The National Aerospace Museum (NASM) in Washington DC is one of the worlds largest Aviation themed museums and houses a wonderful collection of Warbirds.
For those who haven’t travelled in this part of the the USA, there are a large group of Museums in the centre of Washington that are owned by the Smithsonion Institution, featuring many aspects of history. The most visited of these and allegedly the most visited museum in the world with 20 million visitors a year is the NASM.
This is a large museum by any standard however it was a tiny fraction of the Aerospace collection held in store so recently the Smithsonian Udvar Hazy collection was opened at Dulles Airport about 20-30 miles away from Washington which now houses a giant collection – NASM Washington is NOT Udvar Hazy which I have reported on elsewhere as a separate report. The two museums share assets and facilities and the collection as well as the the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility at Suitland, Maryland.
Warbirds at NASM Washington DC
So back to NASM Washington – It’s a beautiful museum almost wrecked by its own success – there are 20 million people a year trekking through this collection, so its very busy and noisy and a lot of people to get in the way of good shots but despite that, it is one of the Top 5 must see collections in the world (in my humble opinion). Many unique and very historic Warbirds are held here including the Spirit of St Louis, Wright Flyer and the Apollo 11 moon capsule.
The display hall is well laid out with viewing galleries and suspended walkways and lighting is good for photography.
A current list of exhibits of actual aircraft is as follows:
• AAI RQ-7A Shadow
• Aeronautica Macchi C.202 Folgore
• Albatros D.Va
• Beechcraft C17L Staggerwing
• Bell X-1
• Bell XP-59A Airacomet
• Boeing 247D
• Boeing 747-100
• Boeing F4B-4
• Boeing X-45A
• Curtiss Robin J-1
• Douglas A-4C Skyhawk
• Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket
• Douglas DC-7
• Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless
• Fairchild FC-2
• Fokker D.VII
• Fokker T-2
• Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor[3]
• General Atomics MQ-1 Predator
• Grumman FM-1 Wildcat
• Hughes H-1 Racer
• 1896 Lilienthal Glider
• Lockheed F-104A Starfighter
• Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar
• Lockheed Model 8 Sirius
• Lockheed U-2C
• Lockheed Vega 5B
• Lockheed XP-80 “Lulu Belle”
• Martin B-26 Marauder Flak Bait
• McDonnell FH-1 Phantom
• Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6/R3
• Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a “Schwalbe”
• Mitsubishi A6M Zero
• North American P-51D Mustang
• North American X-15
• Northrop 4A Alpha
• Northrop Gamma “Polar Star”
• Northrop M2-F3
• Piper J-2 Cub
• Pitcairn Mailwing
• Pitts S-1S Special
• Rutan Voyager
• Sopwith Snipe
• SpaceShipOne
• SPAD S.XIII
• Supermarine Spitfire HF. Mk. VIIc
• Wittman Buster
• 1903 Wright Flyer
• 1909 Wright Military Flyer
The aircraft in the collection are amazing and if are arranging a visit it is advisable to combine this visit with a trip to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center as well as the two facilities are complimentary.
Visit early in the day, as it becomes very crowded as the day progresses. The Public transport by train is excellent.
Report by John Parker 2013