VR Hangar

See air and space history-making moments brought to life in immersive vignettes.

See moments that made air and space history with the VR Hangar from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The Hangar brings some of the Museum’s most important milestone artifacts to life using real 3D-scan data in immersive virtual reality vignettes.

Features:

•1903 Wright Flyer: The 1903 Wright Flyer was the product of a sophisticated four-year program of research and development conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright beginning in 1899. After building and testing three full-sized gliders, the Wrights' first powered airplane flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, making a 12-second flight, traveling 120 ft.

-See the workshop where Wilbur and Orville built the Flyer

-Watch their first unsuccessful attempt at Kitty Hawk

-Witness the inauguration of the aerial age with the Wright’s first flight

•Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis: On October 14, 1947, the Bell X-1 became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. Piloted by U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, the X-1 reached a speed of 700 miles per hour, Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 43,000 feet. Yeager named the airplane "Glamorous Glennis" in tribute to his wife.

-See the experimental X-1 in development

-Watch as the aircraft is loaded onto a B-29 for air-launch

-Witness history’s first transonic flight

•Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia: The Command Module Columbia was the home to the three-person crew of history’s first lunar landing mission. It launched atop a 363’ Saturn V rocket, and housed the crew en route to the Moon. Columbia remained in lunar orbit while Eagle landed on the surface, and is the only portion of the spacecraft that returned to Earth.

-See where the astronauts boarded Columbia for their history journey

-Watch the spacecraft in orbit around the Moon

-Witness the reentry of Columbia as it returns the crew safely to Earth