Check out the National Air and Space Museum while you're at it. There are two centers now: one of them is on the same grounds as the rest of the Smithsonian, and the other one is right by Washington-Dulles International Airport.
Both have their pros and cons, of course, so see both if you can. The Dulles one seems to be more for housing the actual aircraft nowadays, but this includes the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71 Blackbird, and a whole bunch of planes from World War II (mostly German, Japanese, and American; yes, the Enola Gay is among them).
I will say, seeing the German planes -all of which sport a swastika on the tail, as they did then- is actually a chilling experience if you weren't personally living during the time of World War II. I think it's because it makes the whole thing seem somehow more real.
As you can probably guess, I went there for the first time recently, and if you think I'm getting all fanboyish about the place, you should see my wife's reaction.
Both have their pros and cons, of course, so see both if you can. The Dulles one seems to be more for housing the actual aircraft nowadays, but this includes the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71 Blackbird, and a whole bunch of planes from World War II (mostly German, Japanese, and American; yes, the Enola Gay is among them).
I will say, seeing the German planes -all of which sport a swastika on the tail, as they did then- is actually a chilling experience if you weren't personally living during the time of World War II. I think it's because it makes the whole thing seem somehow more real.
As you can probably guess, I went there for the first time recently, and if you think I'm getting all fanboyish about the place, you should see my wife's reaction.