Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - Collection

Collection

The center finished construction and opened December 15, 2003. The Udvar-Hazy Center displays historic aviation and space artifacts, especially items too large for the National Air and Space Museum's building on the National Mall, including:

  • The Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
  • The orbital spacecraft, Space Shuttle Discovery was put on public display in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar on April 19, 2012, replacing the atmospheric test vehicle, Enterprise. During the night of April 19, Enterprise was loaded onto a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft in preparation of its trip to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on April 27, 2012. Enterprise had been on display in the Space Hangar since the museum opened in 2003.
  • The Gemini VII space capsule
  • A Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft
  • An Air France Concorde supersonic airliner
  • A United States Air Force Lockheed L049, the military version of the Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") airliner
  • The Boeing 367-80 jet transport, which was the prototype for the Boeing 707
  • The only surviving Bell XV-15 experimental tiltrotor craft
  • A Redstone rocket
  • The Langley Aerodrome A, an early attempt at powered flight by Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley
  • The Northrop N-1 experimental aircraft
  • The only surviving Dornier Do 335 Pfeil fighter
  • The only surviving Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the ex-Pan Am Clipper Flying Cloud
  • one of two surviving German Heinkel He 219 Uhu nightfighter
  • The only surviving German Arado Ar 234 Blitz jet bomber
  • One of three surviving German Bachem Ba 349 Natters
  • The only surviving Japanese Nakajima J1N1 Gekko
  • One of four surviving Northrop P-61 Black Widow nightfighters
  • One of two surviving Boeing P-26 Peashooter fighters
  • A Bede BD-5, single-seat, home-built aircraft that was somewhat popular in the 1970s (5J version is smallest manned jet aircraft)
  • The Beck-Mahoney Sorceress which is known as the "winningest" racing biplane in aviation history
  • A British Hawker Hurricane fighter
  • A Japanese balloon bomb like the one that killed six U.S. civilians in Oregon during World War II
  • Lockheed Martin X-35 Joint Strike Fighter, prototype of the F-35 Lightning II
  • F-14 Tomcat fighter involved in the Gulf of Sidra incident
  • The Gossamer Albatross, which was the first man-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel
  • The primary special-effects miniature of the "Mothership" used in the filming of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer piloted by Steve Fossett for the first solo nonstop and nonrefueled circumnavigation of Earth
  • The Winnie Mae, a Lockheed Vega piloted by Wiley Post
  • The first aircraft operated by FedEx, a Dassault Falcon 20
  • A piece of fabric from the LZ 129 Hindenburg which survived the Hindenburg disaster.
  • Mercury-Atlas 10 unused Project Mercury spacecraft
  • A Launch Entry Suit
  • A Vought RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft
  • A McDonnell Douglas F-4S Phantom II fighter
  • A Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter
  • A NASA Pathfinder
  • A Piasecki PV-2 helicopter
  • A French Caudron G.4 bomber
  • A German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter
  • A British Westland Lysander Army cooperation aircraft
  • A CASA 352L transport
  • A Republic F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bomber
  • A Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter
  • Darryl Greenamyer's Grumman F8F Bearcat "Conquest I" racing aircraft
  • The North American P-51C Mustang "Excalibur III" fighter
  • A Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter
  • A Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighter
  • A Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 "Fishbed" fighter
  • A Beechcraft Bonanza
  • A Beechcraft Model 18
  • A Bell 47 helicopter
  • A Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter
  • A Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter
  • A Boeing-Stearman Model 75 trainer aircraft
  • A Grumman A-6E Intruder ground-attack aircraft
  • A Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk fighter
  • A Piper J-3
  • A Grumman G-22 Gulfhawk
  • An Aeronca C-2 ultralight aircraft
  • The Stanley Nomad glider
  • An Arrow Sport A2
  • A Space Systems/Loral FS-1300 communications satellite, previously a ground spare for Sirius XM

The museum is still in the process of installing exhibits, but 169 aircraft and 152 large space artifacts are already on display as of May 2012, and plans call for the eventual installation of over 200 aircraft. The current list is maintained at the Objects On Display page of the Smithsonian Institution NASM Collections site.

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