Washingtons dulles airport. Well see the airplanes that have carried americans aloft from the earliest days of the 20th century. Hi. May name is tom crouch. I am the senior curator of aeronautics at the national air around space museum. And we are here this morning at the national air and space museum Housing Center. This is the place where our museum keeps all of its largest objects and some pretty darn spectacular things when you come right down to it. We are standing almost in front of one of my favorite machines. Its the 1903 langley airplane. Aerodrone, as he called it. Samuel langley was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. From the mid 1880s until the time of his death in 1906. He was sort of a selftaught astronomer. He was the founder of the Smithsonian Astro physical observatory and he founded the zoo and some of the museums we have today. But he was really fascinated, and had been since childhood, by the idea of flight. And in the late 1880s, he decided to begi
The National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center turns 20 this month. To celebrate, they will hold an open house on Dec. 2. The free event includes many