114 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1957 



planes. This display was particularly timely because the Vought 

 F8U-1 "Crusader" Navy fighter plane had recently established a new 

 national speed record of 1,015.4 miles an hour. Contrasted with a 

 model of that jet-powered swept- winged fighter was a similarly scaled 

 1 : 16-size reproduction of the Navy's first seaplane of 1911, which flew 

 at about 50 miles an hour, and of models of Navy planes used in 

 World Wars I and II. 



The National Air Museum was represented by the head curator at 

 the National Air Races held at Oklahoma City on Labor Day ; at the 

 directors meeting of the National Aeronautic Association, held in 

 Washington on October 2, on the Brewer Trophy Committee to choose 

 the person most prominent in 1956 in the field of aviation education 

 for youth; at the Wright Brothers Banquet of the Aero Club of 

 Washington, on the 53d anniversary of the first flight, December 17, 

 1956 ; and at the American Helicopter Society Forum held in Wash- 

 ington on May 10, 1957. At the model airplane exhibition held at 

 Cleveland on February 22, the head curator served as chief judge, 

 selecting three outstanding models for the Museum collections. For 

 the First National Conference on Aviation Education, organized by 

 the National Aviation Education Council and held in Washington 

 March 7-8, 1957, the National Air Museum was represented by both 

 the head curator and the associate curator, the former as speaker on 

 "Aviation as a Vocation and Avocation" and the latter as consultant 

 on Aviation Curriculum Enrichment. Among the 23 lectures given 

 on various aspects of flight during the year by the head curator, 

 two were presented to aeronautical groups at universities, three to 

 units of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, and three to military 

 units. Six lecture tours of the aeronautical exhibits were given, five 

 to military units, and the other to a group of progressive youths spon- 

 sored by Representative Peter Mack of Illinois. 



The Museum participated in three television programs on aero- 

 nautical history during the year ; the head curator spoke on three radio 

 programs and made sound tapes for two others, all relative to the 

 functions and exhibits of this Museum. Numerous persons preparing 

 broadcast programs consulted the Museum for facts. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN EXHIBITS 



Many of the displays maintained in the Aircraft Building and in 

 the Aeronautical Hall of the Arts and Industries Building were im- 

 proved during the year. Several specimens were added to the Robert 

 J. Collier Trophy display illustrating annual awards "for the greatest 

 achievement in aviation in America, the value of which has been 

 thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." 

 The display of the Klemin Plaque awarded annually by the American 



