SECRETARY'S REPORT 133 



sented his sculpture of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, which has been 

 placed with instruments and other material recalling the polar fights 

 of that great explorer. Woodward Burke, famous pilot who test-flew 

 some of the Brewster Naval fighters during World War II, was one 

 of the first to develop a pressure-bearing garment for aviators which 

 aided in controlling the abnormal passage of blood during aerial 

 maneuvers at extreme speeds. This elementary "G-suit," so named 

 because it restricts the effects of gravity, has been given to the Museum 

 by his widow. In the memorial exhibit to Amelia Earhart has been 

 placed a small American flag, a gift from the family of ex-Mayor 

 Malcolm E. Nichols of Boston, carried by Miss Earhart on her first 

 flight across the Atlantic in the Fokker airplane Frie7idship, 1928. 



The Navy's P2V Lockheed airplane. Truculent Turtle, which estab- 

 lished the current nonstop distance record, flying from Perth, Aus- 

 tralia, to Columbus, Ohio, about 11,822 miles in slightly over 55 hours, 

 is being held for the Museum by the Department of the Navy until 

 space can be provided for its display; in the meanwhile the "How- 

 Goes-It-Board" used on that flight has been placed on exhibit. That 

 is the navigator's sheet on which the plan of the flight was drawn up, 

 and which was consulted by pilot and navigator as the flight pro- 

 gressed. The Navy has also presented parts of two historic wind 

 tunnels, recently decommissioned at the Washington Naval Gun Fac- 

 tory. In these tumiels scale models of many of the Navy's earliest 

 and most renowned aircraft were first tested. Individual listing of 

 the year's accessions is given in the final pages of this report. 



The two exhibits workers of the Museum, in addition to assisting 

 with unloadings and other operations at the Suitland storage area, 

 received and placed much of the material above described and in addi- 

 tion made improvements in existing displays. The parts of the orig- 

 inal John J. Montgomery gliders of 1905 and 1911 were mounted in 

 new frames, thereby improving this exhibit. The Naval Curtiss F9C-2 

 Sparrowhawk fighter of 1935 was completed by addition of its over- 

 head hook-on gear supplied by the Navy Department Bureau of 

 Aeronautics. The scale model of the U. S. S. Pennsylvania, which 

 had been reconstructed to show the landing deck on which Eugene 

 Ely made the first landing followed by a take-off on January 18, 1911, 

 was provided with a more attractive base on which photographs of 

 the event are mounted and in which a slide projector recounts the 

 story of the evolution of aircraft carrier operations. The showing 

 of scale models of aircraft used in World War II was improved; 

 changes and additions were made in the impressive lineup of air- 

 craft engines in the Aircraft Building. The famous aeronautical 

 trophies were placed in larger cases, and material showing the his- 

 tories of these trophies and their presentations was added, making 

 the display more attractive and of greater educational value. 



