The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a 760,000-square-foot facility that houses airplanes belonging to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s vast collection of aviation artifacts, celebrated its 10th anniversary over the weekend.Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to celebrate the Udvar-Hazy Center’s tenth anniversary will have its first-ever open house on Saturday, January 25, 2014.
Visitors will be able to enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at historic artifacts, documents, and works of art that are not on public display and see what it takes to collect, preserve, and restore them.
- Tour the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar and see the Museum’s current projects such as the Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver.
- Meet curators, conservators, archivists, and other specialists, and learn how they care for objects in the Museum’s collection.
- Learn how the aircraft are hung for display in the Boeing Aviation Hangar.
- Participate in hands-on activities designed for adults and children.
- See how the most fragile artifacts are stored and cared for.
- Discover the research that is needed before a restoration project can begin.
- Get some tips for photographing objects in the Museum from a staff photographer.
The Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia is the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Opened in 2003, its two huge hangars — the Boeing Aviation Hangar and the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar — display thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a Concorde, and the space shuttle Discovery. The Center also offers the Airbus IMAX Theater and the Donald D. Engen Observation Tower, which gives you a 360-degree bird’s-eye view of Washington Dulles International Airport and the surrounding area.
