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Air and Space
Charles Leocha · December 20, 2004

About a year ago, the new annex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened next to Dulles Airport in Virginia. This spacious museum allowed the Smithsonian Institution to display many of the aircraft that had been held in storage for the first time.

Here you will find the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay," that dropped the atom bomb on Japan and the once super-secret SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

On display are planes that shaped the world of commercial aviation - the planes that led to the development of the 747 and the soon-to-fly double-decker Airbus. These are the machines that pioneered the realm of transportation that shapes our lives almost every time we head out on a business or vacation trip.

Many of the earliest commercial aircraft are displayed in the downtown Air and Space Museum. Some date back to 1914 - the dawn of commercial aviation - when the St. Petersburg-Tampa Air Boat Line carried the first scheduled paying passengers across Tampa Bay, Florida.

The Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles houses the largest and more modern aircraft. To see how far the industry has come in such a short time is breathtaking. Here is a sampling of the planes that formed the modern airline system we know today.

Junkers-K52/3m was developed by Germany after WWI. Its ancestor, the German Junkers-F13 was introduced in 1919. It was the first aircraft to make extensive use of aluminum-alloy. Even though the Germans were severely restricted by the Treaty of Versailles, they began building these airplanes in foreign countries to evade the treaty restrictions.

Lufthansa began flying the aircraft, which carried 17 passengers, and later developed the tri-motor version. Eventually more than 4,800 of these planes were built for commercial and military applications.

The Boeing Stratoliner, first flown in late 1938, was first airliner with a pressurized cabin. It carried 33 passengers and cruised at 20,000 feet. Only 10 were built. One crashed, five were delivered to TWA and three went to Pan American.

The Boeing 367-80 first took flight in 1954. This plane was the forerunner of the 707 that changed the face of air travel. This jet, modified with additional fuel tanks, could easily provide non-stop transatlantic with full payloads. The time needed for the masses to move between the Americas and Europe shrank phenomenally and the modern world of tourism grew.

Interestingly, the first non-stops between New York and San Francisco took 5 hours and cost $231 round trip.

Eventually, more than 700 Boeing 707s were purchased by commercial airlines. This same Boeing 367-80 was subsequently used to develop the 727 and to test different engines.

The Concorde was the first supersonic commercial aircraft. Put in service by British Airways and Air France in 1976, it flew until just a few years ago (2003) and the last flight of the Air France aircraft was to Dulles Airport. This is the aircraft that is on display.

The Concorde made the transatlantic flight in approximately three hours and flew at 60,000 feet altitude. This meant that passengers boarding in Paris at noon would actually land in New York JFK at 9 a.m. of the same day because the plane flew faster than the earth spins.

For all air travelers, time spent in the National Air and Space Museum is a look at recent history. If you are traveling to the D.C. area or passing through Dulles with a long layover, taking time to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center is well worth your time.

Though stories persist that lines are still long and crowds are a problem, the museum's early hoards have dissipated. If you want the museum almost to yourself, try to visit on a Monday or Tuesday.

Charles Leocha is a commentator based in Boston.