APPENDIX 9 
REPORT ON THE NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions of the National Air Museum for the fiscal year ended June 30, 
1948. 
ESTABLISHMENT 
Although the National Air Museum came into being as a new bureau 
of the Smithsonian Institution on August 12, 1946, through the enact- 
ment of Public Law 722, and an organizational and survey program 
was inaugurated shortly thereafter, actual operations of the bureau 
in its own right did not begin until August 1, 1947, one month after 
the beginning of the fiscal year. On that date the authorized appro- 
priation of $50,000 for National Air Museum purposes became avail- 
able to the Institution. 
Thereupon, and in accordance with a previously prepared plan of 
operations, there was effected by administrative action the interbureau 
transfer of the Institution’s aeronautical collection and the staff 
charged with its care, from the United States National Museum to the 
National Air Museum. As a matter of record the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution has been gathering and safeguarding significant aeronautical 
materials for over 70 years. At the time of the transfer this nucleus 
for an air museum consisted of over 3,500 objects, comprising the most 
valuable collection of its kind in the United States, or, in fact, in the 
world. By this transfer the National Air Museum began its active 
life with full responsibility for the proper operation of a “going” aero- 
nautical museum. Until it has a building of its own, the Air Museum 
has assigned for its use the metal hangar known as the Aircraft Build- 
ing and, in addition, a certain amount of exhibition, office, and storage 
space in the Arts and Industries Building of the National Museum. 
The Air Museum will share, too, with its affiliates the various auxiliary 
services of the Smithsonian Institution. 
On completion of the transfer of the aeronautical collections, ad- 
ministrative action was begun to provide the nucleus for an adequate 
staff for the new bureau. By March 1948 a force of seven persons 
(an addition of five to the original staff of two) was actively engaged 
in the many ramifications of the bureau’s work. 
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