ANN Correspondent Does Complete Museum Walk-Around (Part Two of Four)

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By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford

By 10:30 on your average morning (in fact, every day but Christmas day) the outside line will have worked it’s way through security, and the steady stream of 10,000 people per day will make their way into the huge Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Museum at Washington Dulles International Airport (VA).

It is sensory overload.

No matter how many other museums you’ve been to, no matter what you fly, or how cool you are, you go back to being a ten-year old for a short while, as you take it all in. The colors and shapes and aircraft that defined the last century, and define what we fly today leap out from the exhibits, making you feel like you're on an epic journey through time. My childhood heroes flew these birds into combat. Now, they fly at airshows I attend, and write about. I am still overwhelmed.

I am not taking the rational approach to viewing this huge place. I am wandering aimlessly, bumping into things, chatting with people as we look up in wonder at the real planes that made history. The Northrop N-1M. The first, functional flying wing. From the 1940’s until today, flying as the B-2 Spirit. Its bright yellow dazzles you.

Look over there. All you see is World War Two aircraft. The RAF’s Hurricane IIC, the Japanese Aichi M6A1 Seiran, the sub-launched floatplane that could have bombed Los Angeles or the Panama Canal.

Next, a pair of combatants, one restored, one looking like they just pulled it from the hanger, and it’s just a fuselage. The Kasanishi N1K2-Ja Shinden Kai “George” looks factory fresh. The Kawasaki Ki-45 KAI Toryu “Nick” the twin-engined fighter, with it’s cannons angled up. A FW-190F, alongside the Arado AR-234B bomber, and this is the one with two engines, not two pairs of engines. Flying top cover, a Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, and a Vought-Sikorsky OS2U-3 Kingfisher, along with a plane that got those aviators started, an N3N-3 “Yellow Peril” with floats.

The P-47D Thunderbolt and P-38J look like they just landed from a mission. Towering above that display area, on hydraulic lifts that raise it another eight or ten feet in the air, the B-29 that changed history. The Enola Gay. It is magnificent, breathtaking. Incredibly shiny, that aluminum polished to a high gloss. I remember one of the staffers telling me of the problems they had getting the wings back on the aircraft this summer, for the first time in more than 40 years, since it had been flown to Washington, and then disassembled. They had a time of it.

In comparison to the other aircraft of the era, it’s size is staggering. I wonder if the B-29 was the largest operational U.S. aircraft of it’s time, or do we sneak the B-15 or B-19 in there, as a “one-off” flyer? The small birds are represented as well, with the Focke-Achgelis Fa 330A (German, sub-based single seat helicopter, towed) and the Kugisho MXY7 Ohka Model 22, (Japanese, aircraft launched, pilot flown, single seat, suicide bomber). There is a Stinson L-5 Sentinel, and a Frankfort TG-1A glider trainer, and a Boeing-Stearman N2S-5 Kaydet.

I tear myself away from the planes I know so well, and want to crawl all over. But, of course, that won't do. First, there are security guards wandering around, and they would frown on that, second, there are about 60 more planes to go… and I want to see them all! That Boeing P-26A “Peashooter” is the classic mid-war aircraft, kind of clunky, but you know the designers were getting at and there is that famous picture of Ralph Royce flipping one over. That leads in the general direction to World War I era and earlier aircraft. It’s immediate predecessor, the Boeing FB-5 is flying above it all, alongside a Nieuport 28C.1 and on the deck, a Spad XVI.

I get on the cell phone to another buddy, Mark, who is thrilled by flying wires and fragile wings. He wants me over the ropes, and getting a cockpit shot so he can get his scale models more authentic. That didn’t happen. The Caudron G.4 is there, a Benoist-Korn Type-XII, and then, I spot a plane I haven’t seen in 40 years.

The Langley Aerodrome A. This big bruiser was competition for the Wright Brothers. Samuel Langley was out of his league. The engine was huge, 50 horsepower or so. The control of the aircraft was non-existent. The props are fabric covered. I wonder “What the hell was this guy thinking?” There are volumes written on this bird. There it is… restored in all it’s glorious failure. Lessons to be learned there, for sure.

Time for a break, and they have installed a snack bar at the far end of the hanger. They bring in three or four kinds of boxed Subway sandwiches and you have bottles of coke, sprite, water. Nothing fancy, but a lot better than what was offered at the Garber facility in Silver Hill.

I start chatting with other folks wearing Wright Centennial hats and sweatshirts, we’re comparing notes on how wet we got. A South African Airways 747 pilot, Les Rhind, from Durban, brought his wife and infant child for a visit…he’s agog at all this. “it’s fantastic!” he says. He’s spotted a Ju-52M, and they have one of those in the airlines “Historic Flight” unit. He flies itand he’s thrilled to be here. Two guys from Colorado, Dan Smith and Bob Combes, from Longmont, are in there, grinning like kids at Christmas. They had the same idea I did: combine trips back east, and add the new NASM. They planned on a quick run-through downtown, but they’ve been visiting there for 27 years!

“This is awesome now…imagine what it will be like in two years, when they have 200 aircraft in here!” Dan jumps in “There is stuff in here that no one would ever see. I’m thrilled that someone saved it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets to be twice this size! Nothing that another 300 million dollars wouldn’t cover!”

They would like to see more general aviation, but Dan tells that his mom worked on the line in Burbank (CA), building P-38’s, and as he stood there looking at the P-38J on display, another guy started talking about how HIS mom worked on the line. Small world!

We sit there, talking planes, looking at the Concorde (Air France) and Fed Ex’s first plane. Fred Smith named it Wendy, for his daughter, and it’s a Dassault Falcon 20. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have invested in that little start-up company in Memphis in 1974.

And right next to that, another old friend, and this is an interesting trivia question: What’s the longest name of a production aircraft? If I said Bob Hoover, would that give you a hint? How about N-500RA? Here it is, (until someone comes up with one better): North American Rockwell Shrike Commander 500S. That’s 40 characters. This is Sweetie Face, that he flew for years in airshows all over the world. In a nearby display case, one of Bob’s flight suits and one of his hats. I did look inside, and there is NOT a green bottle of Tanqueray.

FMI: www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy