Explore Historic Planes And Spacecraft For Free At This Remarkable Washington D.C. Museum

Washington D.C. is considered one of America's best cities to visit from a tourist perspective, largely because of its many free museums, such as the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in the National Mall. The institution is one of the best activities for adults vacationing in D.C. owing to its remarkable collection of planes and spacecraft, including the Apollo 11 Command Module "Columbia" — which brought astronauts home from the moon in July 1969 — and the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first plane to take flight. 

It is a great privilege to see these exhibitions and many others across the museum's 161,145 square feet of floor space. Washington D.C. may be expensive, but the value for money at the Air and Space Museum almost makes up for it, and what some visitors don't realize is that the National Mall site holds just a fraction of Smithsonian's collection; the bulk of the nonprofit's jetliners, warplanes, helicopters, spacecraft, and rockets are held over 30 miles away at the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Museum.

The Udvar-Hazy Center is an impressive facility in its own right. Housed in a massive 760,000-square-foot hangar south of Dulles International Airport, it is nearly five times the size of the National Mall location. This vast space allows the Smithsonian to display vessels too large for the downtown museum, such as the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress, with its 141-foot wingspan and 137,500 pounds of gross weight. The Uvdar-Hazy Center is a pilgrimage for enthusiasts and an enlightenment for the uninitiated, who may leave with a newfound interest.

The easiest way to the museum is by car, and don't worry — Washington D.C. may be one of the worst cities for finding parking in America, but it's not a problem at the Uvdar-Hazy Center's massive parking lot. Several big exhibits will draw your attention upon entry, and the first might be Shake Shack, the museum's main eatery. On the viewing platform outside Shake Shack, however, you will spot a raft of World War I airplanes and the Enola Gay a few yards beyond them. There is no right place to begin the exhibition; most will head for the vessel of greatest personal interest. In my case, it was the Enola Gay.

Named after the mother of lead pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets, Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, reducing the city to smoldering rubble and killing at least 70,000 people. In 1995, the Smithsonian displayed Enola Gay's nose section in the Washington D.C. museum before moving it to the new Udvar-Hazy Center, allowing staff to reconstruct the plane for the first time since 1960.

Dozens of exhibits surround the Enola Gay, and the two with the widest appeal are likely the Air France Concorde and Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. A tour guide and Air Force veteran who flew during the Vietnam War informed me that this particular Blackbird once hit 2,193.2 miles per hour — an all-time speed record that has held since July 28, 1976. To round it all off, probably the best thing about the Uvdar-Hazy Center is that entrance is completely free, and no tickets are required.