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Taylor was appointed Acting Director and held that position until Michael Collins was appointed Director in 1971. Paul Johnston, who held the position from 1964 to 1969. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport is the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, MD. In addition to the artifacts on display in the Museum in Washington, D.C., hundreds more artifacts are currently housed at the Museum's Paul E. Fellowships were established in the curatorial departments, outreach in the form of lectures and other public programs increased, and the NASM Archives was created. During the 1980s, the Museum began to focus more directly on its research component. The staff moved into the Museum in 1975 and completed preparations for the July 1, 1976, opening, part of the Smithsonian's contribution to the Bicentennial celebration. The collections of the NAM were housed in the Arts and Industries Building, in a shed in the south yard known as the "Air and Space Building," and outdoors in "Rocket Row." The beginning of the conquest of space in the 1950s and 1960s helped to drive the renaming of the Air Museum and finally congressional passage in 1971 of appropriations for the construction of the new Museum.Īfter the groundbreaking ceremony held in November 1972, work on the new building proceeded on two fronts-the actual construction of the edifice and work by the staff on two dozen exhibition halls. The twentieth century brought an explosion in flight technology and the emergence of air power as a deciding factor in World War II. In 1889, the Stringfellow engine became the first object accessioned into the collection.
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The NASM collection dates to the closing of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia when the Smithsonian received a group of kites from the Chinese Imperial Commission.
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Upon Mitman's retirement in 1952, Curator Paul E. Mitman was appointed Assistant to the Secretary for NAM. Twenty years later, its name was changed to the National Air and Space Museum as part of a congressional act authorizing a separate building to house its collections.īefore 1946, the aeronautical collections had been assigned to the custodial care of the United States National Museum's Department of Anthropology, Division of Mechanical Technology, 1887-1919 the Department of Arts and Industries, Division of Mechanical Technology, 1919-1931 and the Division of Engineering, 1931-1946. The National Air Museum (NAM) was created as a separate bureau of the Smithsonian Institution by an Act of Congress in 1946.
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The museum continues to develop new exhibits to examine the impact of air and space technology on science and society. Louis," Apollo 11 command module, and a Lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. The museum has hundreds of artifacts on display including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the "Spirit of St. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight. The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world.