Museums & Sightings

Last week I was able to visit the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC for the first time in over 20 years. I'm sure many Forumites have been but for the others who haven't had the chance to go, I just thought I'd post the high points of what they have there, as of last week, in the World War I section in case anyone's interested.

On the ground:
Ray Brooks' SPAD 13
(There is a nice videotape of Mr. Brooks doing an interview just before he died playing next to it that runs continuously)
Fokker D-7
FE-8 replica (one side is cutaway and the rotary engine turns; looked like the real McCoy to me)

Displays:
Various minor memorabilia
A couple of displays for the general public to inform them that the Red Baron was a real person
Small theater with continuously running movie where the narrator talks about the topic while showing segments of "Dawn Patrol", "Ace of Aces", etc.

Hanging from above:
Albatros D-5
Sopwith Snipe
Pfalz D-12 (in a red/white checkerboard paint scheme)
Voisin (not sure of the exact model; looked like the standard pusher 2-seater with the 2 sets of wheels).

Wish the display area were bigger so that we could not only see the hanging ones up close but what the cockpits looked like, but the area allotted to the period was fairly small. The aircraft on display looked very well taken care of and it was great to get back there after all those years.

[Alan]

I also heard the Smithsonian is redoing a hanger at Dulles and will be displaying the rest of the aeroplanes not shown at the Mall location....could be interesting...

[baldeagle]

The Dulles annex is to open December 15, 2003. The newly restored Nieuport 28 will be displayed there, along with most of the other aircraft now at Silver Hill.

Excellent!!! In that case I sure as heck won't wait another 20 years to go back up there!

Where is the annex? Relative to the terminal?