At the National Air and Space Museum in DC, you can touch a piece of the Moon. The Moon rock on display in our Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, is one of only a few touchable lunar samples in the world.
That’s no Moon, it’s a space station—or, rather, a satellite. With its spherical shape and piecemeal construction, it’s easy to see similarities between the Telstar satellite on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the infamous Death Star of the Star Wars films. Aside from a passing resemblance in design, both pieces of technology also address a larger question that has been a focal point for humankind in reality and fantasy: what does space mean for humanity?
Pioneers of Flight was one of many galleries that showcased aviation pioneers, but it focused on its own specific time frame. Museum curators initially conceived Pioneers of Flight as a second-tier Milestones of Flight), the gallery that presented the most iconic and historic aerospace artifacts of the Smithsonian’s collections, like the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, and Mercury Friendship 7 and Apollo 11 command module Columbia. Pioneers’ location in Gallery 208 was offset on the second floor with its mezzanine overlooking Milestones, thus offering a natural affinity and progression between the two galleries. Don Lopez, assistant director for aeronautics, selected the aircraft for the gallery, in consultation with Aeronautics Department curators, choosing specific ones that flew in the 1920s and 1930s. For him and his contemporaries, this was the time that aviation came of age after the initial years of experimentation in aviation. In the exciting 1920s and difficult but breathtaking 1930s, aviation proved itself useful, and became integral to society and a leader in technology and design. Lopez’s Pioneers of Flight gallery reflected many of his 1920s childhood memories and his delight in following aviators into the air (Lopez became an U.S. Air Force ace in World War II).
Since the earliest days of flight, air racing has been an exciting motorsports activity. The National Air and Space Museum has in our collection many of the aircraft that made history by winning races and setting records. Jimmy Doolittle’s R3C-2, Roscoe Turner’s Meteor, Darryl Greenamyer’s Conquest I, the Mahoney family and Don Peck’s Sorceress, and Jon and Patricia Sharp’s Nemesis siblings, the DR 90 and NXT, stand out as achievements of design, skill, ingenuity, and speed. Another clear winner is Steve Wittman’s Special 20 Buster that was on display at the Museum on the National Mall for decades until the Golden Age of Flight exhibition recently closed as part of our multi-year renovation. Buster lived two lives in air racing and proved to be an inspiration for an entire class of air racers.
In the late 1960s, Poppy Northcutt was a return-to-Earth specialist with TRW, working on a contract with NASA on one of the most exciting adventures of the 20th century: humanity’s quest for the Moon. With computer programming skills and a degree in mathematics, she worked with her team at TRW on the development of the return-to-Earth program.
"Mainly I worked on developing return-to-Earth trajectories that would be used when they were in the vicinity of the Moon," Poppy said in a recent phone interview. "It was designed from the get-go to be a program that would calculate in real-time a return to Earth—whether you are talking about good circumstances or bad."
When NASA accelerated the schedule for Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the Moon, it meant that development of a critical part of that mission, the return-to-Earth software, would need to be accelerated as well. Before launch, the software needed to undergo testing and the flight controllers needed training on the program. To meet the deadline, Poppy was assigned to work in the Mission Control center directly with the retrofire officers, becoming the first female engineer in Mission Control.
When theatergoers go to their local cinemas this weekend to see the new film Ford v. Ferrari, they’ll be watching on the big screen a retelling of a legendary rivalry from motorsports history. Ferrari race cars dominated international sports car endurance racing in the early 1960s, which included winning the epic 24-hour race at Le Mans in France every year from 1960 to 1965. Looking to find increased financial support for his racing program, Enzo Ferrari entertained a takeover from the Ford Motor Company, but rejected it at the last minute. Rebuffed, but not deterred, Ford embarked upon its own development program that created the celebrated GT40 race cars that won Le Mans from 1966 to 1969. Those victories cemented Ford’s reputation as an international motorsports powerhouse and bolstered the reputations of the individuals involved, including the leading characters of the film, Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, played by Matt Damon and Christian Bale respectively, as racing heroes.
The new film The Aeronauts truly captures the excitement of ballooning in the 19th century, even if it makes a few historical errors along the way. Ballooning expert Tom Paone explores the history behind the film.
Since its opening, and until recent years, our Zeiss Model VIa optical planetarium projector has brought the wonder of the night sky to countless visitors. The Zeiss Company no longer services the over 40 year-old model, and though its stars are as sharp as ever, and its skies deep in their dramatic blackness, its celestial motors have become weary, so it has been retired in favor of an ever-improving digital projection system that offers many advantages to meet modern programming needs. The Albert Einstein Planetarium theater itself is also closing as our multi-year renovation progresses through the Museum, but it will eventually reopen as a fully digital experience. Now that we have said goodbye to its original projector, the Zeiss Model VIa, the question is, of course, how did it get here?
While the real world might be behind the curve on Wakanda’s technology, some of the planes featured in the <em>Black Panther</em> universe share similarities to emerging autonomous aircraft.
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