National Air and Space Museum, Aviation museum on National Mall, Washington D.C., United States.
The National Air and Space Museum is an aviation and space museum on the National Mall in Washington D.C. that displays aircraft, spacecraft, and rockets. The collection spans two locations and features hundreds of original objects from the history of flight.
The museum opened in July 1976 after thirty years of planning and collecting objects. Congress established the institution in 1946, shortly after World War II.
The place houses pieces from hundreds of years of aviation history, showing the shift from the first powered flights to space travel. Visitors see capsules that carried humans to the moon and machines that lifted off more than a century ago.
The main location sits on Jefferson Drive between 4th and 7th Street SW and opens daily without admission charge. The galleries spread across multiple floors, so plan time for thorough exploration.
A second location near Dulles Airport displays larger machines in wide hangars, including a Space Shuttle and a supersonic airliner. The hangar hall there offers more room for bulky objects that do not fit on the National Mall.
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