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Air & Space Museum

The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum is the most visited museum in Washington DC, and one of the most visited in the world. The museum displays actual artifacts and life-sized replicas of air and space crafts.

Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of flight-related artifacts.  It contains numerous displays of the history of flight from all aspects and throughout history. This includes flight-related art and also archival materials. The museum is filled with informative exhibits about air flight and space travel. It also has a theater where you can see a movie related to a variety of subjects.

The Air and Space Museum has two locations in the Washington DC area. Combined these two museums receive more total visitors than any other museum in the United States. Over eight million people visit the Washington D.C. location and the location in Chantilly, Virginia (the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center) each year.

The National Air and Space Museum is committed to preserving the past, yet presenting it in a way that makes it accessible and inspirational to the present generation. A plethora of educational activities and lectures are offered to engage visitors of all ages.

The main Smithsonian Air & Space Museum is on the south side of the National Mall, between the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian.

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Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

Interesting Facts on the Air & Space Museum

  • A group of kites acquired in 1876 from the Chinese Imperial Commission were the first artifacts in the Smithsonian’s aeronautical collection.
  • Pressure–such as in airplane cabins–inhibits our taste bud’s ability to perceive saltiness. Therefore, tomato juice tastes sweeter as an in-flight refreshment than it does on the ground!
  • The human heart is physically incapable of handling the strain that would be placed on it if a human grew or built wings and tried to flap them quickly enough and powerful enough to fly.
  • Between the years 1978 and 1980, an entertainer by the name of Monsieur Mangetout ate a Cessna 150 by breaking it up into tiny pieces and consuming the pieces with meals and with plenty of water and mineral oil.