Dulles Airport, March 2025
First time I visited Washington, D.C. was in 2019, when I was still flying in the widebody fleet. That time I took the opportunity to visit the National Air and Space Museum.
Since I returned to the narrow-body fleet I've been to Washington many other times and revisited the city museum once again in 2023. But what I really wanted to do was to go the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the Dulles Airport which is a long way from our layover site.
Last month I found the perfect opportunity and company among my colleagues to finally see the other location of the museum.
The best and most economical way to go to the museum from Washington is get the Metro Silver Line (direction Ashburn) to the Innovation Center and from there take the bus 983.
-o0o-
General View
The museum is of free entrance and it does not need a time slot reservation contrary to what happens in the city location (also free).
-o0o-
Boeing 367-80
Even though the most amazing aircraft in exhibition is the SR-71 Blackbird, what I really wanted to see was the Boeing 367-80 or "Dash 80". Commercial aviation is what truly motivates me and I have already seen other Blackbirds (A-12 or SR-71) in other museums.
These engines, while they are indeed the last propulsion used by this Boeing 707 prototype are not the original turbojets. These are already turbofan Pratts.
One curious aspect of this prototype which I never noticed before is the absence of flap track fairings:
The flap track fairings offer better aerodynamics not only by covering the flaps extension mechanism but also by mitigating the wing longitudinal flow that gives origin to the wingtip vortices, hence the large canoe-shaped structures we see today in modern commercial aircraft.
This was the same aircraft on which pilot "Tex" Johnston did a barrel roll, infuriating Boeing's president William Allen to whom he said he "was selling airplanes".
-o0o-
Lockheed SR-71
Well, then we have the fastest aircraft in the world with its titanium structure.
One particular aspect of the Blackbird is its main landing gear with white tires to better withstand high temperatures because of high-speed landings.
-o0o-
OV-103
The Space Shuttle Discovery is the biggest attraction inside the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar.
And a couple of close-ups with details of the Shuttle, including the tiles which were essential during the reentry phase and caused the failure of Columbia in 2003.
-o0o-
Pegasus XL
Yet inside the Space Hangar, the Pegasus XL rocket is of particular interest to me because it uses the only airworthy L-1011 as an airborne launch platform.
-o0o-
Concorde
The supersonic Concorde is one of the main attractions of the exhibition. Here together with a main landing gear of a A330/A340.
-o0o-
Boeing B-29
The Enola Gay bomber is another historic aircraft in this museum, that casts a shadow over humanity of one of the most terrible fears we feel to this date since the deployment of the first two atomic bombs in Japan.
-o0o-
Lockheed L-1049
And to end on a high note we finish with that one which is probably the most beautiful aircraft ever built, the Lockheed Super Constellation.
All in all, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is a true delight for all aviation geeks. The only downside is that you are not allowed to get inside of any airplane.
I have more photos of these and other aircraft on the correspondent gallery that you can find on the
Albums Archive section.
