This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PRESS RELEASE
March 17, 2003
Media Only: Peter Golkin (202) 633-2374
Claire Brown (202) 633-2371


National Air and Space Museum Moves First Artifact Into Udvar-Hazy
Center, the New Companion Facility at Dulles Airport

Piper J-3 Cub History at:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/aero/aircraft/piperj3.htm
Downloadable images:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/pa/nasmnews/pr/hazycenter/images.htm

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum today (March 17)
rolled the first artifact into the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, its
new companion facility at Washington Dulles International Airport in
Northern Virginia. The center opens to the public Dec. 15.

The diminutive Piper J-3 Cub leads the way for the move of some 200
aircraft ultimately destined for the center's aviation hangar, which
is 10-stories high and the length of three football fields-enough
space to hold the museum's flagship building on the National Mall
inside with room to spare. 

The Cub was trucked from the museum's storage facility in Suitland,
Md., where it was housed after years of display on the Mall. An icon
of general aviation and sport flying, the Cub is best known for its
use in training countless new pilots, particularly Americans who flew
in World War II. 

The Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center will eventually
display the 80 percent of the national air and space collection not
currently housed at the building on the Mall or on loan to other
museums and institutions. 

"For months we've watched the Udvar-Hazy Center take shape as an
architectural marvel," museum director Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey said.
"But now with artifacts moving in, we can really see how this
facility is a state-of-the-art environment for exhibiting and
preserving the bulk of our collection, much of which has been hidden
away for decades." 

Construction of the 293,707-square-foot Udvar-Hazy Center aviation
hangar was substantially completed this month; work began in June
2001. With the museum taking occupancy of the structure from
contractor Hensel Phelps Construction Co, artifact and
exhibit-related deliveries will now continue on an almost daily basis
leading up to the opening when some 70 aircraft will be in place-more
than are currently displayed at the Mall building. Many have been
dismantled because of their size and will travel in pieces. Aircraft
will be reassembled in the hangar and moved into their display
locations either on the floor or hanging at one of two levels from
the hangar's arched trusses. Deliveries will resume early next year
at a slower pace and continue until the facility is full.

The first construction phase of the center also includes the James S.
McDonnell Space Hangar, named for the aerospace pioneer; the
164-foot-tall Donald D. Engen Observation Tower, named for the
museum's late director; the Claude Moore Education Center, named for
the Virginia philanthropist; an IMAX theater; and a food court.

Construction work continues on the McDonnell Space Hangar, which will
house America's first space shuttle, Enterprise. The space hangar
will be completed by opening day with the Enterprise installed and
visible, however the structure will not be accessible to the public
until 2004 as Enterprise undergoes refurbishment. During the interim,
some 50 large space artifacts will be previewed in the aviation
hangar. The space hangar will ultimately house some 135 large space
artifacts. 

Thousands of smaller objects from the museum's collection will also
be displayed throughout the Udvar-Hazy Center in dozens of customized
cases, many adjacent to exhibit stations that will provide historical
context through graphics and text. Some of the display cases will be
more than 20 feet long.

A second phase of construction for the Udvar-Hazy Center-including a
restoration hangar, archives, conservation lab, collections
processing facility and a study collections storage unit-is planned,
with the start date for construction dependent on fund-raising. The
entire facility will beapproximately 760,000 square feet. No federal
funds are being used to build the Udvar-Hazy Center.

The December 2003 opening of the Udvar-Hazy Center will mark the
100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight. Also
to mark the centennial of flight, the museum's building on the Mall
will feature a special exhibition opening in October 2003 titled "The
Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age." For the gallery,
the original 1903 Wright Flyer will be displayed at eye level for the
first time since it was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1948.

The National Air and Space Museum, comprised of the Udvar-Hazy Center
and the museum's building on the National Mall, will be the largest
air and space museum complex in the world. The flagship building is
the most popular museum in the world, attracting more than 9 million
visitors each year. Attendance at the Udvar-Hazy Center is projected
at 3 million people a year. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Note to Editors: On Tuesday, March 25, the museum is scheduled to
move its World War II-era P-40 Warhawk airplane from its Suitland,
Md., storage facility to the Udvar-Hazy Center. Members of the news
media are invited to cover this event. In addition, the museum's
deputy director, Donald S. Lopez, will be available at the Udvar-Hazy
Center that day for interviews. Lopez was an ace pilot with the 23rd
Fighter Group of the 14th Air Force, which flew over China during the
war, succeeding the legendary Flying Tigers. The museum's
shark-mouthed P-40 carries the paint scheme of an airplane Lopez flew
in one of the war's most remarkable air campaigns. Lopez was
instrumental in creating the National Air and Space Museum in the
1970s. Please call the museum's Office of Public Affairs,
(202) 633-2374, if your organization is interested in covering this
event. Space is limited.

 - END OF FILE -
==========

@Message posted automagically by IMTHINGS POST 1.30
---