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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   1264

the Institution in proper manner. It is hoped that the increases may have support and that the moneys may be made available.

NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM

With the appropriation by Congress late in July, of the $50,000 authorized in Public Law 722, establishing the National Air Museum as a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution, this new bureau began independent operations. The aeronautical collections of the U.S. National Museum numbering approximately 3,500 specimen were transferred to it together to it together with pertinent records and files and the aeronautical staff, consisting of a curator and clerk-stenographer. Under this set-up the nation-wide survey for aeronautical materials continued. Arrangements are under way to take over the temporary storage at Park Ridge, Illinois, where the air force has been assembling historical collections for this Museum.

On August 16, 1947, the Secretary called the second meeting of the Advisory Board of the National Air Museum for the discussion of plans for operation of the bureau for the balance of the fiscal year. There was full attendance of the Advisory Board consisting of Major General E.M. Powers, representing the United States Air Force, Admiral A.M. Pride, representing the Chief of Naval Operations; Mr. William B. Stout, Pontiac, Michigan, citizen member; and Mr. Grover Loening, New York, citizen member. The Board discussed in considerable detail the problems confronting the National Air Museum in the advancement of its program and approved both the tentative budget drawn up for the fiscal year 1949 indicating a required increase of $152,048, and the proposed staff for the conduct of the bureau's work.

A.W.