National Air and Space Museum

You must have know that with my airplane interests I would drag you through the Air and Space museum. It is amazing what they have here for aviations history. If you recall a blog I did awhile ago at Kitty Hawk about the Wright Brothers, I showed a replica of the original first flight aircraft. Well! Here is the actual first flying airplane. This plane was damaged after the first 4 flights and the repairs are still visible on it. Way cool!

Charles Lindberg was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic and became very famous for doing it. This is the actual plane used, The Spirit of St. Louis. Now this is being in the presence of greatness. I mean, wow! I love this museum. Although there are many historic planes, I controlled myself (because I didn't want you to drift off) and took few pictures here. Actually, I walked around with my mouth open and forgot to take pictures, but, whatever. No pictures of Amelia Earhart's plane, no X-1 or X-15. What was I thinking? I'm going back.

 You have no idea how cool this picture is. Its a Japanese Zero from the second world war. Big deal you say. Until I saw this actual Zero (not a replica) I was under the belief that not a single one had survived and I was doomed to pictures for my information. I love this place!

This, if you don't remember from previous blogs, is an ME 262, the first jet used in combat by the Germans. Jets were such a leap in technology that nothing could catch this plane in combat so the allies, because they had air superiority near the end of the war, hung around the German airstrips and shot the ME 262 down as it tried to land. It only had about 30 minutes of fuel so that didn't take long. A game changer, but way too late in the war.

If you know what this is without being told, you're a better man that I. But thats whats so great about the Smithsonian. Theres stuff here you've never heard of. This is Howard Hughes record breaking plane. If you saw the movie Aviator starring Leonardo DiCaprio, this is the plane featured in it. Fastest speed, highest altitude, longest distance, this plane did it all! The man may have been insane, but he was a genius.

But, don't forget about the space part of the museum. This is the backup of the Hubble telescope which would have been launched if the original developed problems prior to launch. Isn't it huge? In the space section, there are modules which came back from the moon, from the first space flight, one of the Russian Soyuz capsules is here. There is more space history here, but, because I'm not really into space stuff, thats all I got. Hope you enjoyed the tour.