5 New Exhibits Opening July 28 at Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum

What's On Now

Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum National Mall branch has been undergoing a complete transformation since 2018. In fall 2022, Smithsonian revealed the first new exhibits highlighting the Wright Brothers’ historic breakthrough in heavier than air flight, the development of commercial aircraft, and the crowning accomplishment of the 1960s, the moon landing.

Our guides have picked their favorites in these exhibits over countless Smithsonian Highlights tours. As the first airplane, the Wright Flyer is an easy choice for the best place to start our story. No matter how many times you see the fabric wings and primitive propellers, it is always amazing to think about how Orville and Wilbur Wright completed the task that innovators since Leonardo Da Vinci grappled with, on an isolated beach in North Carolina.

Guests and guides also love Jackie Cochran’s T-38 hanging at the far end of the museum.  Her aviation records, successful business career and complicated involvement in the astronaut program are fascinating stories that parallel the technological developments highlighted in the museum. One of the best parts of taking a tour is discovering new favorite stories and artifacts, and connecting them with familiar stories like the moon landing.

The most popular item on the tour in Air and Space is a toss-up between Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit and the Apollo 11 capsule, Columbia. Lucky for visitors, you don’t have to choose, because they are housed right next to each other in the Destination Moon exhibit. Your guide will help you to imagine what it was like to wear the spacesuit and enter the capsule. Through the power of storytelling you will be able to picture going to the moon along with Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins.

What's new at Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum

As much as our fabulous storytellers and guests enjoy spending time with these iconic objects, everyone is looking forward to the next phase of reopening. We have eagerly kept tabs on these exhibits coming together for almost a year. First, curatorial staff moved the planes, rockets, and modules into the museum. We felt like children waiting for Christmas watching these items enter the building through the massive sliding doors, wrapped like presents and waiting to be hoisted into their final positions. Several months ago staff mounted the objects in display cases and hung them from the ceiling, and began slowly removing the wrappings, teasing us with what’s to come.

Five additional exhibits will open to the public this month. Even the outside of the building has undergone exciting changes. Our guides and guests will enter through a brand new entrance on the Mall side of the building that is shaped to evoke the image of a wing.  The new entrance leads to the Boeing Milestones of Flight exhibit which dominates the center of the building.

Boeing Milestones of Flight

The orange finish of Chuck Yaeger’s Bell X-1 is distinctive in its place high above the entrance.  We can also see the shells of two missiles made as part of an agreement between the USSR and the United States at the end of the Cold War, where both countries built inert missiles and ceremonially exchanged them for study and display. The USSR gifted the yellow SS-20 to the United States in exchange for a US Pershing II so both nations could commemorate the Intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement which banned an entire class of nuclear arms.  Finally, standing tall above the barriers is the Apollo Lunar Module. This model, representing the module used in Apollo 15, 16, and 17 was in part used for rehearsal and preparation for those voyages.

The Holt Innovations Gallery: Aerospace and Our Changing Environment

Also located on the first floor, this gallery will become one of our favorites.  In keeping with the commitment to innovation, this exhibit will rotate approximately every two years bringing the newest developments in air and space to museum goers.  The initial exhibit will focus on the equipment and methods used to collect climate data and how it is being used in current research. The gallery also covers consumer access to aerospace technology. One of the highlights of this exhibit is the Aeronca C-2, a lightweight, affordable plane that was created to bring flight to the average man; this impressive technology was developed in 1929!

Futures in Space

The final new exhibit space on the first floor is the Futures in the Space gallery.  This joyful exhibit brings a touch of whimsy to Air and Space, and looks back at what we thought the future of space travel might be in the mid-twentieth century.  From movie and TV memorabilia to the Voyager golden record, visitors will see what Americans envisioned coming next after the first steps on the moon. The exhibit will also look into the near future of commercial and tourist space travel, and much further to planetary exploration and humans living in new environments.

Upstairs there are two additional exhibits opening.  

World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation

Your guide will link the Wright Brothers’ innovation to the First World War and how global militaries used this shocking new technology.  Perhaps one of the most highly anticipated items in this exhibit is the Sopwith Camel, with an audiovisual display simulating aerial combat. The collection also includes fun surprises, like the basket of a surveillance balloon; while observation balloons first appeared during the French Revolution and reached their heyday in World War I, the United States has utilized spy balloons as far back as the Civil War.

Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight

Last, but certainly not least, is the Pioneers of Flight exhibit. This exhibit focuses on brave pilots and astronauts who broke records, barriers, or both. Guides and guests have been able to see the nose of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis for months, and we can’t wait to get up close and take the perfect photo.  Nearby is Amelia Earhart’s Vega 5B, which she named “Little Red Bus.”  We may never know what happened to Earhart and her Electra on the final leg of her world-lapping flight, but she used the Vega on earlier record-setting flights, such as crossing the Atlantic and traversing the United States.  We can’t wait to see all of the other incredible objects on display in this exhibit!

If reading about these exhibits has whet your appetite for all things aerospace, we have good news for you: Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum will continue to be a part of our fantastic Smithsonian Highlights tour! However, these new exhibits inspired us to try something new too– each day we will offer a special tour of just the Air & Space Museum.  You can spend 90 minutes exploring all of the new exhibits, plus our classic favorites. Your guide has the best stories about the wealth of treasures in one of the Smithsonian’s most popular museums. 

If you’re in town for a limited time and want to get the flavor of the Smithsonian Institution as a whole, our Smithsonian Highlights tour will get you through the three most popular museums in just 3 hours, including the new highlights at Air and Space. If you have seen the other museums before, or simply want to focus in on Air & Space, the 90 minute tour is perfect for you.  Your guide will bring you from the first flight all the way to space tourism in only an hour and a half.  After the tour, you will have the opportunity to explore more on your own.

We hope that you are as excited to see these new exhibits as we are!