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[[newspaper clipping]] THE WASHINGTON POST Thursday, August 5, 1948 Smithsonian Expert Predicts Proposed National Air Museum Will be World's Finest BY N. S. Haseltine Post Reporter Washington some day will have the finest and most complete air museum in the world–Congress willing. The proposed National Air Museum, under present plans, would be erected on an as yet undesignated Washington site. It would be large enough to accommodate 200 planes, ranging from pioneer one-seaters to such air giants as the famous Enola Gay, the B-29 which dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. Detailed dreams of its planners were revealed here yesterday by Paul Garber, curator of the air museum of Smithsonian Institution since 1920. The proposed museum, said Garber, would accommodate the [[?]] new historic planes on exhibit at Smithsonian as well as 170 others the museum expects to acquire from the Army, Navy and civilian owners. Appropriation Factor Throughout his talking, Garber stressed the congressional factor. But, he pointed out, two Congresses have already shown more than passing interest in the planning. The Seventy-ninth Congress, he pointed out, set aside $50,000 to further the project. And the past Congress earmarked funds for a continuing program to store newly acquired planes until the museum space is provided, he said. The air museum of Smithsonian Institution is presently accommodated in a World War I, tin engine testing hangar, at 10th st. and Independence ave., and in Air Hall, a small corner of the Institution's Arts and Industries building. Two of its most famous planes, Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" which first soloed the Atlantic, and the Wright Brothers' first military craft of 1909, are exhibited elsewhere at the Institution. Space is so crowded, said Garber, that the only other plan to be accepted for immediate display is the Wright Brothers' pioneer plane flown at Kitty Hawk, N. C., in 1903. It is being returned to this country from an English museum. Under funds provided by the Seventy-ninth and Eightieth Congresses, Garber said, the air museum has built up a nucleus staff of workers and has been able to locate and earmark for acquisition many famous planes. It has also been able to provide for interim storage of some of those planes, and is working out tentative plans for the new building. He praised cooperation of the Army Air Force and the Navy, which he said are setting aside the majority of planes the new museum will display. Under orders from Gen. H. H. (Hap) Arnold when he was Chief of the Army Air Force, said Garber, the Army is reserving some 60 famous and representative planes. These include, he said, the Enola Gay, the Swoose, the B-17 bomber which was pieced together out of so many planes it was "neither swan nor goose" and flown out of enemy territory; a B-25 similar to the ones flown in the Doolittle raid on Japan. Both the Army and Navy collection of planes, said Garber, represent not only American craft but basic types of the Allies and the enemy. The Navy collection, he said, comprises patrol planes, torpedo planes, Jap Zeros and a host of others. Private Fliers Aiding Nonmilitary type planes, Garber said, are being acquired through the cooperation of private fliers, aviation manufacturers and research organizations. They include: The Diamond, first California-made airplane; the Wiseman-Cooke, which pioneered air mail flight in 1911; the Waterman-Canard, a tail-first plane of the early 30's; the Piper Cub, recently flown around the world by Clifford Evans and George Truman; the Boeing 247-D, which Turner and Pangborn raced in 1934, and countless others. "All are deserving of a place of honor in the Nation's history of aviation," declared Garber. "It is fitting that this Nation which so leads the world in the development of aviation should also lead the world in recording that development." Garber said he is convinced that just as one picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words so is one exhibit worth a thousand pictures. Nothing, he said, more stimulates interest in aviation and aviation progress than the viewing and study of the planes that actually are aviation's history. The proposed new museum, however, will not be used exclusively for the display of planes, he said. Tenative plans would provide for research laboratories, shops, a cafeteria, an auditorium and service facilities for coordination programs with other Government departments. Since initial expansion appropriations provided by the two recent Congresses, Garber said, planning operations have been under an advisory board headed by Alexander Wetmore, lifetime secretary of Smithsonian Institution. Active board members include Gen. A. M. Powers, United States Army; Adm. E. M. Pride, United States Navy; and Grover Loening and William B. Stout, both pioneer aviation designers, inventors and fliers, who were appointed to the board by President Truman. Garber, who served alone, now has an associate curator. Stephen L. Beers, who has a record of 1800 hours of air combat service in the Navy during World War II; Robert Strobell, former Army pilot of a P-47 fighter in European combat, and a secretarial assistant, Mrs. Ann Campbell. "We're really an air-minded staff," said Garber, who flew planes for the Army in World War I, served Navy aviation in World War II, and was an air mail pilot after the first war until he joined the Smithsonian. The air museum activities present and future function under the administration of Carl W. Mitman, assistant to the secretary of Smithsonian Institution. [[/newspaper clipping]] [[newspaper clipping]] Why Smithsonian Wants New Air Museum [[image - photograph of planes on exhibition]] [[caption]] The Washington Post WORLD WAR I – RELIC – This is a general view of the crowded interior of the sheet metal building at 10th st. and Independence ave. sw., where the Smithsonian Institution now houses its aircraft exhibits. The old building was used as an experimental engine shop in World War I. [[/caption]] [[/newspaper clipping]]
