A Special Outing

A few weeks ago, my mom woke me up early to go on a "special outing." The weather was cold and cloudy and I was beary reluctant to get out of bed. What could be so special at this place? It doesn't look like much from the parking lot.

I would much rather be in bed, you know, sipping tea with honey and... ooooh - it's the National Air and Space Museum! This sounds like fun!

The is the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It's an annex to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.  This center is made possible by his generous financial gifts. Thank you beary much!

As I walked into the lobby, I saw this cardboard astronaut cut-out. I began to get beary excited. Maybe I would be able to find a space shuttle here? I still do dream of being an astrobear, you know.

Alright, let's go into the main hangar and check it out.

Whoa! This is the view when you first walk in. Down below is a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird plane - the fastest plane ever! Ooogie would not like to fly in that, don't you think?

To the right of that is the Vought F4U-1D Corsair handing suspended from the air.

There are so many planes in this museum!

This is amazing. I am so glad I got out of bed for this!

Check out these military helicopters. Have you flown in a helicopter before?

These are actual planes and helicopters that have flown real-life rescue missions, not replicas. This is the Bell UH-1H Iroquois.

Whoa, here's a SA-2 Guideline Missile. I will just carefully get out of the way.

They also have an exhibit on airplane engines. It's really amazing to see what's inside these. A lot of time and research have been spent improving the technology. Who knows what engines will be like in the future?

Something caught the corner of my eye. It was a model of a space shuttle. That made me wonder again, could I find a space shuttle here in this museum?

This museum has planes from WW1. They seem a lot clunkier than the more modern ones.

This plane looks like it's been through a lot.

This is a North American F-100D Super Sabre. I wonder how they come up with the names for these planes.

This is the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21F "Fishbed C". I think this is a great name for a plane.

This is a Grumman F-14 Tomcat. I would love to get in the cockpit but I'm not allowed to get any closer.

This plane is very shiny, like a mirror!

Whoa, another missile. I'll get out of the way.

Pilots need to wear oxygen masks like this one because of the high altitude and speed they fly at.

Look above - there are more planes flying above us!

Alright, this place is huge. I'm going to sit down and take a little break from walking. And I also have to ask around about this space shuttle...