By Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 13, 2008

If the kids, or the parents, in your family have ever dreamed of flying an airplane, then the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center may be the place to spend your Saturday this Father's Day weekend.

More than 60 military, recreational, vintage and home-built airplanes will be on the tarmac along with their pilots, who will answer questions and maybe even offer tours of their cockpits.

"Become a Pilot Family Day" is one of two events at the museum's two locations this weekend. "Space: A Journey to Our Future," a new exhibition on space exploration, opens Saturday at the museum on the Mall, replete with interactive displays intended to appeal to the Game Boy generation.

Museum officials suggest spending Saturday at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly and Sunday at the museum in Washington. That double feature may be too much for youngsters, but each museum has lots to offer.

At Udvar-Hazy, visitors can walk among the aircraft, hear a panel discussion of fighter pilots and astronauts, fly model airplanes and design a squadron patch; there also will be a story time for children.

Aircraft expected include a sleek corporate helicopter and a news chopper, a World War II-era Boeing Stearman PT-17 450, the home-built and amphibious SeaRey and a hot air balloon.

Flight simulators are part of the museum's permanent exhibition. Although the real aircraft won't perform flying demonstrations, visitors who stay until the end of the afternoon can watch them taxi toward nearby Dulles International Airport to take off. About 17,500 people attended the family day last year, museum spokeswoman Isabel Lara said.

In "Space: A Journey to Our Future" at the museum on the Mall, the focus shifts to probes, satellites, rockets and shuttles. Visitors can study their image on a screen as captured by an infrared camera to understand how and why space probes track the temperature of objects and surfaces of the moon and faraway planets.

At new high-tech displays, visitors can study the simultaneous orbits of the Earth and its moon and gauge the best moment to launch a rocket, or race the two-minute clock on a different screen to pack supplies for space shuttle crew on a two-year mission.

For kids, there's the "lunar base camp," a realistic-looking area where they can lie on a metal bunk bed and watch a fictional astronaut's husband send a message via webcam, examine a rock sample with a spectrometer or check out the freeze-dried food and bright-colored beverages stacked in cubbyholes in the kitchen.