Smithsonian at Dulles

On the way to Florida last weekend, I stopped at the Smithsonian at Dulles Airport. What a terrific place! All sorts of nifty aeroplanes of all different eras and propulsion. The place will be of interest to almost anyone here!
Go see it.......

See Ya

I happen to be lucky enough to live within minutes of the new museum. I have been there a total of three times so far and I'm sure I will be back there very soon. Our club (NVCL) has been invited back to put on another C/L demo at the museum. The last time we had a very positive response and I think it will be another big hit this time.

I had always heard that you know you are getting old when you find things in a museum that you remember as new when you were young. But what does it mean when you find not one, but three planes in a museum that you have actually flown or been in? Won't be much longer before I won't even remember them I guess....HMMM?

There are around 80 some planes in the Smithsonian at Dulles with plans to eventually have some 200 on display. They already have the Enola Gay on display as well as the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Basically, the Smithsonian will be emptying out its "airplane closets" and putting them on display at Dulles. One thing to keep in mind, although the museum is free, the parking ain't. Its $12 a car. I thought you should know so you don't feel unpleasently surprised when you get there. Still worth more than $12, though.

Northern Virginia Control Line has already participated in a "kids day" there with a large display of our stunt and trainer ships. That was the week that the museum had just opened in December. We ended up talking "control line" to hundreds of people that day. For 6 straight hours a group of about 8 of us NVCLers stood there and talked and the people just kept coming! In May we will be participating in their Girl Scout Day with another large display, an indoor electric stunt ship demo (we're hustling trying to get this figured out but we're getting some good help), and flying demonstrations and learn to fly. They have a nice wide runway area just outside the building where we will be doing the training flights and the demos. They now get an incredible number of visitors each day, so it is likely that we will end up exposing control line to thousands (remember: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on the national mall in DC gets an average of 50,000 visitors a day!!) this next time! This is a pretty serious opportunity, but our club is very active. In fact the more of this that we do, the stronger we seem to become. But it is quite a challenge to figure out what to do next, and how to keep on the growth curve.

Scott