Senior curator in the Aeronautics Division, Tom Crouch, will give an overview of lighter-than-air flight in the U.S. Navy, including blimps and rigid airships. He will discuss Admiral William Moffett, the biggest booster of the rigid airship in the Navy, and the highest ranking U.S. officer ever to die in an airship crash. He will also call attention to the model of the Curtiss Sparrowhawk, explaining the key role of that aircraft in the development of a strategy for the use of rigid airships in combat.
The Ask An Expert lecture series at the National Mall building is presented every Wednesday at noon. A Museum staff member talks to the public about the history, collection, or personalities related to a specific artifact or exhibition in the Museum.
The Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery, located in the National Mall building, is an exhibition about the growth and influence of aviation and rocketry during the 1920s and 1930s. The fully-renovated gallery will open to the public Nov. 19, 2010.
Aircraft in this image: the Douglas World Cruiser "Chicago," the Curtiss R3C-2 Racer, the Fokker T-2, Amelia Earhart's Lockheed 5B Vega and the Lindberghs' Lockheed 8 Sirius "Tingmissartoq."