So I was planning to spend the day in Loudoun County,
Virginia’s so-called hunt country and northernmost wine region driving through
the scenic hills in fall foliage colors with stops at the historic towns, several
plantation estates, and a few of the multitude of wineries . That’s good weather
touring, though, and the forecast was for heavy rain. This time they got it
right; it turned out to be one of those days when it rained so hard for most of
the day that it was hard to see the car ahead on the highway. So I put an
alternate plan into effect.

I had heard the Smithsonian recently opened a new Air &
Space Museum annex near Dulles Airport in Washington DC’s far western suburbs.
The “recently” in my mind turns out to have been 11 years ago. The full name of
the place begins with “The Steven Udvar-Hazy…..” So who is this guy with the
Hungarian-sounding name the place is named for? I Googled. It turns out that he’s
a founder of one of the world’s largest air-lease companies, one of Forbes
500-richest people in the world, and the major contributor to the new museum. And
he was born in Hungary, so I guessed the name correctly.

Like all the Smithsonian museums admission is free, but
parking is a steep $15 and there’s no place in walking distance to park to
avoid the fee . For that fee I should at least be a covered parking deck instead
of out in the middle of nowhere.

Described as being housed in two gigantic aircraft hangars I
expected the surroundings to be a little shabby, like a massive warehouse in two
old unused aircraft hangars. I was pleasantly surprised, though. The facility
is modern and top class and absolutely enormous, housing all those big flying things
that don’t fit into the Air & Space Museum on the National Mall in DC,
including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, a Concorde, and hundreds
of other military and civilian aircraft and spacecraft from the beginning of
flight to the present. I was thoroughly wowed, something that doesn’t happen
all that often anymore.

In addition to the impressive building and the quality of
the collection, the presentation is superb. Too many science-oriented museums nowadays
aim to entertain rather than educate, sacrificing depth and breadth to draw in
those with short attention spans with interactive displays, noisy videos, and dumbed-down
explanations. Not here, though; this museum is one grownups can appreciate,
ranking up there with the Deutsches Museum in Munich as one of the top
science/technology museums I’ve ever visited.