X-Nico

unusual facts about Udvar-Hazy Center



Betty Skelton Erde

Li'l Stinker is now on inverted display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport, part of the National Air and Space Museum.

Court-martial of Fitz John Porter

When construction of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, disturbed wetlands on the site, the Smithsonian and its funders paid to restore portions of the Battlefield Park that had been disrupted by construction during the 1980s by John T. "Til" Hazel to their 1862 conditions.

Nakajima J1N

Today, Gekko 7334 is fully restored and on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia the sole remaining example of Japan's innovative line of night-fighting Gekkos.

Naming rights

For example, in honor of the more than $60 million donated over the years by one donor to the National Air and Space Museum properties, the directors of the Smithsonian Institution chose to name its satellite facility in Loudoun County, Virginia after the donor, calling it the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Space Shuttle retirement

* Prior to move to New York, Enterprise was displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia, where Discovery has taken its place.

Travel Air

Aside from the Wichita Fokkers seen in such movies as Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels, likely the most famous of the open cockpit biplanes was N434N, a D4D (the ultimate derivative of the BW) painted in Pepsi colours for airshow and skywriting use which survives in the National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy annex.


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