X-wing

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

At the Air and Space Museum downtown. I’m playing tour guide to my cousin and three blokes from  England (London and Newcastle). 

[ChrisL]

I don’t recall that the last time I was there but it’s been a decade or more since I have been there.  I went to the one near Dulles a few years back, Udvar Hazy I believe it’s called.  That was cool.

[bikeman564™]

sweet

[maddmaxx ★]

I've never been there.  Now that I have the time we're supposed to avoid crowds.  I go to the New England Air Museum on week days when there are no crowds and often almost no people at all.  It's great as I have all the time I need to look into everything there.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

After a three hour tour of DC I took the Brits and my cousin to the Vienna Inn for dinner. They said they liked the real American food we had and the beers we drank. They really liked the Goose Island  Bourbon Barrel Stout at 14.3%. We’re stopping at a WalMart on the way back for a crap ton of candy to take back to England.

[Further]

58 minutes ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

After a three hour tour of DC I took the Brits and my cousin to the Vienna Inn for dinner. They said they liked the real American food we had and the beers we drank. They really liked the Goose Island  Bourbon Barrel Stout at 14.3%. We’re stopping at a WalMart on the way back for a crap ton of candy to take back to England.

Kinda cool that we have decent American beer now.

I wonder if there is a British equivalent to Walmart ? 

[Airehead ★]

1 hour ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

After a three hour tour of DC I took the Brits and my cousin to the Vienna Inn for dinner. They said they liked the real American food we had and the beers we drank. They really liked the Goose Island  Bourbon Barrel Stout at 14.3%. We’re stopping at a WalMart on the way back for a crap ton of candy to take back to England.

Drunk guys buying candy. Should be a great adventure. 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

1 hour ago, Further said:

Kinda cool that we have decent American beer now.

I wonder if there is a British equivalent to Walmart ? 

They said that there is but I forget the name. They were into M&Ms and peanut butter cups that they can’t get over the pond. I waited in the parking lot. They all said my tour was the best they ever had. 13,600 steps today.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

14 hours ago, ChrisL said:

I don’t recall that the last time I was there but it’s been a decade or more since I have been there.  I went to the one near Dulles a few years back, Udvar Hazy I believe it’s called.  That was cool.

The X-Wing wasn’t added until 2022. Initially it was stored at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum next to Dulles Airport while the downtown museum was being renovated. The second half of the renovation is still underway and probably won’t be open until later this year. 

[Razors Edge ★]

1 hour ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

The X-Wing wasn’t added until 2022. Initially it was stored at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum next to Dulles Airport while the downtown museum was being renovated. The second half of the renovation is still underway and probably won’t be open until later this year. 

I sort of get why it is at Air & Space (maybe it motivates kids to dream?), but it is a bit of a shame that it does put the "fiction" in science-fiction.  Cool to see, but sort of like a Barney display in the Natural History dinosaur section.

[MickinMD ★]

How is the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum now? I took my nephews there in 2019 and they were at work greatly expanding it.

This summer, I'm planning to go there with my currently-high-school-freshman nephew Adam - the little blonde kid in the right of the 2nd picture who is now 6'3" and 180 lb - and a couple of his and my friends.

We loved the Virtual Reality Transporter where you're transferring from the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station and it's so realistic - in any direction you look - that you find yourself hanging onto the rail in front of you or reaching out so you don't start falling down to the Earth you see in detail 100 miles below you as your seat shakes and moves forward-backward and L-R - as in the 3rd pic below.

The IMAX theatre was great too, as were the Moon Landing vehicles, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, etc.

We parked about 1 mile away in a $20/day parking garage.  We were so busy all day at the Natural History and other museums that we only grabbed some snacks during the long day.  We were starving as we walked - all uphill - back to the car and luckily stumbled on Ollie's Trolley: a locally famous railroad car diner relocated into a regular building located halfway back to the car.  This is going to be THE place to eat for us on future trips to the Smithsonian and the Mall.

 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

Half the building is under renovations. The open area that exhibits are in anc full of a lot of the older exhibits, including the Wright Brothers, the lunar landing modules, etc. Spirit of St Louis is in the area being developed but is still visible from the main hallway next to the gift shop where the X Wing is displayed. Tickets/passes are free but they’re required for timed entry. I checked the website and there was no information on when phase two would be finished.