June 9, 2013 - Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum
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| My parents were visiting and we were looking for something to do this Sunday afternoon. Someone suggested the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum. My parents had seen it but it had been a long time ago -- back in 2004 -- and a lot of planes have been added since then, including the Space Shuttle Discovery. So we drove down to the museum down by Dulles Airport. Here we are outside the entrance. |
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This is the Mary Baker Engin Restoration Hangar. Can you guess what plane they are restoring below? It is a Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver. The U.S. Navy flew them in World War II and it was the successor to the famous SBD Dauntless dive bomber. |
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A Sikorsky JRS-1 flying boat. This particular airplane was actually stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
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| NO idea what these planes are. But I am wondering why everything is covered in plastic. |
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| Checking out the Space Shuttle Discovery. |
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| The Discovery has definately been around the world a couple of times .... |
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My Dad checking out one of the Mercury capsules. It's amazingly small. It was a single-seat ship. All I can say is those early astronauts were some brave hombres.
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| This Stearman N2S hung from the ceiling in Dahlgren Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy for many years. |
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This particular F-14 was one of the two Tomcats that shot down two Libyan MiG-23s in the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1989. Link. |
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| A Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk which operated from the U.S. Navy's flying aircraft carriers, the dirigibles Akron and Macon. |
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| The little homebuilt -- the Little Bee Gee -- flew from Oregon to Washington D.C. in 1947 and 1951, flights that paved the way for the homebuilt movement we have today. |
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| This is an original Curtiss JN-4D Jenny. And looks it. |
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| Focke-Wulf FW-190 |
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| We went up into the Donald D. Engen Observation Tower. My first time. Up here you get an appreciation for how big the building really is. |
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| I landed my RV on that runway to the right of the Dulles Tower last year. |
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The Observation Tower from the ground.
We watched the IMAX movie "Air Racers" about the Reno Air Races. Recommended.
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