The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum maintains the world's largest and most significant collection of aviation and space artifacts, encompassing all aspects of human flight, as well as related works of art and archival materials. It operates two landmark facilities that, together, welcome more than eight million visitors a year, making it the most visited museum in the country. It also is home to the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies.
Since its opening, the National Air and Space Museum's building on the National Mall has been limited by size to the display of only a small fraction of the collection of aircraft and large space artifacts. Thousands of artifacts were forced to remain in storage.

In 1977, Don Lopez, then Chair of the Aeronautics Division, sent a memo to Director Michael Collins, suggesting that massive buildings, much larger than the new Museum, be procured at one of the regional airport facilities. He recognized that modern aircraft were generally larger, heavier, and more difficult to move by road from one location to another. Future acquisitions, perhaps as large as a Boeing 747, would require covered display space and would need to travel there without being disassembled, trucked over miles of highway and then reassembled. Such costs would be prohibitive except in the rarest of cases. Lopez ruled out any location more than one hour's drive from the National Mall in Washington, DC. This criterion narrowed the possibilities significantly.

In 1980, Lopez and Deputy Director Mel Zisfein initiated a study to select the best candidate for the Annex. Dulles Airport seemed most logical, and after some perseverance, the Smithsonian Board of Regents endorsed the plan, and the Federal Aviation Administration offered 100 acres of land to the south of the airport for the construction of the Dulles Annex, but that was just the beginning.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed a law establishing an extension for the Museum at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The future companion facility, known at first as the Dulles Annex, would be the largest construction project in Smithsonian history, and the only Smithsonian museum building to be constructed entirely with private funds.
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