Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Totally Explained

Everything about Udvar-hazy Center totally explained

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.
NASM has always had more artifacts than could be displayed at the main museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C (Most of the collection had been stored, unavailable to visitors, at the Paul Garber facility in the Silver Hill section of Prince George's County, Maryland.) The Center was made possible by a US$65 million gift in October 1999 to the Smithsonian Institution by Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, an immigrant from Hungary and co-founder of the International Lease Finance Corporation. Construction of the Center required fifteen years of preparation and was built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
Plans call for additional phases that will move the restoration facility and the museum archives to the site from their current location at the Garber facility.

Collection

Opened in December 2003, the Udvar-Hazy Center displays historic aviation and space artifacts, especially items too large for the National Air and Space Museum's building on the National Mall, including:

the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
the Space Shuttle Enterprise
the Gemini VII capsule
an SR-71 Blackbird
an Air France Concorde supersonic airliner
the Boeing 367-80 jet transport, which was the prototype for the Boeing 707
a Redstone rocket
the Langley Aerodrome A, an early attempt at powered flight by Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley
the Northrop N-1
the only surviving Dornier Do 335 Pfeil
the only surviving Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the ex-Pan Am "Clipper Flying Cloud"
the only surviving Heinkel He 219 Uhu
the only surviving Arado Ar 234 "Blitz"
one of three surviving Bachem Ba 349 Natters
the only surviving Nakajima J1N1 Gekko
one of four surviving Northrop P-61 Black Widows
one of two surviving Boeing P-26 Peashooters
a Bede BD-5, single-seat, home-built aircraft that was somewhat popular in the 1970s (5J version is smallest manned jet aircraft)
the Beck-Mahoney Sorceress, which is known as the "winningest" racing biplane in aviation history
a Hawker Hurricane fighter
a Japanese balloon bomb, such as the one that killed 6 US civilians in Oregon during World War II
Lockheed Martin X-35 Joint Strike Fighter, prototype of the F-35 Lightning II
F-14 Tomcat involved in the Gulf of Sidra incident (1989)
The Gossamer Albatross, which was the first man-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel
The primary special-effects miniature of the "Mothership" used in the filming of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, piloted by Steve Fossett for the first solo nonstop and nonrefueled circumnavigation of Earth

The museum is still in the process of installing exhibits, but 141 aircraft and 148 large space artifacts are already on display as of June 2007, and plans call for the eventual installation of over 200 aircraft. It also contains an IMAX theater.

Getting There

The Udvar-Hazy Center is located near Dulles Airport. From downtown Washington, DC, the easiest route runs from I-66 West to VA 267 (Dulles Toll Road) West to VA 28 South, then follow the signs to a specially-marked exit off of VA 28 that leads directly to the museum parking lot.
Unlike most museums in the Washington, DC area, there's a fee of $12 USD to park at Udvar-Hazy because of its close proximity to Dulles Airport; the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority requested a parking fee higher than the least expensive parking fee at Dulles due to the possibility of travelers taking advantage of lower-cost parking at a non-airport location, as well as the financial and insurance liabilities associated with airport patrons parking on non-airport property. The fee is assessed per vehicle entering the facility.
While it's possible to get to Udvar-Hazy from the National Air & Space Museum using mass transit, there's no direct transit route on either the DC-based Metro Rail or bus system to the museum. Visitors wishing to take mass transit to Udvar-Hazy from downtown DC should take Metro Bus #5A to Dulles Airport (cost varies per time of day), then catch the Virginia Regional Transit shuttle to the museum ($0.50 USD per rider). The entire commute takes approximately 80 minutes. Contrary to what several tourism guides suggest, there's no shuttle directly from the National Air & Space museum on the National Mall directly to the Udvar-Hazy Center (it was discontinued in 2006). The National Air & Space Museum has a flier available to patrons with shuttle bus schedules and bus & route information.

Photo gallery

Image:MiG-udvar-hazy.jpg|MiG 15 of the type piloted by Polish defector Franciszek Jarecki Image:Enolagay-udvar-hazy.jpg|The Enola Gay Image:Grinupthejone.JPG|The shuttle Enterprise Image:Close Encounters Mothership.jpg|Model of the Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, on display in the space wing of Udvar-Hazy Image:Concorde-udvar-hazy.jpg|Air France Concorde Image:Concordaircraft2.JPG|Air France Concorde Image:Interior-udvar-hazy.jpg|Interior view showing the Enola Gay Image:SmithsonianHawkerHurricane.jpg|A British designed Hawker Hurricane fighter Image:Space_Shuttle_Enterprise_at_Udvar-Hazy_Center.jpg|The space shuttle Enterprise Image:Shuttle Panorama.JPG|The space shuttle Enterprise Image:Udvar-hazy-888.jpg|The SR-71 at the center of the hangar Image:UdvarHazyCenter.jpg|Interior view Image:GlobalFlyer at Udvar-Hazy.jpg|Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer Image:Virgin Atlantic.JPG|Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer Image:Enola Gay 2.JPG|Enola Gay Image:097 Piasecki PV-2.jpg|Piasecki PV-2 Further Information

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