The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.
NASM has always had more artifacts than could be displayed at the main museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C (Most of the collection had been stored, unavailable to visitors, at the Paul Garber facility in the Silver Hill section of Prince George's County, Maryland.) The Center was made possible by a US$65 million gift in October 1999 to the Smithsonian Institution by Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, an immigrant from Hungary and co-founder of the International Lease Finance Corporation. Small, L. M. "A century's roar and buzz: Thanks to an immigrant's generosity, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opens to the public". In "From the Secretary". Smithsonian. Vol. 34, p. 20. Construction of the Center required fifteen years of preparation and was built by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. Triplett, W. "Hold everything!" Smithsonian. Vol. 34, December 2003, p. 59.
Plans call for additional phases that will move the restoration facility and the museum archives to the site from their current location at the Garber facility.
