The National Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum started a major renovation of its building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2018. The revitalization of the building’s exterior and infrastructure, and the transformation of all 23 exhibitions and presentation spaces, will take in total approximately seven years. During this time, the Museum will be open with about one half of the galleries closed starting with the west half of the building.

Before the first half of the building could undergo complete re-facing of the exterior cladding, replacement of outdated mechanical systems and other repairs and improvements, all small, medium and large artifacts needed to be removed and taken to storage for approximately two years. Century Aviation was contracted to work with Crozier Fine Arts and IWEISS (theatrical rigging) to lower each of the suspended large artifacts that were hanging from the ceiling and disassemble those and all of the large artifacts on the west end gallery floors. The 75 large artifacts included things like full-size aircraft, satellites and engines. Please see the large artifact list below.

Throughout the disassembly process, all steps were fully documented to support reassembly. This documentation will support the reassembly of both the large artifacts that will return to the National Mall building as well as the artifacts that will be placed on display at other locations in the future. After they were disassembled, the large artifacts were meticulously inventoried, packed and prepared for shipment to the storage facility at the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.