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1946
It began in 1946 as the National Air Museum
Congress formed the National Air Museum on August 12, 1946, and President Harry S. Truman signed the act. Some pieces date back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, when the Chinese Imperial Commission donated a group of kites.
No home
Without one building, the collection spread across sheds and Rocket Row
No one building could hold the items. Some were shown in the Arts and Industries Building, and some were kept in a temporary metal shed called the Tin Shed in the Smithsonian Castle's south yard. Larger missiles and rockets stood outdoors.
The site
The site once held an armory that became a Civil War hospital
The museum's site on the National Mall once housed the city's armory. During the Civil War it became Armory Square Hospital, which nursed the worst wounded cases transported to Washington after battles.
1976
The hall opened in 1976 under a director who had flown to the Moon
The new exhibition hall opened on July 1, 1976, at the height of the Bicentennial festivities. Its director was Michael Collins, who had flown to the Moon on Apollo 11. The building uses the same pink Tennessee marble as the National Gallery.
The collection
The collection holds Apollo 11's Columbia and the Spirit of St. Louis
It includes the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, the Friendship 7 capsule flown by John Glenn, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, and the Wright brothers' Wright Flyer near the entrance.
Day 2, morning
Next is National Mall.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article National Air and Space Museum, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.