DC Extra - National Air and Space Museum (Udvar-Hazy Center)

We have always loved the National Air and Space Museum at the National Mall. Friends have urged us to see the annex at Dulles Airport, but there never seemed to be enough time during our brief visits to DC. So we were excited to finally have time and opportunity to escape the pull of the Mall and drive out to the Udvar Hazy Center.

There were two HUGE exhibit spaces at the Udvar-Hazy. The aviation hangar was 10 stories high and the length of three football fields. The star of the show was the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, with its distinctive swooping, radar-evading shape. It was flown to Washington D.C. from Los Angeles in just 64 minutes. Whoa.

The space hangar was smaller but still large enough to house the Space Shuttle Discovery with plenty of room to spare. (Note Steve in the second photo for scale!)

It was awe-inspiring to see the progression of aviation by standing next to the real-life aircraft and spacecraft in that massive place. The Udvar Hazy Center is nostalgia + science + WOW, and should not be missed!