106 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 6 



American history and technology, the National Air Museum was 

 required to remove another full-sized aircraft, the William H. Martin 

 glider of 1909, from exhibition. The same renovation program re- 

 quired moving the Wright brothers' first military flyer of 1909 and 

 the Wright brothers' first transcontinental flyer of 1911 to other 

 exhibition locations in the same building. With the assistance of 

 working parties supplied by the Air Force, repairs were made to the 

 Douglas World Cruiser, Loening amphibian, and Spad-XVI air- 

 planes. Several of the fabric-covered aircraft, particularly those 

 exhibited in the Aircraft Building, required patching. 



The Museum is particularly proud of its collection of famous aero- 

 nautical trophies. Several of these, such as the Pulitzer Trophy and 

 the Curtiss Marine Trophy, have served to stimulate progress in the 

 past, while others, including the Robert J. Collier Trophy, Wright 

 Brothers Memorial, Thompson, and Harmon Trophies, continue to re- 

 ward those who attain excellence and to inspire others. Improvements 

 have been made throughout the year in the display of these trophies 

 and the associated exhibition of specimens which illustrate the basis 

 for the individual awards. The display describing the two world 

 flights of Wiley Post in the Winnie Mae, 1931 and 1933, the first 

 time with Harold Gatty, has been improved by the addition of speci- 

 mens that expand the physical records of these famous flights. The 

 exhibition of scale models illustrating types developed by the Wright 

 brothers and the Wright Company during the 17 years of progressive 

 development, from their first glider of 1900 to the type "L" of 1916, 

 has also increased in contents and educational interest. The develop- 

 ment of our Armed Forces' aircraft, as illustrated by groups of scale 

 models, has been expanded by important additions. 



STORAGE 



At the beginning of this fiscal year, the National Air Museum was 

 busily continuing shipment of its stored collection of aircraft and 

 aeronautical materials from the original storage area at Park Ridge, 

 111., to the Suitland, Md., facility, in order to advance the project of 

 concentrating all the Museum's stored material at one location in the 

 Washington, D. C, area where the proposed National Air Museum 

 building is to be constructed. A target date of January 1, 1956, had 

 originally been set for completing this transfer, but Museum person- 

 nel at Park Ridge, under the capable management of Walter Male, 

 beat this deadline by four months. The final load was disptached on 

 August 27, 1955, and the storage operation there was terminated 

 September 1. 



Meanwhile, at Suitland the carloads and truckloads of material 

 were being placed in the storage buildings by the Suitland force di- 



