“Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall”
Opening: July 28, 2025, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., Gallery 100
The “Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall” showcases some of the museum’s most iconic objects. With artifacts arrayed along walls and suspended from the ceiling—and interpretive displays that provide background and context—this central gallery of the museum in Washington, D.C., invites visitors to explore the diverse and rich collections that make up the rest of the museum’s exhibitions in Washington and at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Banners featuring important individuals in aviation and spaceflight, as well as a large media screen, help bring these historic figures to life.
Highlights include:
Lunar Module LM-2: Between 1969 and 1972, six lunar modules essentially identical to this one landed a total of 12 American astronauts on the moon. This lunar module, LM-2, never flew in space. It was built for testing in low Earth orbit but was used on Earth to measure the LM’s ability to withstand the forces of landing on the moon. It is configured as LM-5, Apollo 11’s lunar module Eagle. The lunar module also symbolizes the United States’ triumph in the space race with the Soviet Union, part of the competition for technological supremacy and international prestige during the Cold War of 1945–91.
SpaceShipOne: In 2004, SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize as the first privately developed space vehicle capable of carrying three people into suborbital spaceflight (up to 100 kilometers/62 miles) and repeating the feat within two weeks. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen funded SpaceShipOne, and Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites designed and built it. With two successful flights piloted by Mike Melvill Sept. 29, and Brian Binnie Oct. 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne claimed the prize.
Bell X-1: Piloted by Air Force Capt. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager, this X-1 (one of three) became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1). On Oct. 14, 1947, it reached 1,127 kilometers (700 miles) per hour—Mach 1.06. The X-1 proved an aircraft could travel faster than sound and gathered transonic flight data that is still valuable.
North American X-15: North American X-15s bridged the gap between human flight within Earth’s atmosphere and into space. These rocket-powered research aircraft explored the hypersonic region—speeds above Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). They remain the world’s fastest and highest-flying aircraft.
Mercury Friendship 7: On Feb. 20, 1962, NASA astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in this spacecraft, which he named Friendship 7. During the third U.S. Project Mercury mission, Glenn’s three orbits matched the Soviet achievement of orbital flight, accomplished April 12, 1961, by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and again Aug. 6–7, 1961, by Gherman Titov. Glenn’s flight meant that the United States was beginning to catch up with Soviet spectaculars in the Cold War space race.
Gemini IV: During Gemini IV, astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to walk in space when he opened the hatch and floated out of this capsule for 21 minutes. Command pilot James A. McDivitt and White flew for four days, an American record at the time, after their launch June 3, 1965. Gemini IV was the second of 10 similar spacecraft that each carried two American astronauts in 1965 and 1966.
Bell XP-59A: The XP-59Airacomet is the first American jet aircraft. Bell company test pilot Robert M. Stanley flew this XP-59A for the first time Oct. 1, 1942. Although designed as a fighter, the Airacomet proved underpowered during its test program and was slower than conventional, piston-engine fighters. The XP-59A did not see combat. It served as an advanced trainer and gave the Army Air Forces and Navy valuable experience with jet aircraft technology. It is the original ancestor of generations of American military and civil jet aircraft.
Moon Rock: One of the few things visitors can actually touch at the museum, this lunar sample was brought back to Earth by the crew of Apollo 17, the last Apollo lunar mission, in December 1972. The six Apollo missions that landed on the moon between July 1969 and December 1972 returned a total of about 382 kilograms (840 pounds) of rock and soil, which provided geologists with detailed evidence of the moon’s history and composition.
NASA Wind Tunnel Fan: This wooden fan is one of two that powered NASA’s Full-Scale Wind Tunnel. Built in 1931 for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the predecessor to NASA), the wind tunnel was used to test most of America’s significant military aircraft of that era. Also known as the 30-by-60-foot tunnel, it could hold an aircraft with a wingspan of up to 12 meters (40 feet). Aerospace engineers used the wind tunnel’s accurate data to verify fundamental designs and make improvements. The Full-Scale Wind Tunnel was one of the most significant and versatile research tunnels ever built.
Pulsar Map: Embedded in the gallery’s floor is a starburst design. This galactic map is like those on the planetary probes Pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2. It shows the location of Earth’s solar system in relation to 14 known astronomical objects called pulsars. It is a signature: this is from Earth. Each spoke points to a specific pulsar, with marks showing (in binary numbers) how fast that pulsar appears to blink. The longest line marks the distance to the galaxy’s center. The museum’s map differs from the original version made in the 1970s. Its marks reflect the slight slowing of the pulsars’ blink rates by 2026, thus marking the 50th anniversary of the museum’s Washington building.
Sponsor: Boeing
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SI-161-2025