[FPSPACE] New National Air and Space Museum Facility Opens

[Porter, William R]

Yea I watched it on Cspan 2 last night it was very cool. I was wondering
if the Wright Flyer was going to crash into a wall when it was moving
during opening. Now a few questions...Was that a Concord or a TU 144 I
saw, and did they get Lunar Tranfer Trailer from Huntsville or what.
Another question how do you get to it from Downtown DC? Look forward to
visiting

Randall Porter
Indiana University, Purdue University Indianapolis
UITS/ TLIT/ Classroom Services
Zone 1, IU School of Nursing
wrporter@iupui.edu
.

-----Original Message-----
From: fpspace-admin@friends-partners.org
[mailto:fpspace-admin@friends-partners.org] On Behalf Of DwayneDay
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 7:45 AM
To: fpspace@friends-partners.org
Subject: [FPSPACE] New National Air and Space Museum Facility Opens

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened up its new annex
facility near Dulles Airport.

It is an amazing, huge facility.  There is a nice photo of the shuttle
Enterprise here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58020-2003Dec11.html

DDAY

*************************************

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58020-2003Dec11?language=print
er

The Ultimate Wingding 
Smithsonian's New Aviation Museum At Dulles Gets Off to a Flying Start 

By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 12, 2003; Page A01 

The Smithsonian Institution yesterday dedicated its newest museum, a
cavernous building at Dulles International Airport that is both a homage
to American inventiveness and a storehouse for historic aircraft.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is so enormous that the Smithsonian's
National Air and Space Museum on the Mall -- the busiest museum in the
world -- would fit comfortably inside its 10-story hangar-style hall.
The Udvar-Hazy Center bristles with aircraft, including an SR-71
Blackbird reconnaissance plane, an Air France Concorde, the Boeing B-29
bomber "Enola Gay" and the space shuttle Enterprise.

The museum opens to the public Monday, two days before the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic first flight. It became a
reality only after Udvar-Hazy, a Hungarian immigrant who made a fortune
in the airplane leasing business, gave the Smithsonian $65 million for
the project. He said he wanted to pay back America for its opportunities
and pass on his love of aviation to future generations.

Yesterday Udvar-Hazy helped unveil the building, along with Vice
President Cheney, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, actor
and pilot John Travolta, and Smithsonian officials.

Udvar-Hazy said the museum was a salute to "the men and women who
demonstrate the courage and vision to conquer the unknown and dangerous
barriers of flight."

The ceremony included a roll call of pioneers in air and space flight,
with Neil Armstrong, the first person to step on the moon; John Glenn,
the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth; Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets,
the pilot of the Enola Gay; and Patty Wagstaff, an aerobatics champion,
among others, lining up on the stage. (Armstrong and Tibbets got the
loudest applause.)

The program ended with a recorded message from the two astronauts aboard
the International Space Station. They introduced the ceremony's finale:
the launch of a replica of the Wright brothers' 1903 plane, which sailed
on cables over the heads of the audience.

It was, Travolta said, "the most advanced technology speaking to the
first moment of the technology. I started to cry and I said: Hold it
back."

The center marks the biggest expansion of the Smithsonian since the
Sackler Gallery of Art and the National Museum of African Art opened
their underground locations on the Mall in 1987.

The Air and Space Museum attracted nearly 10 million visitors last year,
and officials expect the new facility, which is an annex of Air and
Space, to draw 2 million to 3 million people to the busy Dulles
corridor. Virginia will operate a shuttle bus between the two museums,
charging $7 round trip.

The Washington area's newest museum is not only an unparalleled
collection of flying machines but also a shrine to the power of design. 

When visitors walk down the ramp of the museum they will face the sleek
form of a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. It sits on the floor, revealing its
sharpened nose and swept-back shape. It overshadows the traditional
planes around it the way a tyrannosaur would overshadow lizards.
Designed for spying, the Blackbird is the fastest, highest-flying
operational jet ever built. It can fly at more than 3.2 times the speed
of sound.

Design also played a role in the outfitting of the Udvar-Hazy Center, as
the museum's curatorial team accomplished its own engineering precision.

William "Jake" Jacobs led the team. His fear was that without careful
planning, the place would look like an aviation warehouse. "We wanted
the planes to appear like they were soaring or gliding," Jacobs said.
"We wanted some attitude."

Here's what he had to work with: seven acres of concrete, 255,000 square
feet for exhibitions, an interior of 40 million cubic feet, and a series
of 21 white muscular trusses that planes could hang from. The trusses
also support the building's roof, which is 103 feet above the floor,
higher than the ceiling at Reagan National Airport and about the same
height as the vaulted lobby at Union Station. The architectural firm of
Hellmuth, Obata-Kassabaum fitted the hall with a series of skywalks and
ramps that take visitors up four stories so they can look down on
aircraft. 

In eight months, the team positioned 81 aircraft and 60 space artifacts.


One of the first design elements the architects and museum staff agreed
upon was to fill the museum with a series of hanging aerobatic planes
and gliders, as well as a Grumman G-22 Gulfhawk II.

The illusion of motion was achieved by hanging the planes at two levels,
25 and 42 feet above the floor. 

The planes were arranged like a giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle,
using a computer program that contained the precise measurements of each
wing, propeller and engine.

After creating models of the 250 aircraft, 150 spacecraft and 150
engines that were candidates for spots in the Udvar-Hazy Center, the
designers started to play with the shapes. 

"The computer model freed us up to make numerous changes. We could
modify and modify and discard as we needed," said Jacobs. "We always
asked ourselves, 'What is the best viewing perspective?' "

The team started in the middle of the building, where visitors will
enter, and then built out in both directions. 

The first planes Jacobs fit into his plan were the aerobatic craft, from
the de Havilland Super Chipmunk, flown by famed pilot Art Scholl, to the
Loudenslager Laser 200. Many of them were hung from the roof supports,
which can hold as much as 20,000 pounds. "There are a finite number of
positions on the trusses," he said.

Hovering over the Blackbird is a Curtiss P-40E Warhawk, with its nose
down as if diving. Also overhead is a Vought F4U-1D Corsair, positioned
just as if it was getting ready to land on an aircraft carrier. The
Pitts Special S-1C Little Stinker, a 640-pound aerobatic aircraft, is
hanging upside down just inside the visitors entrance. Of the suspended
planes, the heaviest is a North American P-51C Mustang Excalibur III, at
7,000 pounds.

In the air, designers tried to show off the planes' best sides. 

On the floor, once the largest planes were positioned, the smaller ones
were tucked around them on the computer model. 

The process took months. Once the computer-generated precision was
completed, Jacobs used humble duct tape to mark the spots on the floor
where the landing gear should stop. 

Some of the planes were flown directly to the Udvar-Hazy Center, which
is linked to a runway at Dulles. Others were trucked in overnight from
the Smithsonian's airplane restoration facility in Suitland.

In a matter of weeks, the planes hit their marks and the museum came
together. 

Though relieved to have made it this far, Jacobs isn't finished. Over
the next three years, he will study ways to fit more aircraft into the
space. "We have close to 30 helicopters to fit in the future," he says.

The hall has thematic divisions such as business aviation (with a FedEx
plane and a Learjet 23) and Korea and Vietnam (which includes a Bell
UH-1H Iroquois, better known as the "Huey"). Each section offers a brief
history. The section on the Cold War, for example, contains synopses of
the 1948 Berlin Airlift, the 1960 U-2 incident, the Cuban Missile Crisis
and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

What visitors will see when the center opens Monday is only the first
phase of the $311 million project. Later phases will bring in more
planes, restoration facilities, a storage area and archives. Almost all
of the money for the new museum's construction was raised privately,
with Congress contributing only some planning dollars. Air and Space
will need to raise an additional $90 million to complete the Udvar-Hazy
Center.

The first phase of the museum was finished on time and under budget.

There was some turbulence in its final weeks. The display of the Enola
Gay, accompanied by text that emphasizes its technical prowess and not
the 1945 atomic bomb mission over Hiroshima, Japan, that resulted in the
deaths of tens of thousands, has angered some historians, writers and
peace activists. Their petition to have the museum change the text's
focus was denied. Gen. John R. "Jack" Dailey, the director of the Air
and Space Museum, said, "We could not find a better B-29 that had better
technology."

Another criticism centered on commercialism. The Loudenslager Laser 200
won several championships, but after the plane's pilot stopped competing
and performed solely at shows, he was sponsored by the Anheuser-Busch
brewing company. A Bud Light logo is a prominent part of the plane's
paint job. There were objections from members of Congress and health
advocates about the influence of alcohol advertising on young people,
but the museum countered that it didn't alter artifacts. Other aerobatic
planes also include logos of sponsors: Pennzoil, Pratt & Whitney and
Pepsi-Cola.

But speakers yesterday focused on the museum's accomplishments and on
the enormous progress since Orville Wright lifted off the dunes near
Kitty Hawk, N.C., a century ago.

Said Cheney, who is also a Smithsonian regent: "All of these inventions
give testimony to the imagination, resourcefulness and daring of the men
and women who made them. In the span of 66 years -- just one lifetime --
mankind went from Kitty Hawk to the moon."

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