The National Air and Space Museum, located in Washington D.C., opened in 1976, is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum traces, through its exhibits and other functions, the history of engine-powered flight, from the Wright brothers' first success (1903) at Kitty Hawk, N.C., through current space exploration. Aside from the exhibit collections--which include aeronautical and astronautical items, aircraft and spacecraft, instruments, equipment, and memorabilia--the museum does research, publishes its findings, and contains a library, photographic and manuscript collections, a planetarium, and the Langley Theater which shows films four times a day on aviation and space, on a screen five stories high!
Free public tours from Gallery 100 daily at 10:15am and 1pm.
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