Visit Udvar-Hazy, Really

If someone encouraged you to visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, it would be understandable if your reaction was uncertain. Is that like Betty Ford? Is this an intervention? What is this place? Well, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy is a very wealthy guy who wrote a vey large check to the Smithsonian Institution in order to build a location at which the Air & Space Museum could put on display the very many large and wonderful items that are way to large to be displayed at the Air & Space Museum on the mall. The Udvar-Hazy Center, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary today, is well worth the visit. And Mr. Udvar-Hazy deserves to have his name on it for having helped bring it all about.

The place is enormous. Just imagine a hanger that holds a Space Shuttle, a Concord, the Enola Gay, an SR-71, and dozens of other air and spacecraft, many of which are hung high above your head, yet doesn’t feel crowded. And it doesn’t, the place is that big.

After wandering among the planes for a long time, we caught a chance to rest our feet and a great IMAX film, The Magic of Flight. It was a terrific overview of the story of flight that focused on early attempts and the historic success of The Wright Brothers, and the members of the Navy’s Blue Angels. A new IMAX movie,Fighter Pilot, opens today, and according to this review in the Washington Post, may rate a return visit. Despite the kids whining, we skipped the flight simulators, a decision re-inforced by the above Post review which described them in a word, “Lame”. If you want to ride a simulator, ride the ones that the Air & Space Museum on the mall has to offer.

So later in the evening on the day of our visit to Udvar-Hazy, I asked my pilot father the question, of all the planes we saw today, which would you most like to fly?

To fly, as in take a ride on, or to pilot?, he replied.

OK, Mr. precision… both…

The answers:

To take a ride on, any of the WWII era planes, particularly the Corsair. That makes sense, as a Navy pilot, dad would be interested in an earlier generation of the Navy’s carrier based fighter airplane.

To pilot, the SR-71 Blackbird. Another good choice. As a test pilot, dad would love some time in the high-speed, high-altitude spy plane. The last flight of the one on display at Udvar-Hazy arrived here after a record-setting flight from, Los Angeles to Washington, DC, in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 20 seconds. That’s an average speed of 2,124 mph. Yes, good choice on that one.

And a follow-up question. Which one would you not get into no matter how big a check Steven Udvar-Hazy was willing to write you?

Answer… any of the hang-gliders, like the Sportswings Valkyrie (why no photo? dang). No engine, no guns, only gravity, wind, and a kite to dangle from. Dad’s been plenty daring in his career in the air, but he’s not stupid.

It was a great day, a great place to visit, and great fun. My rating is two thumbs, way up.