We Americans are very fortunate to have a national treasure chest like the Smithsonian. Every American should visit Washington to see it, not to mention the monuments, government buildings and archives. The NASM downtown is breathtaking, certainly the largest and best museum in the world devoted strictly to aerospace.
I do not represent the Smithsonian or the NASM, I am just a big fan and supporter. I have tried to make the information I present here as accurate as possible. With a few rare exceptions, the images presented here are original, not scanned from books or magazines. The pictures were either taken by me or by someone who gave them to me to post here.
The Paul E. Garber Restoration, Preservation and Storage Facility is the behind-the-scenes workshop and storage facility for the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum (NASM). The Garber facility contains what is arguably the most interesting collection of airplanes in the world.This page currently contains links to over 300 pictures, covering over 100 NASM artifacts! If you're on a slow link, don't worry! There is only one in-line image on this page.
You can also visit the NASM's home page for the Garber Facility
The NASM (including the Garber Facility) is an amazing treasure trove of aerospace artifacts. It is unquestionably the best collection of WWII era airplanes in the world, especially German and Japanese planes. The reason for this, of course, is that most of the Axis airplanes that were captured and brought to the USA either during or after the war were eventually brought here.
The main criterium for including an artifact in the NASM collection is historical significance. For this reason many of the aircraft in the collection are of special historical significance. For instance, the B-17 in the collection, "the Swoose", is the only surviving early-model B-17 in the world. It was involved in some of the earliest fighting done by American airmen in the Pacific and spent the remainder of the war touring around and carrying VIPs.
Many of the aircraft in the collection are either one-of-a-kind or the last surviving example of their type. Every dedicated aviation enthusiast should make the pilgrimmage to see the Garber Facility. I've seen aviation museums all over the world, and take my word for it, there aren't any that are more interesting. Especially if you're interested in WWII aircraft.
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