Where things that fly inspire

CHANTILLY, Va. —- The B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, on Hiroshima, Japan, was itself almost defenseless.

Most Superfortresses had five remote-controlled gun turrets, quite an innovation at the time, and armor plating. But to make the Enola Gay, named for pilot Col. Paul Tibbets' mother, as light as possible to accommodate the weight of the almost 10,000-pound A-bomb nicknamed "Little Boy," it had only two tail guns and no armor.

"It was souped up and stripped down," said Art Hamilt, a guide and former naval aviator, standing on a skywalk near the plane in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which opened in 2003.

The Enola Gay, in the Smithsonian's possession since 1949, took almost two decades to restore. Today, the polished aluminum, 99-foot-long aircraft with a Plexiglas nose and cockpit is as shiny as the day it came off the Martin Co. production line in Omaha, Neb. (Boeing developed the B-29 and built many of the planes, but some were also built by Martin and by Bell Aircraft in Marietta.)

The Enola Gay is one of the star attractions of this Smithsonian branch outside Washington, where more than 160 aircraft and more than 150 space artifacts that are too large for the National Mall location are on display, many of them hanging from the ceiling. In addition, there are more than 1,500 smaller items, such as full-scale replicas of the Mars Pathfinder lander and Sojourner Rover.

The Udvar-Hazy Center, named for its major donor, the chairman and CEO of an international aviation firm, draws about 1 million visitors a year, about a fifth of the number who tour the better-known Mall location. But the center is every bit as fascinating for anyone remotely interested in machines that fly.

Those who make the trip to the museum near Dulles International Airport will be rewarded with a chill-producing survey of aviation history, from pre-1920s memorabilia to decades of military aircraft, to passenger planes, to the rockets, satellites and missiles of the Space Age.

Here's a look at some of the awe-inspiring aircraft (visitors cannot go inside but touch-screen kiosks show some interior views):

The Enterprise: This is as close as most of us will get to an authentic, gleaming white space shuttle, and it's the centerpiece of the 80-foot-high James S. McDonnell Space Hangar. The orbiter is the same size (57 feet tall, 122 feet long, 78-foot wingspan) as the in-service Endeavour and other shuttles, but the Enterprise was designed only for atmospheric flights and ground experiments. The tiles that cover its surface are only simulated thermal and the Enterprise has no propulsion system.

Its early role was for approach-and-landing tests, and later for vibration checks. It also has served as a goodwill ambassador, appearing at the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: It's black, it's sleek and it almost screams "spy." The Cold War-era twin-engine, two-seat supersonic reconnaissance plane is the fastest jet-propelled aircraft in the world. The titanium plane, delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 1964, had a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 and could reach an altitude of more than 16 miles, allowing it to fly high and fast into and out of hostile territory. Its paint was intended to absorb radar signals, dissipate some of the heat caused by air friction and act as camouflage. The jet on display set a speed record on its last flight in 1990, covering the distance from Los Angeles to Washington in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 20 seconds, an average of 2,124 mph.

Air France Concorde: The supersonic needle-nosed jet, which could accommodate up to 100 well-heeled passengers, was flown by Air France and British Airways. It had a top speed of 1,350 mph and could cross the Atlantic Ocean in under four hours. Only 20 were built. The plane displayed was the first Concorde delivered to Air France and the first to open service between Paris and New York, Paris and Washington and Paris and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After 17,824 flying hours, it was retired in 2003 (as were all Concordes) and donated to the museum.