The giant hangar is "perhaps the largest room in the world," Smithsonian Institution secretary Lawrence Small said. It contains the first copy of the space shuttle, the B-29 that first dropped an atomic bomb as a weapon and the supersonic Concorde airliner.

The 311-million-dollar museum includes a 50-meter (164-foot) control tower that reproduces the work environment of air traffic controllers, overlooking the airliners queuing for takeoff at nearby Dulles International Airport, which serves the capital.

Authenticity is the rule. Some items are the last remaining copies, such as the renowned Japanese KI-45 "Kai Toryu" from World War II -- wingless but the only survivor among 1,700 built.

The helicopter came to symbolize Vietnam's jungle war, and a Bell Iroquois with 2,400 flying hours shows the danger of its mission: Its fuselage is shot through with Viet Cong bullets and patched dozens of times.

From the entrance it is easy to recognize the stubby nose and the squat tail of the shuttle. On display is the Enterprise, which NASA used between 1977 and 1979 for approach and landing tests before Columbia's first flight in April 1981.

On the first floor, an SR-71 reconnaissance plane looks as flat as a sting ray. It takes its name from its all-black paint: "Blackbird." Conceived and built in the early 1960s, it is still the fastest jet in the world and can reach the highest altitude: 3,620 kilometers (2,250 miles) per hour at 85,000 feet. Its record: from West Coast to East Coast in 64 minutes; New York to London in two hours.

Next to that lighting bolt, the gleaming B-29 seems inoffensive -- if it weren't for the letters in black paint on the fuselage near the cockpit: Enola Gay. The name of the pilot's mother was painted on just an hour before takeoff and forever linked to the cataclysmic explosion of the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Beneath the four-engine superfortress, a plaque salutes the "most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments." It also mentions the atomic weapon over Hiroshima, but makes no mention of the 230,000 civilian casualties.

The museum's director, retired general John Dailey, has resisted groups who want the death toll included.

"We don't do it for other airplanes," he told AFP. "From a consistency standpoint, we focus on the technical aspects."

Museum entry is free of charge. It shows 80 percent of the Smithsonian's aircraft collection that could not be shown at the museum in Washington.

"America's Hangar," as the new museum is called in a promotional book, opens officially on December 15 to coincide with the Wright Brothers' first flight on December 17, in North Carolina. Three million visitors are expected in 2004.

SPACE.WIRE