Qualla: National Air and Space Museum

National Air and Space Museum: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The Apollo 11 command module Columbia rode three astronauts to the Moon and back in July 1969 and now sits in a glass case three steps from the entrance. Above it, on cables, hangs the Spirit of St. Louis - the silver Ryan monoplane Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic in May 1927. Next to them, the original Wright Flyer, the 1903 fragile pine and muslin biplane the brothers actually flew at Kitty Hawk. Three of the most consequential vehicles in the history of human movement, in three orders of magnitude of distance, all in one room. The National Air and Space Museum was opened on July 1, 1976 - dead center of the American Bicentennial - by a director named Michael Collins, who had personally piloted the third object in that room while two of his colleagues walked on another world.

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

National Air and Space Museum: From the Tin Shed

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sebastian Wallroth, CC BY 3.0. Congress passed the National Air Museum Act on August 12, 1946, signed by President Truman. The collection had been growing for decades inside the Smithsonian's storage facilities. The Chinese Imperial Commission had donated kites to the Smithsonian at the 1876 Centennial Exposit...

Image: Sebastian Wallroth | CC BY 3.0

National Air and Space Museum: Marble That Matches the Capitol

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Architect Gyo Obata of HOK in St. Louis won the commission with a deliberately restrained design. The site was close enough to the Capitol that nothing too flashy could be built without disrespecting the dome. Obata designed four simple marble-clad cubes for the smaller exhibits,...

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

National Air and Space Museum: The Enola Gay

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit FlugKerl2, CC BY-SA 4.0. In March 1994, the museum was planning an exhibit to mark the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan. The centerpiece was the Enola Gay - the B-29 that had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. A leaked draft of the exhibit script became national news. Two sentences in particu...

Image: FlugKerl2 | CC BY-SA 4.0

National Air and Space Museum: Dulles and the Annex

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Mall building could hold the Wright Flyer, Apollo 11, the Spirit of St. Louis, and dozens of other significant aircraft - but it could not hold something the size of a Boeing 707 or a Space Shuttle. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, named for the airline executive whose donati...

Image: Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

National Air and Space Museum: A Billion-Dollar Renovation

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit brewbooks from near Seattle, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Since 1976, the Mall building had received only basic maintenance. By the mid-2010s, the marble cladding was failing, the glass walls had been replaced once, and the original exhibits looked dated. In April 2014, Boeing pledged $30 million toward renovating the entrance hall - wh...

Image: brewbooks from near Seattle, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0