[JYO] Air & Space Musuem Opens Monday

Air & Space Musuem Opens Monday
 Dec 11, 2003 -- Vice President Dick Cheney, astronauts aboard the 
international space station and actor-pilot John Travolta all had parts in 
today’s 
dedication ceremony marking the completion of the Smithsonian Museum’s Steven 
F. 
Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. 
Described as one of the largest rooms in North America, the 300,000 
square-foot complex will open to the public Monday with a display of more than 
80 
aircraft and spacecraft on exhibit. 
A crowd of about 2,000 invited guests attended the ceremony. Most, including 
Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large) and Loudoun 
Public Schools Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick, carried cameras to snap shots 
of the aerial artifacts as well as Neil Armstrong and other industry pioneers. 
Hazy, the Hungarian refugee who built a successful air transit company and 
who made the largest single contribution to the center’s construction, said 
the 
exhibits it contains demonstrate “the very element of human progress.” 
Cheney highlighted the great strides that have been made in the 100 years 
since the Wright Brothers began the era of powered flight. 
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is chancellor of the 
Smithsonian Institution, said that the center’s observation tower which 
offers 
sweeping views of Dulles Airport may be “the best airplane watching spot in 
the world.” 
The formal unveiling of the center's collection, much of which has been in 
storage out of public view for many years, was unique. Through a video link-up 
to the space station, the astronauts led the countdown. When they got to zero, 
a replica of the Wright Brothers flyer suspended by wires moved over the heads 
of the crowd and "landed" in front of them. Curtains that had surrounded the 
crowd then dropped to reveal the Air France Concorde and other exhibits. 
The center opens to the public Monday. Admission is free, but there is a $12 
per car parking fee required by the Metropolitan Washington Airports 
Authority.

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