Air and Space Museum

Finally made it down to the Air and Space Museum on Saturday 26 May. Still blown away by what's in there. Entry foyer includes the Apollo II command module, John Glenn's first American around Earth in space module, module from first balloon around the world, heaps of other stuff, etc.

Was very crowded in pm so this time didn't get the real sense of how quickly technology developed from the first (successful manned) Wright flyer in 1903, to commercial flyers in 1910ish from the Wrights, to the Great War planes and then the great leaps forward in WW2 and the jets of the following years. Technology advances of those 50ish years were just incredible.

The Smithsonian's Museum of American History is closed for renovations until sometime in 2008 but we did see a special room with highlights from that collection, including Kermit; Abe Lincoln's hat; George Washington's army uniform; Dorothy's shoes and the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz; plus Jackie's dress from JFK's inauguration. They also have the full exhibition available to view online.

They also have another museum out at Dulles airport which has a space shuttle etc in it which will have to wait until another day ...

Malcolm