I visited the National Air and Space Museum's lesser-known second location. One display stopped me in my tracks.

The space shuttle Discovery is one of many fascinating exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Talia Lakritz/Business Insider

The National Air and Space Museum's flagship location in Washington, DC , is one of the most-visited museums in the US, but the building isn't large enough to display all of the aircraft and spacecraft in its collection.

That's where the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center comes in. The National Air and Space Museum's lesser-known second location, a hangar-like structure in Chantilly, Virginia, offers 340,000 square feet of exhibit space with over 200 aircraft and spacecraft on display.

"What you're going to see are the first, the last, the only, the last remaining, the most significant.…