National Air and Space Museum: Udvar-Hazy Center

I wonder what it is about vehicles that so many boys love and gravitate towards.  My toddler son LOVES vehicles.  He points out any bus or construction vehicle we pass by and pushes his nose against the window to watch the garbage truck pick up the trash.  And these days he even has my younger daughter imitating his "vroom vroom" and whizzing sounds while playing with his cars and airplanes.  My son's favorite vehicles lately are airplanes, trains, motorcyles and boats! 

During the Labor Day weekend, we traveled to VA to visit family.  Always looking for an opportunity to encourage my son's interests and educate him while having fun, we visited the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is affiliated with the National Air and Space Museum in DC.  The museum itself is free and parking is $15 per car.  But after 4 pm parking is free!  Unfortunately, I had forgotten and shown up at 3:30 pm, but it was still well worth it.

In the large hangar airplanes, helicopters and other flying machines are displayed on 3 levels, including hanging from the ceiling as picture below. 

L discovering the interior view of aircraft on a touch screen

Dad & son, happy together

Another hangar houses spacecraft, rockets and satellites.  The Space Shuttle Enterprise is on display there.

We also went up to the 360 degree observation tower where you could see Dulles Airport and watch airplanes land and take off. 

My son's favorite aircraft was the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet in the world.  Apparently, t it can fly from Los Angeles to DC in 1 hour!  We bought my son a small replica of the Blackbird and he's been toting it everywhere in his backpack for the last several weeks! 

Auntie accompanies us to the museum

L flying his blackbird while we pose next to the real one

Another interesting factoid, is that part of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie was filmed in the hangar and there were shots of the Blackbird and other props.  Apparently the Blackbird was used as Jetfire, a Decepticon who becomes an Autobot in the film. I saw clips of the movie at the museum and it was interesting to learn how they digitally manipulated the film shots.

There were also flight simulators, but my son did not want to try them out.  Maybe on another visit.  I'd be curious to try one out too.

The museum, only being 15 minutes from the grandparents, will definitely be a regular "to-do" on our visits to VA in the future.

I realized that I had taken my kids to this museum a year ago and at that time my son didn't have an interest in airplanes.  It's so neat to watch my kids change and grow and develop their own interests!