From foil-covered food trays to floating chocolate candies, food in air and space has quite the reputation. Join us for a closer look at food on the fly.
Jump to Section: New Programs and Resources Food in the Air Food in Space
New Programs and Resources
United Airlines flight attendant assisting passengers wearing the United Airlines flight attendant cap, 1946. (Smithsonian Institution, NASM 2005-367)
Soar Together at Air and Space: Food on the Fly
What food do you eat when you're on the move? How is it different on an airplane or in a spacecraft? Find out more about the history of food eaten during air and space flights.
Join us online for an activities page launching September 8, or in person for an on site family day at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, on September 9.
STEM in 30: Food on the Fly
Explore how the simple act of eating, when in flight, can become complicated. Join us as we dive into the chemistry of cooking.
From foil-covered food trays to floating chocolate candies, food in air and space has quite the reputation. Join us for a closer look at food on the fly.
Jump to Section: New Programs and Resources Food in the Air Food in Space
New Programs and Resources
United Airlines flight attendant assisting passengers wearing the United Airlines flight attendant cap, 1946. (Smithsonian Institution, NASM 2005-367)
Soar Together at Air and Space: Food on the Fly
What food do you eat when you're on the move? How is it different on an airplane or in a spacecraft? Find out more about the history of food eaten during air and space flights.
Join us online for an activities page launching September 8, or in person for an on site family day at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, on September 9.
STEM in 30: Food on the Fly
Explore how the simple act of eating, when in flight, can become complicated. Join us as we dive into the chemistry of cooking.
Food in the Air
Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, flew in their Lockheed Sirius aircraft, “Tingmissartoq,” on two transglobal missions, one in 1931 and the other in 1933.
The Lindberghs were meticulous in their preparations for the two transglobal flights. They utilized every possible space of the aircraft to carry supplies.
While fuel and oil were stationed and lodging and meals provided at the Lindberghs' planned stops, they also packed plenty of emergency rations in case of an unexpected landing. Anne decided to bring along canned tomatoes because, as she remarked to Charles, "they keep you from getting beri-beri. Magellan's men all got beri-beri."
At this point, Miss Kiddoo offered dinner to each passenger. ''She appeared to have a wonderful selection of daintily prepared light meals. The Americans are past masters at attractive salads, sandwiches, and food of that kind.”
- Excerpt from a 1934 article recounting a flight on a Boeing 247
Advertising Amenities
This 1956 flight information packet from Continental Airlines advertises “At mealtime, you dine as the guest of Continental. Deliciously hot, or cold, meals and snacks … prepared by Continental before takeoff … will be served to you by the Hostess.”
This 1956 brochure boasts “Gourmet meals … hot, fresh and full of flavor. Here is de luxe meal service at its very best. All of the artistry of United’s own Continental chefs goes into the preparation of your full course ‘Red Carpet’ meal,” and “Bountiful buffet … between meals treat. Heaping trays of fresh chilled fruit, tangy imported cheese—and, of course, that ever-welcome Mainliner coffee—are served en route to perk you up between meals.”
What's on the Menu?
The Hindenburg was able to carry 50 passengers plus crew members. Before the explosion that killed 36 people on May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg made many transatlantic flights which took two to three days. This menu comes from October 10, 1936.
This menu is from the first flight of the Pan American Airways (Pan Am) North Atlantic Airmail Service from New York to Botwood, Newfoundland, to Shannon, Ireland, on June 25, 1939.
Do you ever chew gum on a flight to ease the pressure on your ears? Passengers in the 1930s did the same, but they didn’t pick up gum in the airport terminal— stewards on Eastern Air Lines flights offered chewing gum from elegant polished steel dispensers.
Food in Space
Can you eat in space? What do you eat in space? These might seem like ridiculous questions now but they were real concerns at the beginning of the space program.
John Glenn was the first American to eat in space aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. At that time, it was not known if ingestion and absorption of nutrients were possible in microgravity. Glenn's consumption of applesauce and beef with vegetables, pureed and packed in tubes, and xylose sugar tablets with water, demonstrated that people could eat, swallow, and digest food normally in a weightless environment.
Space food has come a long way since 1962.
Food scientist Rita M. Rapp spent her entire career ensuring that the astronauts’ bodies, and stomachs, were in good working order during missions. As head of the Apollo Food System team, she not only provided the means of getting food to space, but also helped make sure astronauts found something worth eating when they got there.
NASA put a lot of time and thought into the food astronauts ate in space. A corned beef sandwich sent aloft during Project Gemini was not part of that. “I hid a sandwich in my spacesuit,” recalled astronaut John Young.
Snack like an astronaut! Get some tortillas and join museum educator Ann Caspari as she makes PB&J’s that can be eaten in space.
Last Month's Theme
Each month, the Museum highlights a theme to explore. From rockets to rotorcraft, these themes delve into different aspects of aviation and space. We're taking a look back at some of the highlights from this past year's monthly themes.
Astronomy
What will the James Webb Telescope tell us about the universe?
The Hubble Space Telescope changed how we view our universe and continues to capture amazing images. The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in December 2021, will continue to expand our understanding of the universe. Learn about each of these telescopes and how their discoveries have changed how we look at the universe.
Join us as we explore how scientists are expanding our view of the universe with the help of new space telescopes and probes.
Let's take a closer look at how these tools help us learn more about black holes, the earliest galaxies, asteroids, exoplanets, and more!
How Air Travel Shaped Modern Society
Learn the history of commercial aviation in the United States from air mail to airlines.
Flying was new and daring in the early years of the 20th century. Traveling by airplane was rare. Airlines, airliners, airports, air routes—none of these existed. But by century's end, you could travel to almost anywhere in America by air in a matter of hours. How did this revolutionary change happen?
Explore the ways air travel is important in your life, even if you don't fly.
You might be surprised by how everyday things in your life are affected by the existence of airplanes!
Latino Futurism
Latinx Futurisms are creative works of art, film, or literature that center the experiences of Latino people and explore the impact of science and technology from ancient to future worlds.
People of Latin American descent living in the United States use visual and expressive cultures to question legacies of colonialism, dictatorship, genocide, late capitalism, and anti-immigrant speech by presenting empowering outcomes. Belonging to not one world but to many worlds, many Latinx futurists draw on lo-fi and hi-fi influences to recover the cosmologies of meso-America and to think with astronomic visions like those from the observatories and mountaintops dotting the equator. Because futurism has influenced social movements, collectivities, and ways of being in meaningful ways, these artists, writers, and thinkers dare to tell stories with stars and project hope against difficult odds.
Rafael Vargas-Suarez, who signs his work “Vargas-Suarez Universal," as a professional artists has remained connected to spaceflight and has conducted research for his body of artwork at many of the most important space centers in the world.
Have you ever watched a science fiction movie or read a book that imagines what the future will be like for people on Earth or on other planets? Artists, authors and scholars are constantly thinking of what our future will be like, not just with technology, but also with culture and traditions.
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the final mission to land people on the Moon. Discover why we stopped travelling to the Moon.
Learn about moon landings past and future during this month's family day!
Celebrate the final Apollo moon mission, discover what we learned during this mission, and get an introduction to Artemis, NASA's current lunar exploration project.
Rotorcraft
In 1956, the Iroquois, commonly known as the Huey, first flew as an Army replacement for the H-13 medevac helicopter of Korean War fame. By the end of the 20th century, Bell had produced more Hueys than any other American military aircraft, except for the Consolidated B-24. Superbly suited to the air mobility and medical evacuation missions in Vietnam, the Huey became an indelible symbol of that conflict.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the first successful flight of the Autogiro, designed and built by Juan De La Cierva, an engineer from Spain.
The Autogiro is important in aviation history because de la Cierva solved engineering problems that paved the way for the design of other aircraft with rotating wings, like the helicopter.
Science Fiction and Modern Technology
Similar to the Spinners seen in 1982's Blade Runner, now has proven to be an exciting time in the field of flying cars, as a plethora of projects are underway to create small, one or two seat autonomous “air taxis” for urban spaces.
Image credit: The Blade Runner “Spinner” flying car movie prop on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington.
Before someone can create new and better technologies in aviation and space exploration, they have to imagine them! Just like science fiction authors and artists, scientists and engineers use their imagination in their work.
Explore how science fiction helps us think about the future and what is possible, especially around inventions that make our lives better and make things easier to do.
Aerial Advertisement
By the time she was 18, Suzanne Asbury-Oliver had her powered-aircraft instrument rating, commercial certificate, flight instructor, and instrument-flight instructor certificates, as well as a multiengine rating. When she saw an advertisement put out by Pepsi-Cola for a skywriter, Asbury-Oliver first thought it would be impossible to get the job. But she realized there probably wasn’t anyone more qualified, so she inquired about the position and was promptly put in a plane with the current Pepsi skywriter. Asbury-Oliver was almost instantly successful and worked with pilot Jack Strayer for a year before he retired and she became head skywriter.
In early 1930, Roscoe Turner received a major sponsorship from the Gilmore Oil Company, which was well known for its Red Lion gasoline brand. He sought a colorful way to promote the company’s products—and the concept of Gilmore the Flying Lion was born. Turner purchased the male lion cub and named him Gilmore. Turner and Gilmore began flying together in April 1930.
Before television commercials and ads on social media, the sky was used to communicate messages to a lot of people at once. These messages were used to get the word out about products like soda, newspapers, gasoline and movies!
Even today, it's thrilling to see messages written in smoke or on a banner towed by an airplane. We’ll explore the different ways aircraft were used to communicate messages in the sky, both in the past and in present day.
Rockets
Rockets are key to getting vehicles into space. Without the rocket humans would have never gotten to the Moon. But what is a rocket and how does it work? In this episode we'll take a deep dive into the parts and uses of rockets — we might even have some students build and launch a few.
Explore the activities below to learn all about rockets - the different parts of a rocket, how rockets are important for space exploration, and how they've changed throughout history!
Careers
When you think of astronomy jobs what comes to mind? Maybe people who look through telescopes, people who build telescopes or people who study space? We traveled to the Green Bank Observatory, home to the largest fully steerable radio telescope. And when we say large we mean huge! This telescope weighs 17 million pounds and its main dish is larger than a football field. Join us as we get up close and personal with the telescope and meet the people who keep it listening to the far corners of the universe.
Sharon Caples McDougle joined the US Air Force in 1982, where she specialized in working with pressure suits for the SR-71 and U-2 missions. She fitted suits for individual pilots and suited them up for training flights and missions. In 1990 she transferred her skills to NASA where she was the first Black woman to serve as a spacesuit technician, crew chief, and manager of the Space Shuttle Crew Escape Equipment Processing department. She suited up Mae Jemison, and led the first all-women team of spacesuit technicians in support of Space Shuttle mission STS-78.
In 2021 she self-published Suit Up for Launch with Shay!, a children's book that answers important questions about spacesuits.
Discover and explore jobs and careers in space exploration that use art, design and crafting skills.
Planetary Defense
Planetary defense means protecting our planet from objects in space—asteroids or comets—that could crash into Earth.
According to NASA, planetary defense involves:
- Finding and tracking objects that come within 30 million miles of Earth—known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs)
- Determine NEO’s orbit trajectory, size, shape, mass, composition, rotational dynamics and other parameters in order to determine what would happen if the object were to hit Earth
- Planning what to do to deflect or disturb an object so it doesn’t hit Earth or to limit the effect of an object hitting Earth. For instance, if an object is going to hit Earth, we can evacuate the area of impact so people aren’t hurt.
The DART Mission, or Double Asteroid Redirect Test, made impact with the asteroid Dimorphos in the Didymos binary asteroid system. This test helped us understand if a spacecraft could deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Learn more in this Live Chat recorded a week before the mission in 2022.
Discover the different ways our planet is being protected from asteroids and meteors.
Skylab
NASA wanted to make Skylab, the United States’ first space station, feel more like home, especially because astronauts would be living there for extended periods. Although designers had to add equipment within a very confined space, they did add a toilet, an exercise area, and a shower. However, as you would imagine, showering on Skylab was very different. An average shower took two hours.
In 2023 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of America's first space station, Skylab.
The Skylab missions paved the way for the creation of the International Space Station. What did we learn from Skylab? How has it improved life in space for astronauts?