The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum celebrated its' 100th anniversary of manned flight with a new facility and new high-tech public access to aircraft and space artifacts. The 11 million visitors a year to the National Air and Space Museum are now able to fully enjoy truly historic aviation displays in person, and by using on-site kiosks can look inside some of the cockpits using interactive photographic virtual reality.

Two men working with some of the most advanced technology available, have set out to bring visitors a never-before-seen view of aviation history. David Palermo of WorldVR, and Dennis Beela, veterans of virtual reality and digital photography, teamed up to record 200 aircraft and 128 space artifacts using state-of-the-art high resolution digital photography and QuickTime VR. The exterior of each item is photographed in 10 degree increments, creating a complete three-dimensional virtual reality image. The cockpit of each aircraft is also photographed using multiple images blended together. This level of detail will allow even a child to view a huge aircraft, spinning it like a toy to view from any angle and in addition will allow one to "sit" inside the cockpit and look around. This virtual reality technology is often referred to as 'immersive technology' due to the interactive possibilities offered to the viewer.

For safety and security reasons as well as physical display limitations, visitors to the NASM have varying degrees of access to historic aircraft. Photographic virtual reality give visitors access that would simply not be possible using any other means. For instance, once someof the aircraft are raised from the floor of the museum, visitors cannot look inside the cockpits. However using virtual reality (VR) images available at kiosks throughout the museum, visitors can see the entire plane, inside and out.

The National Air and Space Museum have a historic aircraft collection that includes the Space Shuttle "Enterprise"; the Dash 80 prototype of the Boeing 707 ; the B-17 Flying Fortress named "Swoose"; an F-4 Phantom fighter ; the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay", the de Havilland Chipmunk aerobatic plane, and many more -- the latest addition to the museum is Air France's Concorde.

Most people do not know that only 25% of all of the aircraft donated to the NASM are on display. In an effort to expand viewing options for visitors, a new $311 million center has been built. It recently opened on December 15, 2003 -- just two days before the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight on December 17.