APPENDIX 9 

 Report on the National Air Museum 



Sir : I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 

 ties of the National Air Museum for the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1952 : 



GENERAL STATEMENT OF CONDITIONS 



The phase of Museum operations that caused the greatest con- 

 cern and required most concentration of effort throughout the year 

 was the care of the storage collection at Park Ridge, 111. It will be 

 recalled from previous annual reports that the former Douglas DC-4 

 Transport Airplane Plant there was the collecting depot for signifi- 

 cant and historic aircraft selected for preservation by General of 

 the Air Force H. H. Arnold. When these were turned over to the 

 National Air Museum in 1949, it was believed most economical to 

 leave them there until an adequate building could be provided in the 

 Washington, D. C, area for the entire collection. An efficient or- 

 ganization was brought together by the Museum to preserve and guard 

 these stored aircraft. Meanwhile that locality became designated 

 as O'Hare Field, Chicago International Airport, and several United 

 States Air Force units were established there, the Museum paying 

 rent to the Air Force for the space it occupied in Building T-6. To 

 that storage facility the Museum brought other aircraft and mate- 

 rials that could not be exhibited or cared for on the Washington prem- 

 ises in the Smithsonian buildings. It was believed that this facility 

 would continue to operate until Congress gave further consideration 

 to the report presented to that body by the Smithsonian, in re- 

 sponse to the section in the Act of Establishment which authorized 

 the planning of an adequate building. 



With the advent of war in Korea it became evident that Govern- 

 ment resources must be concentrated upon the production of combat 

 aircraft instead of applied to the care of historic ones, and early in 

 the fiscal year the international situation reacted directly upon the 

 Air Museum when, on July 12, 1951, an eviction notice was served 

 by the Air Force requiring removal of all Museum stored material 

 from the premises in Building T-6. Because of the national emer- 

 gency the needs of the Air Force required expanded manufacturing 

 facilities for aircraft and it had been decided to reactivate Building 



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