving the space business, my career often took me back to the DC area, and my first stop was always the Air & Space museum. I would make a beeline to Apollo 11 and fondly remember excitement playing a small part in such an historic event. I would occasionally offer insight to other visitors and sometimes they would ask to have their picture taken with me in front of Apollo 11.
i love mars rover. i love to know more about mars and the research that is going behind it...
My only story with "Air and Space" was the supermoon came, in December 5th of 2016 - or something like that, I don't remember right. I checked out of my house, then I used my camera to register that moment. See the space from the earth makes us to think about how big is the universe, so, events like supermoon connect us with world and stars, and the space. This is weird to talk, but it's a perpection.
As a kid growing up in Newport News we lived about 20 airline miles from the enormous wind tunnels at NACA. Often enough their loud high pitched whine would wake me up at 2AM (2AM because electricity was cheapest then). That sound of "live science" played a part in my inspiration to become an MIT electrical engineer and work at NASA Langley '61-'65 before going into Medicine. A NACA engineer living on my black noted by fascination, and handed me a card with "wind tunnel - schlieren" and said here Tom, look this up, it will fascinate you." My very first real scientific word at age 14. The bait worked.
Hello there, I was looking through the app exploring which aircraft you had in your museums as I am due to visit Washington next month with my partner, I came across the Supermarine Spitfire you have on display and thought it looked familiar. My grandfather, Bryan ‘Mac’ McDowell has a photo of it hanging in his house. I asked him about this last night and he told me that he worked on this exact Spitfire before it was sent over to the USA! He worked on the pneumatics and hydraulics of the Spitfire. His anicdote of the time he spent working on it is that he’s a tall gentleman and after the testing of Spitfire, there was some power left and the gentleman in charge of the team of engineers helped my Grandfather in the cockpit and pushed him in (as he was so tall!) and had a real feel of all his works in this magnificent aircraft. He was absolutely over the moon when I told him about me visiting and it really made his day as he’s not in good health and it certainly made him look and feel better! It’s amazing what effect the memories of this aircraft and story had on him. I can’t wait to visit it to see it in person! Kindest regards Chris M.
i love to learn everything and i went in nasa way before and i had learn technology when i was 17 years old in high school and i do really love going back to learn with all of you again.
I had been an engineer on the launch team at Kennedy for Apollos 6-13. After leaving the space industry, I frequently took business trips back to the DC area and always made time for a visit to NASM and my old pal, Apollo 11. It thrilled me to just stand next to her and remember the "good old days". Once, some tourists were next to me and posed a question to each other about the mission for which I volunteered the answer. When my background came out, they all wanted me to pose with them for photos in front of the CM.
How far the Air and Space museum has come. First time I was privileged to visit the Smithsonian Museum was 1973. Wonderful experience at the age of 15. It was during Richard Nixon’s presidential inauguration. At that time there was no Air and Space Museum. The artifacts that I had the chance to see where located in the Castle. Very limited space was available to show the artifacts. I remember the Apollo 11 capsule, The Wright brothers flyer and Of course one of the first viewings of Moonrock’s. How exciting, but now you have grown to an amazing collection of items. Definitely a lot more square footage. And being a avid aviation enthusiast over the years I had the privilege of meeting and communicating with a few of the aviation’s greatest pilots that you have honored in the Air and Space Museum. General Chuck Yeager, Robert Hoover, Gregory (Pappy) Boyington And also having the enjoyment of seeing These pilots fly. Chuck Yeager, Robert Hoover, Paul Tibbetts and many others. So in closing, keep up the great work. So that future explorers will know where it all started.
StarCruiser; StarCruiser came to me on December 12, 2013 with a photograph that I hap-hazardly made off my balcony at 7:20 p.m.. I saw lights way to the northwest of the high rise that I live in. I prepared the camera and tripod and made the first photograph. I saw ports of light. I had time to make one photograph and I purposely made the photograph large enough to pull in what may be around the ports of light? A wing made of light above the ports. I thought this has got to be a different type of ship...perhaps a spaceship? March 5th, 2015 it came back for me. An old friend and neighbor of mine, Sandy, from Washington Park area in Denver, said; "Joe, I've noticed a beautiful and different light or star in the sky to the west for some time now...I don't think it is Venus? Would you take a look at it?" My flat faces north and I have a 180% view to the east and to the west. It is approximately 8 miles SW of downtown Denver, Colorado. I walked to the west side of my floor and saw something I had never seen before in the night sky? I started photographing it, in a fine arts light - from March 6th, 2015 on. Occasionally from atop Green Mountain, Colorado or Houston Park, Denver. Eighty percent of the time right from my balcony - ten feet from my living room. I thought I would learn more by doing frequent production. In September of 2015 things became up close and personal...just what I hoped and prayed for...It has not waned and it is as current as last night. Many different ships and occurences...time and time again...every shoot.
I designed the thermal protection for NTS - 2, the first of the GPS satellites. As a kid, in the 60’s, I was a geek following every launch but never thought I would be a contributor. In 1977 I was on-site at Vandenburg buttoning up the satellite, on a platform next to the Atlas rocket, garbed in a clean room outfit & monitored by TV where the other personnel sat safely in a bunker. Now “my satellite “ is space junk thousands of miles away. It will remain up there long after me!
I remember when I first visited the museum, it was an experience like no other. I enjoyed every minute I spent there exploring ...thank you so much for the opportunity
A group known as the Walldogs (www.thewalldogs.com) will be meeting in Streator, Illinois June 26-July 1st to paint historically themed murals. Our team was assigned the "Flight of the Vin Fiz" and we are excited to present Cal Rodgers' story of the first Transcontinental flight in 1911.
As we moved into Englewood Colorado in 1958 and my father went to work at the Littleton Martin company located in Waterton Canyon i became vary interested in the rocketry programs he was a part of..I had seen vary unusual vehicles carrying rockets between two tractors on a lowboy type bed situated between them. The vehicle was painted in the military AF blue. Both cabs front and rear set hi in order to navigate the streets as they shipped the missile to its destination to be loaded for air transport. My curiosity fed my interests in keeping abreast of the space program from then on. Dad didn't talk much do to security situations but non the less i watched the news. At the age of 15 back then it was amazing to watch. i will inquire of you any information on that ground vehicle. I would love to build a model of one.
I have long referred to myself as a “Trekkie” by default: I married one and gave birth to one. In 2006, my mother and daughter joined me on extended visit to the Washington, D.C. area. As a lifelong fan of NASA, sparked by my birth on July 20, 1969, my daughter knew a trip to Air and Space would be on the agenda. We were each allowed one special day to choose an activity - she went to a Pokémon competition, I went to a jazz festival, and her grandmother went to a quilt show near Dulles. My daughter and I did not want to go to the same quilt show, so I looked for something nearby we would enjoy. To my great pleasure, I discovered the Udvar-Hazy museum. The day we arrived, I had told Terran that we would be seeing the Enterprise, which excited her so much! Alas - her excitement was dashed when we had the following conversation upon our arrival: Me: Look, Terran - there’s the Enterprise! Terran: Where? I don’t see it! Me: Right there! (pointing directly across from us) Terran: Maawmm!? I don’t the starship anywhere?!?!! Me: Me: Me: Terran. The Enterprise was the first Space Shuttle. . . Terran: Oh. (finally sees the shuttle.) Ok. Me: Let’s go take a picture in front of it for your dad!!!! Terran: Whatever. Since then, we have both grown - I am now a Trekkie in my own right and she is a fully-fledged space geek. We have visited the Shuttle Endeavor as a family and discuss NASA news quite often. Thanks for keeping us space geeks connected in this crazy time.
In 1979 my father worked with President Carter. I was 5 years old at the time and we were renting a house in Alexandria, VA. Even though we were only there for a year we must have visited the Air and Space museum at least 20 times. Every time we went we saw To Fly on the big screen. After moving back to Ohio we continued to visit DC every 4th of July and sometimes during cherry blossom season. Every time we returned we went back to the Air and Space museum to see our favorite exhibits and to watch To Fly. My fathers favorite exhibit was the Enterprise as he was a Star Trek junkie. I loved it as well. I loved the moon rock and every time I was there I waited in line to touch it. For my brother he loved the plane that had Ryan written on it because that was his name. When my kids were born I kept the tradition and would bring them to DC for the 4th of July and the Air and Space museum became their favorite as well. Over the years I have been part of the many changes, some good and some sad. I miss that I can't see To Fly because it is only played once a month now and so far it hasn't been there playing when I visit. Many years ago we did buy the VHS cassette for my Mom because it was her favorite movie. She loved the part with the train. Sadly that cassette no longer plays and they do not offer that movie to sell. This is the first year since 1979 that I will not be there for the 4th because everything is closed. My children are older now and I know that when I become a grandparent my grandchilds first 4th of July will be spent in DC and the Air and Space will be the first museum I will take them to. Hopefully To Fly will be playing that weekend.
Most people have heard the term “Army Brat”, Navy Brat, etc....when referring to the children of career Military personnel.....have you ever heard the term “Space Brat”? We were the children of the multiple contractors and NASA personnel....that constantly made the moves “from and to” Edwards AFB, Houston, the Cape, White Sands, Huntsville, Patuxent, Langley (I went to six different schools in the first grade alone!!). My father, was a life long employee of North American Aviation, later Rockwell International. I was fortunate to witness various early launches of Little Joe II at White Sands....and later the Apollo launches from the Cape. When Apollo 11 headed for the heavens, I was a Sea Explorer in Titusville Florida....walking the Florida shoreline with my fellow Scouts, selling programs to tourists. The weekend between the launch and the moon landing, I did a Scout overnight canoe trip in Juniper Springs....then back home, to witness Neil Armstrong’s first steps down from the LEM’s ladder....to the moon’s surface. They were exciting, heady times. My Dad recently passed....and I am going through his meticulous employee records. In his den, surrounded by the models of the airplanes and spacecraft that he he worked on, and numerous Saturn V launch pictures and paintings, I’ve been reliving those days....now over fifty years ago.....when my brothers and sister.....and I.....proudly earned the title “Space Brats”.
