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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

The Advisory Board has agreed that the site of the National Air Museum should be in he greater metropolitan area of Washington, but outside the congested center of the city. Preliminary plans for a building and a tentative site have been worked out with the assistance of the Public Buildings Administration.

The allotment of federal funds for the National Air Museum for the current fiscal year is $226,862.

The report to Congress includes a draft for authorizing legislation relative particularly to acquisition of a site.

The area required should be a considerable extent, adjacent to and easily accessible to a main highway of large travel, with space for a building, extensive parking facilities, and ample room for future expansion. The plan of the report looks toward construction of a building in several sections.

After considerable unfavorable discussion by the entire Board relative to the cost of the building necessary for such an aeronautical museum and for subsequent annual maintenance, it was suggested by the Chancellor that, in accordance with the instructions contained in Public Law 722, the Secretary forward to the Congress his Report relative to the authorized survey of suitable materials, lands and buildings required for the National Air Museum. Responsibility for future would rest with the Congress. 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

The Chancellor then asked that the Board of Regents go into executive session, when Dr. Wetmore and others not members of the Board retired from the room.

The Chancellor stated that the Chairman of the Executive Committee wished to bring the matter of the Secretary's salary to the attention of the Board.

Mr. Fleming recalled that the Secretary's salary had been increased from $12,000 to $15,000, effective July 1, 1949, and that he had been confined to this figure because 

A.W.