Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Tour & Review with The Legend

Hi everyone and good morning from the nation's capital Washington DC. Today we're here at one of the most visited museums in the entire country, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I have a hard time saying the word Smithsonian. There we go, I got it this time. You did. And I'm excited to check this out. I haven't been here in a very long time and it should be fantastic. This video is just going to show you everything the free museum does have to offer. We have made it inside the museum and hanging right here where you go in is the WR-3, which is the first ever airplane owned by an African-American gentleman with a racing pilot's license. Currently in one of the main galleries at the museum, home to all sorts of different airplanes. You got the Boeing 747, the Ford 5AT tri-motor, Northrop 304A Alpha, the Douglas DC-3, and a couple more. They're presented so well. You do get to step into the 747 through the staircase and take a look into the cockpit. These have a pretty good size airplane bathroom. And oh man, yeah, you can tell the cockpit definitely feels very old. Also in the main gallery area are a couple of satellites. This exhibit is all about the moon. Very early space stuff. This was the Mercury Primate Capsule. So before they sent humans to space, they sent a chimpanzee in this thing here. Pretty cool piece of history here. This is the Mercury Capsule Freedom 7, in which Alan Shepard became the first American to get shot into space. Man, look at that. I have an exhibit with some space toys from the 50s, including the Moonliner. The Moonliner used to be in Tomorrowland and Disneyland over in California. Right underneath the giant F-1 engine is one of the most famous pieces in the collection here at the Smithsonian, and that is Neil Armstrong's space suit from when he walked on the moon. Going hand in hand with the last one, they have the Command Module from Apollo 11. Really cool. Some super duper historical stuff here. Here's the F-1 engine parts from Apollo 11, but all split up into its different pieces. The moon section does have a second level, where you can get some more views of some of the various artifacts. There's also some early versions of what the space suit looked like. There's also an exhibit showing off delicious, delicious space food. That is tuna salad. Chicken stew. You know, the butterscotch pudding looks okay. Cocoa, looks like cocoa. Grapefruit drink does not look like grapefruit drink at all. Coffee with sugar and cream. Of course, they would have moon rocks. I mean, this is really neat. They've got one of the lunar rovers. This one was from Apollo 15, 16, and 17. This exhibit makes tons of sense for the Air and Space Museum. This is the Wright brothers and the invention of the aerial age. Without a doubt, one of the coolest things here at the Smithsonian. This is the Wright brothers plane, the 1903 Wright Flyer, the first ever airplane. And, man, it's really cool seeing this kind of history. The fabric you might think is a little bit newer. The museum did replace that in the 80s, but this is the actual plane that they flew in Kitty Hawk. So neat. As part of the exhibit, they do have some of the original fabric as well from the Wright Flyer. The next exhibit is the Nation of Speed. We got a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette, advertised as America's first. It's also an exhibit about toys. Everything from the Pinewood Derby to Barbie's Corvette, Hot Wheels. And then, of course, Star Trek toys and Star Wars toys. This is Evel Knievel's motorcycle. And obviously, he's a big theme park fan. This was the one he used at King's Island to jump over 14 Greyhound buses. That is cool. This is the car that Mario Andretti won the 1969 Indianapolis 500 in. Some members of the English staff are big fans of F1 racing, IndyCar racing, NASCAR racing. I am not that staff member. We got Dale Earnhardt's racing helmet. I read this exhibit because, well, there's a taxidermy lion here. Now, the lion was apparently the pet of Mr. Roscoe Turner, which brings me to my next point. Don't keep lions as pets. Look at this motorcycle. It went 136 miles an hour in 1907. We got Richard Petty's NASCAR. And some of the cars from Cars. Currently looking at the Sonic Wind No. 1, a rocket sled that back in the 50s went 632 miles an hour. Whoa. For me, one of the most interesting pieces in this museum is right in front of us. This is, of course, the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek. And this was the original model used in the famous opening credits of Star Trek. Hanging from the rafters is a famous airplane, but not a real one. This is, of course, the X-Wing from Star Wars. This was a screen-used X-Wing from the Rise of Skywalker film. Yeah, Poe used it. Yeah, it's so much larger than the X-Wing that's at Galaxy's Edge. And you can see the R2 unit on the back. This is very cool. Up next is early flight with all sorts of wild ideas of what flight would look like. You know, I'm really bummed that this style of aircraft never took off. No, the 1820s had some ideas. Yeah. Another fun idea for a Zeppelin powered by a small motor. A model here for the concept that was called the Convertaplane. There's another Wright Brothers plane. This one is the Wright Military Flyer, the world's first military airplane. A lot of this exhibit is all different models of small airplanes throughout the years, which are pretty cool to look at all the different types. The next exhibit is We All Fly. We've got lots of stuff hanging from the ceiling. A basket from a hot air balloon. One of these things. Somebody flew past us on one of those in a cruise ship. Yeah, they did. Leaving Miami. Yeah. In this chair here, well, that was just a guy strapped it to a whole bunch of balloons and he flew around on it. Oh. Yeah, it was a house on a wheel. Man, you have an amphibious plane of some type and more modern aircraft. A little bit more information about the Air Phibia. This was the first ever FAA or CAA-approved rotable aircraft. It could drive from the airport to town as a car by disengaging its wings, tail, and propeller. Interesting. Interesting thought. Probably didn't catch on. There's a display talking about different drones, including the prototype Amazon Prime Delivery drone from 2016. On the lower level of the Grand Atrium area is America by Air. Pretty neat exhibit here. This is a simulated cockpit of an Airbus A380 coming in for a landing at nearby Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport. With this one being in the atrium, there's also a lot of larger artifacts. It's a very interesting collection of flight crew uniforms from the 60s and 70s. There's people that had to wear that hat. That would not be a fun time. There's a Rolls-Royce Dart engine. And then this is really neat. You spin the interactive here and it shows off the difference between a jet engine and a piston engine. Kind of mesmerizing to watch. There is a planetarium here at the museum. It is $9 if you want to go see one of the shows. Now time to explore the planet. This exhibit does include information all about the various planets and the solar system. And a giant satellite. There's also this really neat movie presentation. Behind the glass there are some different rovers. Another cool pop culture prop here. Those are Mr. Spock's ears. I never thought I would see those. One World Connected is next and it's all about how aviation and spaceflight connect the world. As you might guess with this one, lots of stuff about satellites. Here you got a Japanese satellite TV dish from the 1980s. This is the World Space Satellite Radio from the 2000s. It's pretty neat. The big globe in the middle can do a whole bunch of stuff. Right now it is tracking animal movements. So an albatross or a Galapagos fur seal. It's pretty fun and they also do like where people live. All sorts of fun stuff. We are visiting the Air and Space Museum here in June of 2023. And just to take note, a lot of it is closed for renovation. A good probably half if not more than half. But also it doesn't cost anything to get into. I'll look at some of the exhibits coming soon and uh yeah some of these look pretty cool. And that'll do it for our time here at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Really cool. I thought it was great. It was. Such a cool collection of artifacts. It's presented very very well. Some important information. You do need a free timed reservation. You just got to go on their website to make them. And they do sell out. So if you're planning on coming to visit definitely do so and look online. We mentioned how they were doing a big renovation. It's a renovation that started back in 2018. Won't be finished until 2025. So I feel I definitely want to come back in a couple years and see like when it's all done. Yeah because this looks really nice. Yeah um just seeing this half of the museum alone did take us about 90 minutes. And if you read everything well it could take you three days probably. Yeah. But I had a great time. I can obviously see why this is so well attended and so well loved. If you have any questions about the museum let me know in the comments section below. And thank you for watching.