Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/510262
DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2015 54 T he idea is to create a real head- line grabber, one that will vault you to fame (preferably, paired with fortune). But centuries before modern-day America became mar- inated in the fast-paced world of gigabytes and crowdfunding, the quiet little towns and hillsides of northern Virginia were already a breeding ground for those who thrived on thinking outside the box. Virginia, it seems, has always been a magnet for originals. In that spirit, here are a few spots where you'll see the real thing or sit down to chat with a true Virginia groundbreaker. AVIATION COLLECTIONS To make it into the world-famous Smith- sonian collections, an item has to tick most of the boxes: one-of-a-kind, a record- breaker, some sort of historical or cultural significance. The cavernous aviation hangars at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum near Dulles International Airport are filled with hundreds of items that make the grade, including some sym- bolic pieces of 20 th -century history. The main hangar is 10 storeys high with a foot- print larger than three football fields. Aircraft demand a lot of elbow room. Filling one hangar is Discovery, the longest serving and most accomplished of the Space Shuttle orbiters. Most of the heat-resistant tiles on Discovery's fuselage are original equipment from its first takeoff. Over 27 years, the spacecraft com- pleted 39 Earth-orbital missions travelling a total of 240 million kilometres. Imagine the air travel reward points! Parked one hangar over is another original: the Enola Gay Boeing B-29 Super- fortress bomber. The name on the plane's A MAGNET FOR TRAILBLAZERS TOP: Manassas National Battlefield Park was the scene of the first major land battle of the Civil War. OPPOSITE LEFT CENTRE & BOTTOM: The grounds at Mount Vernon are frozen in time circa 1799. OPPOSITE RIGHT TOP, CENTRE & BOTTOM: Opened in 2003, two huge hangars at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum near Dulles International Airport display thousands of aviation and space artifacts. Josephine Matyas IN VIRGINIA, LIKE PRETTY MUCH EVERYWHERE ELSE, IT'S HIP TO BE A START-UP, A TRAILBLAZER, A MAVERICK, AN ORIGINAL. BY JOSEPHINE MATYAS