The pennant is one those made for General Mitchell's aircraft and to attached to a strut of his airplane for identification during the 1921 Battleship Trials. One his most famous aircraft was a deHaviland DH-4, called the “Osprey.” Accounts of the test bombings describe the General’s piloting of his own plane while directing the operation of the bomber and refer to the Pennant whipping form the strut during those flights. This particular penant had not been used extensively, if at all, for the flight because flying would have resulted in fraying it.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.