The Reimagining of The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

On Friday, October 14, 2022, The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum opened its doors to the public again after being closed for seven months for a massive renovation project. It also marked the completion of a totally rebuilt west wing, part of a museum-wide, multi-phased, multi-year renovation project started back in 2018 designed to transform the visitor experience and tell a more engaging, updated, and inclusive story of aviation history and space exploration.

The new west wing introduces visitors to eight of what will be a total of 20 completely reimagined exhibitions and galleries when the Museum completes its renovation in 2026.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which opened in 1976, is the largest of the Smithsonian’s 19 museums. It maintains the world’s largest and most significant collection of aviation and space artifacts, with over 78,000 objects and artifacts as well as related works of art and archival materials.

The Museum’s collection is housed in two buildings: The main museum is located at the heart of the Smithsonian complex in Washington, D.C., and features exhibitions on aviation, space exploration, and planetary science. Three connecting hangars at the Udvar-Hazy Center, located in Chantilly, VA, hold hundreds of aviation and space artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, a NASA android, Charles Lindbergh memorabilia, space science instruments, and pilot and astronaut equipment and gear.

Since its opening in 1976, “America’s Favorite Museum” has drawn more than 350 million visitors and is one of the most popular tourist sites on the National Mall but more than 40 years later, the structure itself was not holding up as well as its popularity. Skylights leaked on the artifacts below, the roof needed to be replaced, and the exterior stone was unmoored by the 2011 earthquake, among other structural problems. But it was when they attempted to replace the HVAC system that they discovered their problems ran even deeper and that the museum literally needed to be taken down to its bare steel and rebuilt.

Before work on this scale could be started, the museum needed to pack up and move everything. Planes and other artifacts had to be disassembled, 1,557 artifacts were packed up, and some of the Museum’s largest aircraft—including the Douglas DC-3 and the Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor—had to be trucked on flatbeds to storage hangars near the museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, some 20 miles away.

Remaking the physical structure of the museum allowed curators to update its content and collections against a blank canvas to reflect the activities that have occurred and pioneers that have emerged in the decades since the museum first started telling America’s story in Space. The revived west wing is the first glimpse of the museum’s vision for its future and its collection as it continues to chronicle our ever-expanding universe.

The Early Flight exhibition uses artifacts such as the 1909 Wright Military Flyer and the Bleriot XI to explore the impact of the airplane on politics and international relations. Mechanical interactives allow visitors to operate different types of control systems and interact with digital representations of early aviation pioneers.

The Wright Brothers exhibition provides visitors unprecedented access to the iconic 1903 Wright Flyer while unraveling the story of invention and innovation.

America by Air explores the history of air transportation in America and the ways that improvements in technology have revolutionized air travel.

The Nation of Speed exhibition recounts humankind’s desire to become the fastest on land, sea, air, and space, and is a portrait of human ingenuity and how the pursuit of speed has shaped American culture and our national identity.

The One World Connected exhibition tells the story of flight and features an array of satellites.

The Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets exhibition probes the science and history of our understanding of planets and moons. The exhibition is arranged around dynamic, immersive audio-visual experiences to simulate different planetary landscapes and present visitors with a view of standing on other planets.

The Destination Moon exhibition explores the extraordinary combination of motivations, resources, and technologies that made it possible for humans to go to the Moon. Exhibition highlights include the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit, and a Saturn V engine.

The Thomas W. Haas We All Fly gallery takes visitors through the many different forms of general aviation with interactive elements that put visitors in the cockpit.

In January of 2024, museum officials announced that the east end of the building has been prepared for exhibition installation and artifacts will begin moving into their new galleries later this year. Over 1,600 artifacts will be on display in the east end of the building, including many that were previously on display at the museum in Washington and have recently undergone conservation, preservation, and restoration in the time since they were removed from the building for the renovation. Many other artifacts in the new exhibitions are going on display after long-term storage, are new to the museum’s collection, or were previously on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

The next round of galleries set to open are the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall and Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight in spring 2025, along with the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater and the museum’s entrance on Jefferson Drive along the National Mall.

Additional galleries will open in phases. The museum expects that most of the remaining galleries and public spaces in the building will be open in time for the Museum’s 50th anniversary, and the United States’ 250th anniversary in July 2026, with completion of the remainder soon thereafter.

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