The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum hosts an average of seven million visits every year. The Udvar-Hazy Centre three football fields long and ten stories high receives more than one million visits annually. Best of the National Air and Space Museum features the best of both museums, from the Challenger space shuttle and the Wright flyer to the Spirit of St. Louis and the stealth bomber. Robert Van der Linden, curator of aeronautics, has selected the most important, popular, and just plain impressive aircraft and spacecraft from the collections of both museums to be showcased in this beautiful book. Each page spread includes intriguing facts of the item's design, use, mission, specifications and dimensions. A must-have for space and aviation buffs.