Largest aviation museum opens
Published 9:00 pm Monday, December 15, 2003
CHANTILLY, Va.— Tourists who seldom venture beyond the National Mall in Washington journeyed to a huge complex of aircraft hangars 28 miles west of the capital Monday as the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened to the public.
"We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see the grand opening," said Ron Berns, 34, of Apple Valley, Minn. "The whole family is just big fans of aviation," said Bern, who decided to make the stop while en route to Wednesday’s Centennial of Flight celebration at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
"This is the largest air and space exhibition complex in the world," said Gen. John R. Dailey, moments before cutting the ribbon to open the raised catwalks to museum visitors who could view 82 planes.
An additional 116 aircraft and 135 large space artifacts are undergoing preservation in Suitland, Md. By 2007, they will be added to the permanent exhibit of machines that will never be operated again.
Among the aircraft already on display are the B-29, Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Its presence led to protests from a small group of elderly Japanese atomic bomb survivors concerned that the human toll of the attacks was not noted in the display. A total of 230,000 people were killed by atomic bombs in the final days of World War II.
"If they want to show these planes, that’s fine, but we can’t help but also demand that they show the damage and the stories that take place behind these weapons," said Terumi Tanaka, 71, a Nagasaki survivor.
Philip Wheaton, 78, of Takoma Park, Md., called the gleaming silver aircraft an important part of history. "The Hiroshima bomb started the whole nuclear age, that’s why I wanted to see it," he said.
Two men were arrested after a bottle of red liquid was thrown near the nose gear of the B-29 during a demonstration. Thomas K. Siemer, 73, of Columbus, Ohio, was charged with felony destruction of property and loitering, while Gregory Wright of Hagerstown, Md., faced a misdemeanor loitering charge.
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