The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum will open "The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age" on Saturday, Oct. 11. Featuring a sweeping array of artifacts, rarely seen photographs and engrossing interactives, the exhibition will celebrate the centennial of the first powered flight by examining the Wright brothers' technical breakthrough and its cultural impact in the decade following the Dec. 17, 1903 milestone.
This exhibit will reveal how two seemingly ordinary people accomplished a feat that had eluded others for so long. The brothers' creative process and inventive method will receive comprehensive examination as will their personality traits and formative years growing up in the close family of an Ohio clergyman. The exhibition will refute the notion that the Wrights were simply two bicycle makers who got lucky, instead presenting Wilbur and Orville as the disciplined and undeterred founders of a new field of engineering.
The centerpiece of the new gallery will be the original 1903 Wright Flyer, displayed at eye level for the first time since it was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1948. Visitors will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study up close the intricate workings of the world's first airplane, which flew only four times--all within a few hours at Kitty Hawk.
"Inventing the airplane quite literally changed the world," says National Air and Space Museum Director Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey. "This exhibition not only celebrates the Wrights remarkable technical triumph, but also the spirit of unyielding curiosity that made it possible. This gallery is the perfect inspiration for the next century of flight and flight innovators."
"The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age" is made possible through the generous corporate sponsorship of Alcoa and other sponsors.
Other artifacts in the exhibit will include:
- school report cards attesting to the brothers' dedication to learning;
- one of only five Wright-built bicycles still in existence;
- Wilbur Wright's 1899 letters to the Smithsonian requesting publications on aviation;
- the stopwatch used to time the first powered flights;
- Orville Wright's mandolin;
- wood and fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer carried to the moon in 1969 by Apollo 11.
In addition, the gallery will feature full-size reproductions of a Wright experimental kite and two experimental gliders.
A selection of artwork and popular culture artifacts will help tell the story of how heavier-than-air flight was received and speculated upon as the new century took shape. The airplane represented infinite possibilities for public spectacle, adventure, commerce, warfare and artistic expression, and memorabilia of the day will be presented as powerful illustrations of the Wrights' influence and sudden celebrity. The exhibition will also show the direct influence of the Wrights' achievement on the fledgling inventors and aviators who took wing after the brothers' breakthrough.
Some artifacts have been loaned for the exhibition by individuals and organizations in the United States and Europe, complementing the museum's renowned collection of early flight materials.
The gallery's design, from lighting fixtures to display cases, will convey a feeling of the Wrights' era. The barrier that will surround the 1903 Wright Flyer is inspired by the ironwork of the fence in front of the Wright home in Dayton. Wright-related sites including their home and bicycle shop will be depicted in the gallery by life-size, three-dimensional facades. These representations will be used on occasion by actors performing educational vignettes commissioned for the exhibition.
Other educational features will include live video "field trips" to the gallery by students in other parts of the United States; a teaching poster; teacher workshops; lesson plans available on the exhibition Web site; special Family Day programs; and a staffed "Discovery Station," which will provide activities and hands-on models to demonstrate Wright design advances like wing-warping for control and maneuvering.
An interactive computer display in the gallery will offer flight simulation programs for the Wright gliders and 1903 Flyer. A touch-screen station will allow visitors to study photographs of the Flyer's minute details. A Wright-era listening display will offer newly made recordings of early aviation-themed songs from the museum's sheet music collection.
A companion book to "The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age" will be published in May in collaboration with National Geographic.
"The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age" will run for at least two years.
"Alcoa has played a role in achievements in aviation from the Wright Flyer to the space shuttle," says company Chairman and CEO Alain Belda. "We are committed to supporting the National Air and Space Museum in its mission to commemorate the history, science and technology of flight through educational and inspiring exhibitions."
The National Air and Space Museum will also mark the centennial of flight with the December 2003 opening of its companion facility at Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia. The much-anticipated Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center will eventually house the 80 percent of the national collection not currently displayed at the museum's flagship building on the National Mall in Washington or on loan to other organizations. Artifacts will include the space shuttle Enterprise, the SR-71 Blackbird, the original prototype of the 707 jetliner and the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay. The center, being built in phases, will eventually encompass 760,000 square feet of space.
The Air and Space Museum, comprised of the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center and the building on the Mall, will be the largest air and space museum complex in the world. The flagship building, with just over 161,000 square feet of exhibition floor space, is the most popular museum in the world, attracting more than 9 million visitors each year. Attendance at the Udvar-Hazy Center is projected at some 3 million people a year.