Red Canoe | Official Site

Last weekend, David headed to Washington, D.C., for the Mutual Concerns of Air and Space Museums Conference, which is sponsored by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Though David spent much time introducing institutions to the Red Canoe brand, he also found some time to explore the museum – home to the world’s largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft.

Cherry blossom season in D.C.: It’s no space shuttle, but it’ll do.

Inside “America’s Hangar” at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (above). The Center is far more spacious than the main Air and Space Museum at the National Mall, about a half-hour away; it houses countless aircraft and spacecraft, as well as an IMAX Theater and an observation deck, which offers a terrific view of the traffic at Washington Dulles International Airport.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is home to the Boeing Aviation Hangar, where great aircraft – like the Dash 80 (the Boeing 367-80, America’s first jet airliner) and the the Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud – go to retire. Above, the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress Bomber, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.

Above, the tail of the massive Space Shuttle Enterprise. Although the “Star Trek” namesake never actually made it into space, the impressive orbiter is still  an important aspect of American space exploration history. It’s the centerpiece of the museum’s space collection.

What’s better than dinner and drinks? Dinner and drinks among long range missiles and space launch vehicles, of course.

Even if you don’t recognize this gentleman, you surely know the photo. That’s William Anders, one of the first three men to enter the moon’s orbit, and the iconic photo he took, “Earthrise.” Anders, who traveled to space a full seven months before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, can now add another historic first to his bio: He’ll be the first owner of a piece of our forthcoming Boeing collaboration. After David offered him a sneak peek of the North American Aviation P-51 Flight Kit Bag – still at the sample stage – Anders insisted that he get his hands on the bag. How could we refuse?

Image of Anders and Earthrise courtesy of NASA.