SECRETARY'S REPORT 79 



of scale models and airmail relics were arranged as a separate exhibit 

 in the Aircraft Building, and the head curator delivered a lecture on 

 the history of postal aviation at the banquet of the Air Mail Pioneers 

 when he was elected president of the local chapter of that organiza- 

 tion. The Museum cooperated with the International Aviation 

 Pioneers' dinner on October 14 by arranging a display of models and 

 illustrations of Wright brothers' aircraft at the Mayflower Hotel 

 where the banquet was held and on the next afternoon it was host to 

 that distinguished group for a tour of the collection. 



The North American F-51 airplane Excalibur-III^ which still holds 

 the propellered transatlantic speed record established on January 31, 

 1951, and which made the first solo flight over the North Pole on 

 May 29, 1951, both flights piloted by Capt. Charles Blair of Pan 

 American World Airways, was formally presented to the National 

 Air Museum by Pan American on November G, 1953. 



For the annual Wriglit brothers' banquet conducted by the Aero 

 Club of Washington at the Statler Hotel on the anniversary of the 

 first flight, December 17, the Museum lent its series of enlarged photo- 

 graphs of Wright aircraft and the sculptures from the Golden Anni- 

 versary Exhibit. On December 29, the Chilean Air Force, through 

 the air attache, Col. Henrique Flores, presented to tlie Museum a scale 

 model of the Bristol Monoplane in which Capt. Dagoberto Godoy 

 of the Chilean Air Force made the first flight over the high Andes 

 from Chile to Argentina, December 12, 1918. This presentation was 

 attended by officials of those countries and the air attache of the 

 British Embassy, the airplane having been of British manufacture. 



At the annual meeting of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, on 

 January 15, 1954, selections of models from the Golden Anniversary 

 Exhibit were shown. On March 18, the Ninety-Nines, an organiza- 

 tion of women flyers of which Amelia Earhart was a founder and 

 which includes many of the most prominent airwomen in America, 

 presented to the Museum their 25-volume set of scrapbooks dating 

 from October 1929, when they were organized. This forms a very 

 useful reference work in connection with the many excellent accom- 

 plislmients by women in aviation. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN EXHIBITS 



The two exhibits workers have made numerous improvements in 

 the displays, in many instances with the much appreciated assistance 

 of the service shop personnel of the Smithsonian. In several of the 

 major projects, the donors or other interested parties assisted with 

 these undertakings. The Civil Aeronautics Administration and 

 United Air Lines aided in preparing the 247-D for storage, John 

 Holzer, expert mechanic lent by United, being particularly helpful. 

 Pan American Airways assigned one of their top mechanics, Robert 



