Captioning performed by vitac the most popular among the smithsonian, and inside among the displays, america by air, from our earliest days of flight aviation with air transportation and mail carriers to the jet age of the 1950s through today, Space Operations and missiles, its all here. And i want to share an article in the Washington Post earlier this week on the spirit of st. Louis, one of the iconic planes that Charles Lindberg had. Its been in the news because of findings and notes on the plane. Jeremy kinney is joining us. Talk about the spirit of st. Louis and some interesting things you found over the last year or so. The spirit of st. Louis is a true milestone of flight. The epic trans atlantic flight and its been a significant artifact of the smithsonian and national air and space museum since the building opened in 1976. This opportunity to redo this gallery, looking at this airplane and seeing the elements left by the people who made the airlines in san diego, the actual flags from the tours and europe as well as latin america and squadron markings of those units, you see these people are making this contact with lindberg and being part of this great story. You show us some of the artifacts on display. Your own background, why are you so interested in this area . Growing up it was all about old airplanes and found opportunities to study history and aviation history. And it was just a passion that i had i was able to cultivate and grow and work hard and ended up at the smithsonian. Im going to ask you an impossible question. Was there a turning point or points in americas aviation history . Well, you know, we have to look at two eras, the propeller driven airplane until the end of world war ii and lindberg is a turning point. Shows people that aviation is possible. After that, the invention of the jet engine, you see this moment in which you can increase the distance and increase the popularity of jet airliner travel and make almost anyone can travel anywhere in the world as a result of that. You get a new display and artifacts and new plane and new vehicle, flight plan. Where does it all go . How do you find space for it all . Thats always a challenge because the large artifacts, this museum and airplanes and airliners and space craft take up a lot of space. We have our National Mall building and almost 100 big artifacts here and we have our center near the airport and we have a lot of items on loan and storage as well. Its always a challenge. The history of flight in and out of the atmosphere is always developing, always evolve, we always have to think whats the next big object well collect. For those who live in the eastern or central time zones. Our guest here is jeremy kinney, the curator and were coming to you here as part of cspan3s American History because of importance of today 40 years ago. The opening of the national air and space museum on the mall. This is the first time a Major National museum has been dedicated to the story of air and space. Its been immensely popular acts tist for people to come to the air and space museum. Do you have a favorite exhibit . For me a favorite exhibit is the one im most currently working on and so the pioneers of flight gallery is my favorite because of that curtis r3c air racer in there. Its a speed object. Im also working on the new speed gallery opening in a few years as part of our transformation in the museum. We cant see it right now but behind me is early Computer Technology i say early, 1960s, early 1970s and trying to Intercept Technology from space by russia. And its just fascinating because its a big bulky computer and weve grown in change. But that is part of the story of aviation as well, isnt it . Collecting data and theres always a race. Race in the 1920s and 30s between europe and United States. The cold war, that very dramatic period in our history of our recent past, you have technology being driven by the need for information. And technology being driven to compete whos going to get to the moon first. What about Computer Technology . Well, thats going along for the ride. Thats a byproduct of this need to push the technology to reach new challenges and Computer Technology is a reflection much that. In many ways. The miniaturization you need influences the development of Computer Technology. Lets get to calls, wayne is joining us from georgia. Thanks for being with u. Go ahead, please. Thank you, sir. Happy july 4th. I was wondering if the movie with Jimmy Stewart was any anything like the actual flight of Charles Lindberg . The billy wilder film based on lindbergs auto biography is based on that book. And its a story that follows the book pretty well, but its also changed for dramatic hollywood effect. The fly you see in the cabin as lindberg is crossing the atlantic, thats a sin mattic invention but also the story of how he goes through stages back and forth between the flight as well as creating the airplane, that back story, all true, all part of the story, its a very accurate film. Jimmy stewart was a big fan of Charles Lindbergh and wanted to be in this film. In many ways the accuracy is there because stewart and wilder are so passionate about the story. Around the corner, Amelia Earhart and Wright Brothers and there are others not so well known. Who are they . Aviation is a story of people and communities. And so looking at, we have these big names, Amelia Earhart, jimmy dolittle, but you have engineers, entrepreneurs. There are people who really come out in the stories, the racer on the tour, cyruss is unknown from the 20s and 30s but considered the best pilot in america when we flew the airplane, died young in a crash. He disappears from history when he would have been just as famous and well known as dolittle but he died in a plane crash. We began talking about america by air. I wonder if you can explain the significance of commercial air transportation to the u. S. And world and economy . This great connection of story between the United States and commercial aviation is there. Its the great distances of american continent. Trying to connect the continent drives the technology in terms of the Long Distance reliability and altitude and speed. That really shapes that technology and becomes a major industry connected between the people who carry mail and cargo and passengers and people who make the airplanes. That really drives the technology. That puts the United States on the ground floor of this World Aviation industry where the United States is a preeminent member of that community. Born in raised in north carolina. Where did you go to college and learn about all of this . I was under graduate and went to greenzboro college but Auburn University for graduate degrees. You could study there at the graduate level. For me that facilitated my desire to learn more about aviation, and study that. I had professors who cultivated that and that enabled me to come to the other center, the smithsonian air and space museum where im curator since 2000. The history of the story of the United States and story of aviation. What is the story here at this museum . The story of the air and space museum, to share with visitors from the United States as well as the rest of the world this epic story of how man went into the third dimension and the idea of creating technology and having the vision to create flying machines that could carry people and weapons and trigger the imagination and stimulate passion for technology. Thgs a history of science and Technology Museum directly connected to American History and european history and those levels are interconnected. The story of how man overcame the challenge of getting into the air is the primary story. As the museum prepares to open for an all night celebration, as you see young families and kids that look up in awe at the space craft and this lunar module, 1940s plane that is above you, what do you think when you see young people looking inspiration in awe . I like to see the connection between visitors and artifacts. You have a parent or grandparent or child showing their parents and grandparents, look at that technology. Look at that capsule and airplane. I read about that in school or saw that in a movie or i know who the person is. These connections that visitors have, whether its the Wright Brothers or idea of two brothers inventing the technology, the idea of military aviation in world war ii which so many mechanics e americans have a connection to today and commercial aviation, everyone flies. These connections people have are exciting to see how people connect with those technologies and see the first of that technology and people that are so important in those stories being represented in this museum. How often do you see a military pilot or commercial pilot or somebody says, i used to be in one of those . A lot. We see that a lot. Its that connection, those personal connections that are always astounding for me. I came up through an interest in aviation but didnt have those personal connection. These people flew these objects or they had a connection where they operated and thats amazing to see that. Do you fly yourself . I do not. I saw history as my opportunity to learn about aviation and i have other hobbies lets go to mike from delaware. Go ahead. Caller very interesting, i was there 15 or 20 years and need another trip back there. In any event, i was curious, how does new artifacts get into the museum . Do you folks there go and look for things or do people in the outside want to donate that kind of a thing . And also, i guess whats on the drawing board now, do you have maybe way of example, you can answer by what do you have on the board now that youre trying to get into the museum . Mike, thanks for the call. First, new artifacts. Great question because its really a story of how people connect with the museum with their own personal ways. Primary the way this museum has gotten artifacts from transfers from the National Government as well as individuals contacting us. It can be a cold call on the phone or email from contacting us on the website. It can be through another curator or staff member. But people contact us in a variety of ways to offer their stories to the museum. And once a curator identifies an object, we take it to our Collections Committee and fill out the paperwork and have to argue for the artifact. Once it passes muster it can come into the collection. Theres a full vetting between personnel and conservators so we discuss and argue for the artifacts. An example of an artifact on the horizon, the air racing collection. Theres a smal air racer nemesis nxt that will go on display, its the worlds fastest airplane built from a kit, 4 hush miles an hour. It tells that High Technology and produced by one of the air racing pilots and designers. So these are the kinds of story we want to share with the American Public and rest of the world. Its a way we have to always fully vet and justify that technology, those artifacts coming into the museum. Are there other museums like this elsewhere in the world . There are other National Museums in the u. S. And rest of the world. We have our National Military museums and u. S. Air force and naif aviation or contemporaries to us, the museum of flight. You have also National Museums outside of paris. You have the imperial war museum, science museum. You have these museums looking at aviation from those National Stories of the countries they are in and they have impressive artifacts as well in their collection. We were talking about ren nations under way over the next six or seven years. When we come back in 2022 or 2023, whats going to change . Its going to be a completely changed museum. I mean, over 20 major exhibitions the idea is to represent the history of flight and do that in ways that stimulate early 21st century audiences. So looking at military aviation in a different way and development of civilian and commercial aviation, looking at space, looking at the idea of where the planets, whats the idea of earth in our story of human kind. So its going to be very bold but the idea is to really present a new take on aerospace history. We have this as youre current generation of curators and designers and collections people, we are really excited about telling those new stories. Lets hear from kevin in north carolina. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller yes, sir. I was wondering if what kind of maybe aesthetic display about the b36 and the 47 because its so large, and your space is strange. Do you have any plans of having kind of small display of the history of these airplanes . So, kevin was asking about the b36 bomber and boeing b47, two important cold war bombers. We dont have examples of those in the collection. The air force does as well as other air force museums do. We due to size constraints and the fact they are covered in other National Museums where its an important air force story, we dont have plans to do anything with those aircraft. But you never know. We may be offered one that he we cant pass up. But at this time we havent collected one for our collection. We have a caller from michigan. Mike. Mike, go ahead in michigan. Well try one more time for mike in michigan, if youre there. How many people work with you as curator . Well, its a team here in terms of we have curators and we have about a half dozen curators in both of our aeronautics and space history and conservation and collections processing and preservation and restoration. We have a registrar and we have educators and designers. Its a pretty large team. We have 150 employees total on the staff. And they also interact in some way. One thing that weve really expanded is this idea of outreach. So weve been doing things like our stem in 30 programs and reaching out sds the museum to connect with visitors around the world. Lets hear from dan joining us from kentucky. If youre on the air, we would love to hear from you. Go ahead with your question. Caller yes, sir. I was wondering actually a twopart question, i was wondering about what was 9 fastest the sr71 was ever flown and who flew it . Little bit of feedback but the fastest it was flown, do you know . I heard the question was is the sr71 the fastest . It is the fastest airplane with air breathing engines, the whitney j58 engines make it the fastest air breathing engines key besides spaceshuttle and rockets is the northern american x14 which we saw on the tour. The sr71, the one we have in our collection, its a 2000mileperhour airplane. It goes up to 3,000 and its delivery flight to the air and space museum in the early 1990s broke a trans continental speed record of over two hours. Now the one interesting thing about aviation, especially in the late 20th century, we dont connect people specifically with the airport but we have pilots that give tours in our museums, buzz carpenter, these are air force quintessential professional pilots who flew them in the late 20th century as reconnaissance pilots. Logan in florida, youre next. Go ahead, please. Caller i wanted to know what the relationship between Scott Crossfield and was between trying to break the sound barrier. How ould are you by the way . How old are you logan . Caller im 9. Youre interested in aviation. Caller yes. Thank you for the call. Caller so, maybe a future curator. They are always welcome. Thank you for your question, logan. Chuck yeager is the first man to fly the speed of sound. Scott chrisfield is the quintessential pilot who flew for north american. We know him best by the x15 in 1959. But in the early 50s its chuck yeager and Scott Crossfield are dueling on mach 1 and 2 records and they are competitors. Thats one. Very interesting and dynamic things about pilots for 1950s, they are hyper competitive. They want to see whos the best. They want to really outdo each other. And chuck yeager and Scott Crossfield are a great example of that. If people are interested in studying aviation history, obviously you have done your research at auburn, what are the leading institutions in this country . Well, in a lot of ways you can go to a focused program like auburn had or you can go to just go to any first rate graduate school. And you can study history and you can put aviation into the story. Through our fellowship program, we had students from yale, weve had them from princeton and other ivy league stores and major land grant universities. You can pretty much tailor your History Program at the graduate level to fit what you want in terms of how you want to study. But it all falls down to your own initiative, what your writing about and how lucky you are in terms of getting that original idea out there. Send us a tweet at cspan history, the question is before 1976 and this building opened, where was it stored . So the spirit of st. Louis came to the smithsonian in 1928. And it was stored in on display in the arts and Industries Building hanging over the traditional oak englassed cases. And so it was there more or less over the years on display in the arts and Industries Building, which you can still see today. But that was in a lot of ways this building was intended to put the spirit of st. Louis in that very important spot in the milestones of flight gallery to display it. Think about this as a moment as we listen to dave from new york. What questions and things are unanswered in terms of aviation history. Think about that. Lets go to dave in new york. Caller i just had two questions. I visited the museum in 1976 and i remember it very well when it first opened. How have the artifacts have any degraded over the past 40 years. What is on your most wanted list as far as things you want to collect . Those are great questions. Thank you, the first question, have objects degraded in the museum since it opened. Yes, thats the short answer. Its just that objects get old and do break down. So in terms of we take these opportunities like the boeing milestones of flight gallery to reassess and address things that have been happening to these artifacts, the spirit of st. Louis is a great example, we also had things on display that weve taken out and discovered that oh, we could have the Museum Standards of the 1970s werent as up to par with Museum Standards of today. We learn lessons from that. Thats constantly evolving and constant battle to keep the artifacts safe and stable. No shortage of visitors. Yes, thats correct. No shortage of visitors. Go to your home state of north carolina. Ted is next. Caller i want to express my appreciation, i happen to be one of those guys who used to fly so it was neat to watch it. To see how its displayed, did an yoult standing job on that. I was wondering if there was any additional thought about continuing additional history of the Coast Guard Aviation like hurricane rescues and new orleans rescue and things of that sort . Well, i think were at the u. S. Coast guard aviation centennial this year an its been an exciting opportunity to put on a display of coast guard helicopter and so i think as we expand our idea about what constitutes aviation history and military history, we will look at how to incorporate stories like the coast guard in them. I cant speak to if we have plans beyond what we did this summer but thats a dynamic topic and some Staff Members will take any chance they can get to talk about Coast Guard Aviation, very proud of it. Chris, youre next in massachusetts, thanks for being with us. Hi, jeremy, hello. Yes, go ahead. Caller i think that a lot the 234b is pristine, so beautiful. I think the b47, a lot of designs from the 234 came from incorporated from the 234 to the b47. My question i want to ask about, the 63, does the museum have an me163 . Yes, the comet is a rocket glider and theres one on display in its original condition at the hoscy center. You can see it any time you like. Jeff in nevada. Thank you for being with us. Were talking to jeremy kinney, the curator here at the national air and space museum in washington, d. C. Caller you probably have the best job on the planet. And my congratulations to you for acquiring it. With the renovation thats coming up here, you say its going to be what, a fiveyear thing, are people still going to be able to come into the museum and understand, you know, what you have there as you switch things around . The goal for the renovation of the museum is to close it in stages. There will always be a part thats open and that way visitors can still come and see exhibits and experience the air and space museum on the National Mall. So those galleries such as speed, earth, will be opening and closing as we go along through the successive stages. This will be a phased renovation, something will always be open. Jay is next from pennsylvania. Go ahead with your question or comment. Good evening. Caller hello. I wanted to know a little bit more about the x1 and man that broke the speed record for sound and how fast was he going . So the battle x1 first breaks the speed of sound flown by chuck yeager, a former fighter pilot, an ace and becomes a test pilot in the high desert of california, Edwards Air Force base. The x1 is the First Research airplane. The x15, the idea of this partnership between the u. S. Air force, and National Adviser committee and nasa and bell aircraft. The whole premise is to investigate the supersonic regime. So in october 14th, 1947, yeager in this airplane flies 714 Miles Per Hour which is mach one in this aircraft and breaks that myth cal sound barrier and helps initiate the thinking of the jet age through the 50s and 60s. Let me go back, what are your questions and unknowns . What answers are you looking for . Aviation is a very interesting topic to be studying right now. Weve gone through the 100 years, well past that after the flight of the Wright Brothers and many people said the flight story has been told, mature technology, nowhere else you can go with that. So whats fascinating to me is this idea of what are the next steps. How will that be traced as historic historical evolution today . Are they going to lead to aircraft that will be enable you to fly from new york to tokyo in two and a half hours . So how are we going to track that . Are we seeing those technologies and ideas being form lated now and are we aware of them. What about private billionaire Entrepreneur Missions to space . Thats always been a major impetus in aviation history and especially with the x, space x and all of that. But the prize was to stimulate aviation and harmony. These ideas of entrepreneurs for finding funding and Building Companies with new renovations is part of that pushing that envelope of technology. John is next in massachusetts. Go ahead, please. Caller good hello . Yes, john, go ahead. Caller okay. Yeah, i was just at the air and space museum a few weeks ago and i was very impressed everything there. I want to thank everyone for what theyve done. My question is, will they be expanding at some point the world war ii section thats there . World war ii is a major story in aviation that people just draws people to it. The current gallery today is gallery 205 world war ii aviation, original gallery from 1976 and made by people who flew Fighter Airplanes in world war ii. So the reference there is that people know what they are seeing. So now we are looking at through this transformation of the museum, were going to do a new world war ii gallery and combine the sea air operations gallery and provide a larger story of world war ii. The goal is to present it for new visitors and heres scary thing, this opens in 2023, 2025, 2029 is the 100th history. Were thinking about that and preparing for that. We want to do the story right and tell the stories that people, technologies and he events in ate way that gauges all levels of visitors in ages and backgrounds and wherever they come from in the world. Rick, you get the last call in this segment from wisconsin. Good evening. My name is rick, im calling from madison, wisconsin. I have two comments to make. I really appreciate your show. Its great, he especially seein the artifacts i have. My question is, do you think that there are many items missing from your display . And how many do you think that you have might purchase over next few years . As part of our professional do you thinkties we have whats called a collections rationale and that lists the objects that we have discussed as why they are important and also says why we what we need. What are the new objects that what we would take. It can range from a complete airplane like a boeing b17 from world war ii to a part of an airplane, such as a drop tank. A mustang used drop tanks to fly away in world war ii. Its a critical element in the story. We do not have a drop tank, were looking for one. Those are kinds of objects we do want to accent wait and improve displays and record that story of the people and events. As general daily pointed out earlier, only a small percentage is here. You have more in storage than youre able to show