Visiting NASM, but only one day

In My Humble Opinion
1

TheLadyLion and I will be in the DC area during thanksgiving week and I plan to spend a day at the Smithonian air and space museum. I’d like to spend several days there but can only allow myself one since my wife will go into overload. After several hours looking at vintage planes her eyes glaze over and she has that “all these ^%$#in’ airplanes look the same” expression.

My dilemma is how to best use my time there. I must see the Icons of Flight display with the X-1, Spririt of St. Louis, Wright Flyer and now Spaceship One. The X-1 alone justifies that as I’ll probably stand and gawk like a fanboy. Chuck Yeager is like a god to me. Where do I go from there? Take the tour bus to the Udvar-Hazy center or stick to the national mall building? What are your “must see” planes?

2

Well, first off, define “Thanksgiving Week”, please. If you mean the week before, I’ll be in DC then and would gladly tour both facilities with ya.

I’m there from the 18th to the 22nd.

No real “must see” planes, unless you define “must see” as everything in both buildings.

3

We arrive at DC the morning of the 18th. We’re staying in Williamsburg Va during the week but will drive to DC for at least one day and will stay there the 25th and 26th. I think a weekday before thanksgiving would be good but we need to finalize our schedule.

4

As much as I’m all for joint activities, museum viewing is mostly a solo activity for me. The next time we go to DC I am planning on setting aside some time for both of us to look at pretty things together, and then some time for each of us to look at our own things.

That way, I can be looking at steam engines and airplanes while my wife is looking at the First Ladies’ gowns.

It’s really dull to be walking through a museum looking at stuff at somebody else’s pace. Kind of like looking at a friend’s photo album while he or she flips the pages slowly, giving narration.

5

Unless they’ve changed things around (it’s been a couple years), what they’re calling “Icons of Flight” is what most folks would call “the main lobby” - pretty hard to miss any of that stuff, and they’re visible as you walk from one area to another.

Whether to visit Udvar-Hazy is really dependent on how much you’re into the historical planes - it’s basically an airplane hanger with the planes & such in rows and hanging, but very little in the way of interpretation - it seems mostly to exist so people can say “hey, there’s the Enola Gay! And a SST Concorde!” It’s basically a large version of the Icons of Flight at the main building.

6

I agree. Last year I had to go DC for work. It was my first trip there and I had a couple free days which I spent wandering various museums all by myself. It was wonderful.

7

I am a huge A&SM fanboy. My mother was a grade-school teacher whose annual field trip to that museum always got me a day off – I would tag along with her class (“fifth graders! BIG KIDS! …and AIRPLANES!”) every year for something like six years in a row. I could give the tour. And I’m here to tell you: you won’t fill up a whole day in the Air and Space Museum unless you are examining rivets on every exhibit. Now: do not miss the SS-20 on your left as you walk in (to my knowledge, it’s one of the few you can see in America). Definitely check out all of the hanging displays in the main hall. The security has really [del]fxcked[/del] messed up the grandeur of that initial step into the room, but it’s still breathtaking.

Get there a little after it opens (the initial line to get in at 10am is always a pain) and plan to spend maybe three hours (?) there. I haven’t been down to Udvar-Hazy yet, because it’s down in Northern Virginia and traffic is awful. Maybe it’s better during the day? Anyway, you should take your wife across the Mall to the National Gallery and/or the Museum of Natural History. The American History Museum is also fun – all three are along the north side of the Mall, and all three can be day-long or hour-long tours.

Stay until the museums close, then walk northeast to Union Station and get dinner at the East Street Cafe on the top floor – great Asian food and good people-watching.

8

I really liked Udvar-Hazy because I like seeing larger aircraft on display. The “giant hangar” format reminds me of Wright-Patterson and the SAC Museum. I originally visited the NASM when I was 10 years old–the perfect age for it, I think. I’ve been back several times, but found it a little claustrophobic–too many 10 year old kids running around! :smiley:

9

I worked at NASM from 1984 to 1996.

Unfortunately, you have picked literally the two busiest days of the year to visit. I assume that being there on the day before Thanksgiving, or even better, Thanksgiving day itself, isn’t possible? Thanksgiving is practically empty (although they may close early–check on that) and the day before, while more crowded than Thursday, is much less crowded than Friday.

If crowds bother you, you might want to consider doing Udvar-Hazy instead of the downtown museum. I left long before U-H opened, but I’d guess that although Fri-Sat will be its busiest days, too, it’ll be much less crowded than downtown. You can pretty much see all of U-H in a couple of hours, because as JerH said, it is only planes with very basic labels, no exhibitry to speak of.

A warning about U-H: admission is free, but parking is $12 per car. There are no free parking options. There’s a shuttle from the downtown museum that costs something like $7-8.

If you’re set on downtown, as others have said, the must-see artifacts are in the main entrance hall, called Milestones Hall. The Apollo 11 command module, John Glenn’s Mercury capsule, Yeager’s Bell X-1, the X-15, and just unveiled, SpaceShipOne. And the only moon rock in the world that you can actually touch. It’s easy to miss, in a tall pillar near the center entrance on the Mall side.

The 1903 Wright Flyer has been moved to an exhibit on the Wright Brothers on the second floor.

First thing when you get in, go to the box office for the IMAX theater and get a ticket for a film. Shows will sell out early. If you’ve never seen To Fly! it’s definitely a must-see. You can probably see most of the other films on NASM’s schedule at your local IMAX theater, but not To Fly!

Buy a ticket for a later show, so you can take a load off your feet after wandering the museum for a few hours. You might also want to consider a planetarium show (second floor across Milestones from the IMAX theater on the first floor). Although it’s overshadowed by the IMAX, it’s one of the biggest and best planetariums in the world.

Take a good look at the big Robert McCall murals on the walls to either side of the south entrance hall, where the information desk is. Look up: there’s the Voyager airplane that Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew around the world non-stop, unrefueled.

Don’t miss the Sea-Air Operations Gallery, Gallery 203, second floor, northeast corner. It recreates the hangar deck of an aircraft carrier. And as you walk in, take a long look at the huge model of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, built by one man over the course of 12 years! It’s in a large case on the walkway between 203 and 205.

I also like Apollo to the Moon (209). But it’s been so long since I worked there, and they’ve changed a lot of the exhibits, so I won’t go on more about them. There’s plenty to see, and you can easily spend a whole day or more there if you’re a serious air/space buff.

Do not, repeat, DO NOT, eat in the McDonald’s in the museum. It’s just a McDonald’s, but the prices are about twice the norm. Walk out the south entrance two blocks and turn left on C Street. There’s a decent restaurant in the Holiday Inn, and there used to be a deli and a (normally priced) Roy Rogers on C between 6th and 7th. I can’t assure you they’re still there, but I’d wager you’ll find something.

If you and your wife want to split up, the National Gallery of Art is directly across the Mall from NASM, and the National Museum of Natural History (Hope Diamond, big elephant) is also on the opposite side, down toward the Washington Monument. Past NMNH is the National Museum of American History (First Ladies’ dresses, Ruby Slippers, Star Spangled Banner). Of course, all those museums will be packed like sardines, too.

If you want to go to a less-crowded museum on the mall, try the Freer Gallery of Art and Sackler Gallery “Asian art and a specialized collection of American art.” It will be having its busiest day, but will be empty compared to the Big Three.

If you’re driving up, parking near the museums will be a problem. You may want to consider parking at New Carrollton or another outlying Metro station and taking the Metro in. If you’re taking Metro, get off at the L’Enfant Plaza stop for NASM, not the Smithsonian stop. It’s all the way down near the Monument and NMAH, and a very long walk to NASM.

You can use the SI Web sites to sketch out your priorities and plan your visit in advance.

Have fun.

10

They still got the original USS Enterprise model there? When I was there last (some time in the previous century), it was above the landing on one of the stairs and unless you knew where to look, you’d miss it.

11

The Kennedy Space Center has a touchable moon rock in the Apollo/Saturn V facility.

It looks like I’ll need to see both locations if I can. We’ll try to get up early in the week before the holiday. I am one of those people who looks at every rivet. A day was barely enough to do the Wright-Patterson museum in Dayton. I’ve been making a list of the planes I’ve seen fly - not just the type but the specific ones in the museum: Bob Hoover’s Shrike, Art Scholl’s Chipmunk, Patty Wagstaff’s Extra, Jon Sharp’s Nemesis, Leo Loudenslager’s Akro, etc. That clinches I can’t miss either facility. Now I just have to bribe my wife to let me do that.

12

[QUOTE=Padeye]
A day was barely enough to do the Wright-Patterson museum in Dayton.QUOTE]THAT place was amazing. Did it a year before going to DC. My Wife and I did every other Smithsonian and every monument in the mall.

Plus went to the Ford Theater and the Spy museam.

In four very long days.

We did not go to the NASM. It was always too crowded. Or closed.

13

Didn’t know that.

Patty’s Extra is in gallery 208, directly above the Voyager. I haven’t seen her in years, but I knew Patty quite well when I worked there. Saw her perform and compete many times and even held a pole for her ribbon cut at several airshows. Nice lady.

14

I’ve been planning to make a trip there myself. One of the guys my dad was in the Air Force with was the base commander at Wright Patterson a few years ago and gave my dad a tour of the museum. He told me that he recognized the tail number of a helicopter that he had flown. That was also about the time they were retiring the C-141’s, and he said they’d made arrangements to get the plane that had picked up the P.O.W.s in Hanoi and return it to the original white-over-gray paint scheme. I’m pretty sure it’s there by now.

There’s a plane at the Udvar-Hazy center that I actually flew in.

Hoover and Scholl were both brilliant. Top Gun wasn’t worth the price that was paid to make it.

My favorite gallery at the NASM is the Golden Age of Flight. They have a Northrop Gamma, a Staggerwing Beech, a Hughes air racer and several of the classic old air racing trophies from the 30’s. (The Schneider Trophy is somewhere in England, and I will see it, someday.)