 Aerial view of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in 2004 | |
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| Location | Chantilly, Virginia, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°54′41″N 77°26′39″W / 38.91139°N 77.44417°W |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Visitors | 1.2 million (2023)[1] |
| Public transit access | Fairfax Connector Route 983 |
| Website | airandspace |
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia. It holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, and the Boeing 367-80, the main prototype for the popular Boeing 707 airliner.
The 760,000-square-foot (71,000 m2; 17-acre; 7.1 ha) facility was made possible by a $65 million donation in October 1999 to the Smithsonian Institution by Steven F. Udvar-Házy, an immigrant from Hungary and co-founder of the International Lease Finance Corporation, an aircraft leasing corporation.[2] The main NASM building, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., had always contained more artifacts than could be displayed, and most of the collection had been stored, unavailable to visitors, at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Silver Hill, Maryland. A substantial addition to the center encompassing restoration, conservation and collection-storage facilities was completed in 2010. Restoration facilities and museum archives were moved from the museum's Garber facility to the new sections of the Udvar-Hazy Center.[3]
- ^ "Visitor Statistics". Smithsonian Newsdesk. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
- ^ Small, Lawrence M. (December 2003). "A Century's Roar and Buzz: Thanks to an immigrant's generosity, the Steven Udvar-Hazy Center opens its massive doors to the public". Smithsonian. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
- ^ "Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center History". Archived from the original on July 30, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2015.