Mon, Dec 15, 2003
Key Exhibits Include Shuttle Enterprise And Enola Gay
It's opening day for the National Air and Space Museum's newest
facility, the long-awaited Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles
Intentional Airport (VA). Vice President Dick Cheney, who dedicated
the extension, called it "a monument to the many great achievements
in flight."
Cheney said the museum clearly is worth the 30 mile drive from
the Smithsonian's main campus in Washington (DC). "I've been
looking forward to coming here for a tour," Cheney told the crowd
at Thursday's dedication ceremony. "I'm extremely impressed by what
I saw this morning."
He wasn't the only one. "I could probably jump in it and I'd
probably know where everything is because it's just like riding a
bicycle." said Col. Bob Shawn, standing in front of a P-38
Lightning similar to those he flew during World War II.
Retired General Paul Tibbets, pilot of the first aircraft ever
to drop an atomic weapon in war, was equally impressed. Although
somewhat controversial, Tibbets said he was excited at seeing the
Enola Gay (above) on prominent display at the museum.
"When I came in here and saw this thing, the symbols, looking the
way it looked," Tibbets said, "I wanted to get right in there and
taxi it out."
For pilots attending Thursday's ceremony, it was an emotional
day. Col. Richard "Butch" Sheffield, one of the first pilots ever
to fly the fastest aircraft in the world -- the SR-71 -- said
seeing the reconnaissance plane on display at the Udvar-Hazy center
took his breath away. "I thought it was awesome. I came in on the
upper deck there and I looked down on it and there were a bunch of
spectators standing around and they were just going 'ooh' and
'aah.' It's a very dramatic looking airplane."
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