December 13 -- National Air & Space on the Mall

Just imagine it! All in the same room!! The first aircraft to fly the Atlantic; the first American jet airplane; the first supersonic jet; the first American spacecraft; the command module from the first mission to the moon; a piece of moon rock; and much, much more! The ORIGINAL Wright Flyer, which first flew 103 years and one day ago, is at this museum. What a collection!

And it's the last museum of my trip! :-(

It took about thirty minutes in rain and fog to drive from the Air & Space facility at Dulles to the Mall to see the granddaddy of American aviation museums. Here’s the Washington Monument through the rain and clouds:




The White House -- see if you can spot it under the big tree.

Here are some of the highlights of this great resource:

The original Wright Flyer. On Thursday, December 17, 1903, this was the first aircraft ever to fly under its own mechanical power. With Orville at the controls, the first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.

Word is, Wilbur and Orville flipped a coin to see who would be the first to pilot the plane. While Orville got to be at the controls for the world’s first powered flight, Wilbur didn’t do too badly. The brothers took turns at the helm in four attempts that day, and Wilbur stayed aloft longest and farthest: 59 seconds and 852 feet!

No one much talks about the 5 Kitty Hawk, NC lifeguards who carried the Wright Flyer up the hill for each flight and served as ground crew on that historic day.


The Spirit of St. Louis, in which Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly the Atlantic solo. On the morning of May 20, 1927, "Lucky Lindy" took off from Long Island, NY; he landed 33 hours later, the evening of May 21, at Le Bourget field outside of Paris, France.

Messerschmitt ME-262, the world’s first jet fighter. It became operational in 1944.

Bell X-1, in which Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947.

The Mercury Friendship spacecraft, in which John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.

Gemini 4 spacecraft from which the first U.S. space walk took place on June 3, 1965.

And here's Ed White on that space walk. Hmm. I don't know if that looks so fun.

Apollo 11 command module from the first trip to land on the Moon, July 20 1969.

A lunar landing module from the Apollo program.

Spaceship One, in 2004 the first manned commercial spacecraft to go into space under its own power and then fly back to earth in level flight. EAA in Oshkosh has the best exhibit about this airplane-spaceship, with superb video and a replica that periodically bends in two exactly as the real plane does on reentry into the atmosphere. There's also a full-size model at the Seattle Air and Space Museum.


The airliner hall. You can see the massive front-section of a Northwest Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. According to information at the museum, the 747 has carried 3.5 billion passengers, the equivalent of more than half the world’s population!

Italian Macchi 202 fighter – the only one of the trip. I saw this model fly in 1980 or '81 at the Paris air show at Le Bourget Airport (where Lindbergh Landed), and still remember the amazing rumble of its engine as it lifted off of the runway.