Information about Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center

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 Montgomery 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.^[1] Construction of the Center required fifteen years of preparation and was built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co.^[2]

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 glide test platform 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 ^[3]
• the only surviving Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the ex-Pan American "Clipper Flying Cloud"
• the only surviving Heinkel He 219 Uhu
• the only surviving Arado Ar 234 "Blitz"
• one of three surviving Bachem Ba 349 Natter's
• 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, a single-seat, home-built aircraft that was somewhat popular in the 1970s
• the Beck-Mahoney Sorceress, which is known as the "winningest" racing biplane in aviation history
• a Japanese balloon bomb, such as 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
• 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 museum is still in the process of installing exhibits, but more than 120 aircraft and 140 space-exploration exhibits are already on display as of 2006, and plans call for the eventual installation of over 200 aircraft.^[4] 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 is 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 is possible to get to Udvar-Hazy from the National Air & Space Museum using mass transit, there is 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 is 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.

External links

• Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center site
• Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Photo Gallery
• Aerial view on google maps of partially completed building
• Flickr Set of Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - 88 images

References

Photo Gallery

MiG 15 of the type piloted by Polish defector Frank Jarecki	The Enola Gay	The shuttle Enterprise	Model of the Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, on display in the space wing of Udvar-Hazy
Air France Concorde	Air France Concorde	Interior view showing the Enola Gay	The space shuttle Enterprise
The space shuttle Enterprise	The SR-71 at the center of the hangar	Interior view	Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer
Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer	Enola Gay