Report on the National Air Museum 



Sib: I have the honor to submit the following report on the ac- 

 tivities of tiie National Air Museum for the fiscal year ended June 

 30, 1960 : 



Substantial progress was made on preliminary studies for the new 

 National Air Museum building. The architectural firm of Harbeson, 

 Hough, Livingston & Larson assisted in this work and presented 

 several possible building concepts. One of these has been selected 

 for further consideration when planning funds for the building are 

 made available. 



Among the many significant accessions received during the year 

 were: A full-scale replica of the Atlas rocket and nose cone; three 

 original Farre paintings; the C. G. B. Stuart collection of aviation 

 photographs and books; the Lindbergh Locklieed "Sirius" airplane; 

 a bronze portrait of Gen. James H. Doolittle; the Eyan X-13 "Verti- 

 jet"; original letter carried as the first space mail; and the "Able- 

 Baker" space capsules. 



The Aircraft Building was completely renovated and a new ex- 

 hibit was mstalled, which was not only an improvement over the 

 former one but provided much valuable experience in planning the 

 exliibit for the proposed new Air Museum building. The building 

 was opened to the public on April 15. By Jmie 30, 292,406 visitors 

 to this exhibit had been counted. 



A number of boxed aircraft were moved from indoor to outdoor 

 storage, with suitable protection, to provide indoor storage space for 

 about 30 historic airplanes which have been held for some years for 

 the Air Museum by the United States Navy. 



Information service again increased in scope and volume during 

 the year. This included the furnishing of teclmical, historical, and 

 biographical information pertaining to the development of air and 

 space flight to Government agencies, schools, research workers, authors, 

 students, and the public. Many useful acquisitions to the Museum's 

 library, reference, and photographic files were received, including 

 collections of 30,000 aviation photograplis and 1,400 volumes of early 

 aviation history. 



The curatorial staff during the year completed the research for and 

 the writing of approximately 800 labels for the new Aircraft Build- 

 ing exhibit. 



679421—61 11 119 



