Situated on the Mall housing the Lincoln memorial, second world war memorial, the capitol and the white house to name a few, the National Air and Space Museum stands it's ground as an impressive piece of modern architecture.
On first glance of the building the eye is greeted by the magnificent statue stood as the centre piece for the museum, Ad Astra, "to the stars". Behind it, the building, as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atria which house the larger exhibits such as missiles, airplanes and spacecraft.
On entry, it feels like an Alice in Wonderland feeling of shrinking to a miniature ant. The exhibitions of aircrafts dangle directly overhead. I felt transfixed on the exhibitions and I'm pretty sure I had my mouth gormlessly open for at least 30 minutes with out talking. It gives you a sense of them flying over the top of you and a glimpse of what it was like for the people on the ground as they saw these planes do exactly that, especially back in those days when aircraft was still new and rarely seen.
Once you have passed the hanging aircrafts you follow the building round to find the rockets and space ships. They stand from the ground up, so you get the whole experience of directing your eyes up and comparing your tiny self to their monstrous size.
There are many exhibitions and even interactive flight control desks for you to have a go, a cinema showing space related films and documentaries.
Last but no means least the museum has an interactive kids zone, which teaches the theory behind space and flying.
The image beneath is me and Jocelin testing out the thermal camera.
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