Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater

25 Places Commemorating Women Who Were Ahead of Their Time

"Known to Amelia Earhart as “old Bessie, the fire horse,” this bright red plane helped the aviator lock in her early record setting flights. Born in Atchison, Kansas, Earhart came to fame following her 1932 flight from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, across the Atlantic to Derry, North Ireland in just 14 hours and 56 minutes. As the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic she raked in awards from the Distinguished Flying Cross to the Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society. The six-seater Lockheed Vega monoplane was a popular choice for record setters of the era, including being the favorite for Wiley Post’s around the world flights. Earhart bought the plane in 1930 and quickly became fond of its nimble agility and long distance potential. She flew it not only on her daring transatlantic journey, but also on her August 1932 nonstop flight across the United States. Amelia Earhart famously set off in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, and disappeared somewhere over the South Pacific. It is thought that she crash-landed into the waters off the remote Nikumaroro Island. Nearby on Howlard Island, a lighthouse tower named after her stands in perpetual wait for her refueling stopover. The plane was donated to Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute in 1933 when Earhart bought a new plane, and it was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1966. Update as of October 2019: The Lockheed Vega is no longer on display as the National Air and Space Museum undergoes renovations." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

"Opened to the public as part of the country's bicentennial celebration in 1976, this is the largest of the Smithsonian Institution's 20 museums. It is the most-visited museum in the U.S. (and the second-most-visited museum in the world behind the Louvre), containing the world's largest collection of air and space craft, as well as interactive flight simulators, an IMAX theater, and the Einstein Planetarium. More than 60,000 objects connected with aviation and human flight are housed here, including the Wright brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer; Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis ; Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1, the Glamorous Glennis , which broke the sound barrier; astronaut John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury capsule; the Apollo 11 command module Columbia , which carried the first men to the moon; the Apollo-Soyuz Hook-up; and Skylab. As immense as the museum may seem, you are looking at only 10 percent of the entire collection. The remaining 90 percent is located at the Steven Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, the largest air and space museum building in the world."