SECRETARY'S REPORT 97 



undertaken. This service requires more than three times the man- 

 hours applied to other functions. Every effort is made, however, to 

 maintain this valued service to the many inventors, engineers, design- 

 ers, historians, authors, teachers, students, and others who consult the 

 Museum and request assistance in their many projects, all bearing a 

 relationship to the aeronautical progress of the Nation. The follow- 

 ing examples are representative of the more than 4,600 inquiries 

 attended to this year: 



The Department of the Navy was assisted in the preparation of 

 articles, including one describing the development of parachutes and 

 another recalling the first time that the United States flag, attached 

 to an airplane, was under fire; that was during the operations against 

 Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914, when Lt. P. L. Bellinger was the pilot. 

 Engineers of the Bureau of Aeronautics were provided with facts 

 about early power plants, first instances of cannon fired from aircraft, 

 and technical data on a jet-engined installation involving recessed ex- 

 haust areas, the latter being required in defense of a patent suit against 

 the Government. A niunber of inquiries regarding historical facts 

 received by the Air Force Office of Public Heiations were referred to 

 the National Air Museum. The United States Air Force Office of 

 Historical Records was furnished with biographies of noted Air Force 

 pilots and with squadron histories. Several graduating classes of Air 

 Cadets were assisted in preparation of their yearbooks where infor- 

 mation was needed to describe noted events in Air Force progress. 

 Discussions were held with officers planning the curriculum for the 

 new Air Force Academy. Arrangements were made to trade periodi- 

 cals and books in order to supply missing issues. Contractors to whom 

 research ]jrojects had been assigned by the Air Force consulted the 

 Museum for developments in airplane structures and operation. The 

 Department of Justice, engaged in assembling information with which 

 to consider the claims of inventors against the Government, consulted 

 Museum specimens and files pertaining to helicopters, autogyros, wing 

 radiators used for the cooling of engines, and the origin of safety 

 belts and shoulder harnesses dating back to World War I and also 

 during the earlier period around 1911. An early example of a high- 

 aspect ratio stabilizer, embodied in one of the Museum's pioneer 

 airplanes, provided a helpful source for contesting another suit against 

 the Government. An official of the Bureau of the Budget, engaged 

 in preparing a treatise on air photography, was shown valuable refer- 

 ences in the Museum library and useful illustrations in the photo- 

 graphic file. The National Bureau of Standards was assisted in the 

 preparation of scale models of aircraft to be used in determining the 

 best locations for electrical installations. 



