Photos of some of the museum's aircraft being moved into the building prior to the opening.

Air France donated Concorde F-BVFA (ship 205) to the Smithsonian via a long standing agreement.
F-BVFA was flown to IAD on 12 Jun 03 (landing shots here). These photos show F-BVFA as it is moved into the museum building on 17 Sep 05 just prior to an expected storm. Moving this large bird from the parking place on the Dulles F ramp to the proper position in the building was quite an undertaking. The Concorde had to be turned around and backed into the building. Volunteers from United Airlines delicately maneuvered the Concorde on the narrow taxiway sometimes with only inches of clearance on the nose, wings or tail. After being turned around, Concorde was eased into the building through the side hanger door with only inches to spare above the tail.

The only surviving Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner (NC19903) arrived at IAD on 6 Aug 2003 after flying cross-country from Seattle via Oshkosh,WI. At IAD it made a high speed pass, circled around and landed for the last time.

The Stratoliner was moved into the museum on the same day as the Concorde - 17 Sep 05.

This XV-15A (N703NA) was one of two XV-15s built. The other XV-15 (N702NA) crashed and was destroyed. N703NA flew from Texas to Manassas,VA where it spent the night before flying the short trip to IAD on 16 Sep 2003 for its final landing... but not before putting on a bit of show!

One of the X-35 prototypes (X-35B #301) was trucked to IAD and reassembled in the museum building. The aircraft was rendered permanently un-flightworthy by a company hired to move it. They removed wing panels and cut the wing spars to remove the wings. However; once put together at the museum, it looks perfect but it could never fly again.