Originally published at: X-Wing fighter lands at the Smithsonian museum | Boing Boing
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Can we guess the date that someone climbs over the gallery railing and tries to fly it out of there?
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… they’d have to climb the cables holding it from the ceiling, IIRC.
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They have the restored original TOS Enterprise filming model behind glass there, and THAT is something to see… THAT object inspired viewers to reach for the stars.
This modern X-Wing is (pardon the pun) light-parsecs away from what that Enterprise model represents.
For a science-type museum that has so many authentic items on display, this smacks of marketing and not education. Everyone knows the science of Star Wars is laughable.
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Bummer they put a scifi space craft in but not the real x-wing… 
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The photo looks like it’s in the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air and Space Museum. That’s an expansion out in Dulles, VA. Many of the planes there are sitting on the floor of a giant hangar.
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as an exhibit of pop culture, i’m fine with the inclusion – like the wizard of oz ruby slippers and archie bunker’s chair. but not in the air & space museum. i would prefer venue that to be reserved for actual achievements of science and flight history.
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That is the most insane concept I’ve ever seen!
from what the Enterprise model represents
Star Trek is also fiction, and filled with psychic powers and time travel and all sorts of other nonsense. There’s hardly any more science there than there is in Star Wars. The idea that one pop culture franchise is “marketing and not education,” while the other major pop culture franchise is “science” is silly. They also have the mother ship from Close Encounters, which is also not “science.”
These things inspire us. Yes, Star Wars inspired generations of current NASA engineers, just as Star Trek did (and both still do). Just enjoy what you prefer, don’t poop on everyone else’s party.
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That’s the restoration facility at Udvar-Hazy indeed. Great to be able to watch them slowly restoring items (and now watch them piecing together the X-Wing). Apparently they’ll transport it down into DC to the main facility once they’re done and hang it from the ceiling there.
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The Air and Space Museum is bound to include lots of things that aren’t ‘real’, because watching Star Wars is as close as 99.999% of us can get to space.
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Also what’s wrong with the fantasy ship getting people in the door and then they get to explore more of the real stuffy?
When I was a kid I was equally obsessed with Star wars ships as well as real-world ships and planes. I imagine I’m not alone in the middle of that Venn diagram
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i get it. as a kid growing up in the 60s, when i finally got to air and space what i was dying to see most were the mercury, gemini and apollo crafts. but kids from later generations would be just as geeked to see the x wing. i just hope they take a minute to examine the real stuff.
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Next up: Big Bird will be displayed in the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum.
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And don’t forget to exit through the gift shop!
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They already have models and artwork of lots of sci fi ships. They have model rockets too. That’s the stuff that gets kids interested in the subject. It gets people in the door.
Here’s one of my favorites at Udvar-Hazy:
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True, we really want to stick to natural history and evolutionary topics only.
Just ignore all the Egyptian mummies and ceramics…
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