SECRETARY'S REPORT 129 



and better acquaint themselves with the personal story of Robert 

 Shank. They were shown the Museum's Curtiss JN-4 airplane, 

 similar to one in which the early airmail was flown, and models of 

 other types flown by Shank and his fellow mail pilots. Upon request, 

 several of these models were shown at the Society's luncheon, together 

 with a series of photographs, taken in 1918, of airmail events. The 

 head curator of the Air Museum described these models and photo- 

 graphs and spoke from personal recollections of early airmail service. 



Another noted pilot, Roscoe Turner, was honored August 14, 1952, 

 when he was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross. The Air 

 Museum assisted with an exhibit in the Pentagon Building of aircraft 

 models representing types flown by Turner. 



At the annual banquet of the Aero Club of Washington on Decem- 

 ber 17, to mark the anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight, 

 the Museum provided a Wright engine of 25 horsepower to serve as 

 a contrast to a modern jet engine of about 5,000 pounds thrust. At 

 this banquet the Museum also helped with preliminary arrangements 

 for the presentation of the Robert J. Collier Trophy, symbolic of out- 

 standing achievement, to John Stack, engineer of the National Ad- 

 visory Committee for Aeronautics. 



At the meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution on January 16, 1953, the Air Museum exhibited the rocket en- 

 gine popularly known as Black Betsy. This is the prototype of those 

 that powered the first manned supersonic flight and established cur- 

 rent records for altitude and speed. 



During February, in conjunction with the National Collection of 

 Fine Arts, an exhibition of watercolors by Lt. Col. H. H. Sims of the 

 Air Force was shown. These had been painted during visits to vari- 

 ous interesting parts of the world, in connection with his assigned 

 duties. At the end of March a special exhibit was held in the D. C. 

 National Guard Armory illustrating the many uses of magnesium. 

 One of the first aircraft to employ this remarkably light metal was 

 the Northrop Blach Bullet., XP-56, made for the Air Force in 1943, 

 and now in the Air Museum collection. It was among those stored at 

 Park Ridge but was brought to Washington for this showing and then 

 placed in storage at Suitland. During April, by courtesy of the West- 

 inghouse Electric Corporation and the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, 

 a cutaway operating example of the J-34 jet engine was shown in 

 the Aircraft Building. This type powers the Navy's Douglas F3D 

 Skyknight and the McDonnell F2H Banshee, used in Korea. 



The Museum participated in or assisted with several television pro- 

 grams during the year. 



SURVEY 

 In determining the whereabouts and suitability of material re- 

 quired for the national collection, either as evidence of current prog- 



