Touring the Air and Space Museum at Smithsonian

During our recent scout at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, Director David Langer and Executive Producer Robert Lang explored America’s history throughout.

The scout culminated with a tour of the impressive Air and Space Museum, which highlights the origins of space travel, modern rocketry, civilian and military aviation.

There are 23 galleries containing hundreds of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles and rockets.

“The National Air and Space Museum is a little boy’s dream,” said David Langer. “A massive five podded hangar of a building - It houses everything that has flown from the Wright Brothers to the Mir Space Station.”

“I used to collect model airplanes, but this museum has the real thing hanging from the ceiling. The collection includes the most feared fighter plane from WWII - Mitsubishi A6M Reisen or Jap Zero - The star of one of our stories.”

In the space area, there is a 1960′s Android, an articulated robot from NASA’s Spacecraft Center that once replicated many of the body’s joint motions and aided in early space suit development.

“Even more impressive is the newly opened National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport.

It has the enormous Space Shuttle Discovery. We’ve all seen the launches, but to see this vehicle up close is impressive.”

The Smithsonian has so much to see, that it would be impossible to catalogue it all in one of our episodes - but we can’t wait to focus on some of the fascinating stories here, when we film here in September. Follow us for some live updates from the shoot next month!