140 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



out this year largely by correspondence, most of the Museum's funds 

 for travel being utilized for trips between Washington and the stor- 

 age facility at Park Kidge, for administrative purposes. The results 

 of survey are reflected in the list of accessions which is in the last 

 pages of this Report. The following trips were primarily for survey 

 purposes : 



July 17, by the associate curator, Robert Strobell, to Lancaster, Pa., to inspect 

 at the factory of Valley Frocks, Inc., a group of early parachutes and other 

 equipment dating back to World War I. 



August 14, by the curator, to Detroit, Mich., and vicinity, to check progress 

 on scale models of aircraft under construction and inspect aeronautical material 

 assembled for the Air Show display. 



March 20, by the associate curator, to Dayton, Ohio, to confer regarding details 

 of drawings of the Wright Brothers' Kitty Hatch aeroplane, and to discuss cur- 

 rent projects at the Air Force Technical Museum. 



March 24, by the curator, to Philadelphia, Pa., and vicinity, to examine a group 

 of aircraft engines offered to the Air Museum by the Navy, to inspect a Fairchild 

 FC-2 photographic airplane offered by Virgil Kauffman and to discuss develop- 

 ments in air photography with officials and technicians of the Aero Service 

 Corporation. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN SPECIMENS AND EXHIBITS 



One of the outstanding specimens received during the year is the 

 original experimental radio-controlled model which, through free- 

 flight test, provided vital data for the design, construction, and op- 

 eration of the Consolidated XP5Y-1 flying boat. Unfortunately this 

 model, 1 : 10 size, had been badly damaged in transit. Its repair con- 

 stituted a problem that required a knowledge of the original proce- 

 dures as well as the skill of expert modelmakers. This combination 

 of talents was embodied in the designer who was responsible for de- 

 veloping this progressive method of aircraft testing, Ernest Stout, 

 and the exhibits workers of the Museum, Winthrop Shaw and assist- 

 ant Peter Bisio. Working together they have restored the model to 

 its original appearance. Another model restored in the shop is an 

 original small glider of E. C. Huffaker, who worked as assistant to 

 Professor Langley and made a brief visit to the camp of the Wright 

 Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1901. In the wall cases surrounding the 

 outer wall of the new shop in the Aircraft Building, displays of na- 

 tural flight, early concepts of human flight, lighter-than-air craft, and 

 parachutes are being placed. Because these are elementary phases 

 of aeronautics and the cases are near the entrance to the building they 

 constitute an interesting introduction to the exhibits. Other exhibi- 

 tion cases that have been improved during the year include the one in 

 which an early airfield is shown with aircraft of the period 1908-16, 

 the case containing famous trophies that have inspired progress in 

 aircraft design and performance, the memorial case to Amelia Ear- 

 hart, and the three large cases in which progressive types of airplanes 



