Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.

Nakajima conceived the Tenrai as a high-performance interceptor but the experimental fighter never met its expected performance and was not produced. The Japanese Navy assigned Nakajima the task of ...

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC. This ...

Leonardo da Vinci created masterpieces of art and sculpture. Equally remarkable, his aggregate achievements in engineering, mathematics, anatomy, geology, physics, music, military technology, ...

Marlon D. Green fought and won the right to fly as a pilot for a major United States airline—a triumph during a time when segregation often kept Black people out of what were at the time all-white ...

Concentration of force is the essence of military action. Germany’s surprise attack and swift victory over 650 troops stationed inside Ft. Eben-Emael during World War II on May 10, 1940, showed a new ...

Largest Gift Since James Smithson’s Founding of the Smithsonian The Smithsonian will receive a $200 million donation from Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chair of Amazon, and founder of aerospace ...

On December 15, 1965, Gemini VI and VII met for the first rendezvous in space. This was not NASA’s original plan. Gemini VI, commanded by Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra and piloted by Tom Stafford, ...

One of the most iconic images of the D-Day invasion was taken shortly after the initial invasion itself. The image features several LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) beached along the coast of France while ...

For the museum’s blog series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, I have focused on the Museum’s art collection and the embedded meanings in the paintings of Robert Jordan ...

On May 20–21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh piloted his Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis on the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic. The former air mail pilot and barnstormer flew from New York to ...