Monthly Archive for February, 2011

Asking the Experts

Published by Tim Grove on February 17, 2011 in Behind The Scenes, Education, Highlights from the Collection, On View at the Museum and Stories.
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How did you get an airplane inside the building?  Is there life on other planets?  What EXACTLY is GPS and how does it work?  Why in the world is that in this museum?

We hear these questions every day.  There’s so much that goes on in museums that people just don’t understand.  And there are a lot of interesting artifacts tucked into smaller galleries that visitors simply don’t notice.  Then there are the GREAT stories behind every artifact – stories that just don’t fit on a label.  For instance, have you ever wondered how we acquired Gene Kranz’s famous “Failure is NOT an option” white vest?  Did you know that Wilbur Wright, while playing with a cardboard box, figured out an essential component for controlling an aircraft?  How about what really happened at Roswell, NM?  Or about the time Howard Hughes….

Gene Kranz

Photo: Gene Kranz in his white vest. Photo courtesy NASA. The photo links to the full "Ask an Expert" lecture, given by curator Margaret Weitekamp, which tells the story behind Gene Kranz's vests and how the Museum acquired this white vest that he wore during the Apollo 13 mission.

Before I started working at the National Air and Space Museum I hadn’t heard these stories either. There are so many of them, and since I work in the Museum I get to hear them from our curators, conservators, scientists, and archivists all the time.  What’s that?  You’d like to hear them as well?  Guess what?  You can.  Every Wednesday at noon we dust off one of the curators, conservators, scientists, or archivists and send one onto the museum floor during lunch to tell these stories.  Each Ask an Expert talk runs about 15 minutes and then they take time to answer your questions.  If you can’t make it, we record many of the talks and post them on our website.  However, if you’ve got time during lunch and you’d like to join us, check out our calendar for a list of upcoming talks.  I learn something new at every lecture, and I’ve been listening to our experts for years!

Beth Wilson is the Discovery Station Program Coordinator for the Mall Building.


A Laptop in Space

Published by The National Air and Space Museum on February 11, 2011 in Hidden Treasures, History and space.
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The announcement last year that Bill Moggridge was selected to be the new head of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York gave me pause. In my daily work I tend to stay on a narrow path of aerospace-related topics, but that name sounded familiar.

Bill Moggridge

Bill Moggridge, director of the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York.

A glance at my bookshelf gave me the answer: before joining the Cooper-Hewitt, Moggridge was a co-founder of the international design firm IDEO, and while there he played a crucial role in the design of the world’s first laptop computer: the GRiD Compass, first marketed in 1982. (The unusual capitalization of “GRiD” was a trademark of the company that developed it.)  I knew about the Compass because that device was also the first laptop flown in space. According to a press release from GRiD Systems, Inc., “The GRiD Compass was first used on the Space Shuttle mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 28, 1983. The computer, code-named SPOC (Shuttle Portable On-Board Computer) by NASA was slightly modified for operation in a weightless environment…” (Neither this press release nor any from NASA notes the similarity between the acronym and the better-known character from the television series Star Trek.)

GRiD Compass

GRiD "Compass" Laptop

The National Air and Space Museum has several GRiD compass computers in its collections, including one that has flown on two Shuttle flights, STS-35 and STS-36. The modifications were minor: the attachment of pieces of Velcro to fasten it to various places on the flight deck, a modification of the power cord to plug into the Shuttle’s power supply, and the addition of a small fan to compensate for the lack of convective cooling in zero-G. A lot of custom work went into the development of specialized software, however: to aid Shuttle astronauts in managing their mission and assisting with navigation, and as a back-up to prepare the vehicle for return to Earth.  As with every item carried on the Shuttle, the software had to be rigorously tested before it was loaded onto the computer.

Compass in Space

STS-46 Mission Specialist Franklin R. Chang-Diaz works with GRiD "Compass" laptop on the middeck of Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle 104.

To return to its design: the GRiD pioneered the so-called “clamshell” case for laptops, but it also had several unique qualities. Its case was made of rugged magnesium, not plastic. It had no rotating disk, which might have caused reliability problems; but rather a “bubble” memory that had no moving parts. And it used a custom, bright orange “electro-luminescent display, visible in the brightest sunlight. It is a beautiful machine to hold, and a testament to Moggridge’s, and GRiD Systems’ attention to detail. Laptop computers are nothing special today—they seem to be giving way to smaller devices including smart phones—but this one is special.

Paul Ceruzzi is chair of the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum.

Try Out our New Online Activities

Published by Tim Grove on February 3, 2011 in Aviation, Behind The Scenes, Education, Exhibitions, On View at the Museum, Stories and Web & New Media.
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If you’re looking for some online fun, try out several Web activities from our newest exhibition, The Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery.

The exhibition introduces some of the colorful aviation personalities from the 1920s and 1930s.

Tingmissartoq Interactive

"Tingmissartoq" Interactive

  • Help Charles and Anne Lindbergh pack for a trip across several continents in their airplane the Tingmissartoq.  The plane can only carry 6,105 pounds, so you must choose supplies carefully.  You need to anticipate possible emergency scenarios like landing on the icecap of Greenland or landing in the middle of the ocean.  You will be going from cold, icy climates to tropical climates and will be visiting remote Eskimo villages and fancy diplomatic receptions.  You can compare your decisions with what the Lindberghs really packed.
douglas world cruiser interactive

Douglas "World Cruiser" Interactive

  • Plan a flight around the world for the U.S. Army – it’s 1924 and no one has flown around the world before.  First, you must figure out the logistics – which countries will welcome you and where will you be able to refuel?  Your planes can only fly so many miles before needing to refuel. Next you must adapt the airplane for the trip. Your Douglas DT-2 torpedo bomber needs to meet the demands of your journey.  Finally, while you may have tried to plan for the unexpected, you encounter the unexpected anyway.  Face six crises that the real World Cruiser crews encountered – will you make the same decisions they made?
design an air racer interactive

Design an Air Racer Interactive

  • Design an air racer.  You are entering the air races and want to win!  Design a racer that will be the fastest sea plane and will help you win the prestigious Schneider trophy.  Or, design a land plane and win the Pulitzer trophy. Will you make risky decisions and try some of the latest technology or will you play it safe?
Tuskegee Airmen Interactive

Tuskegee Airmen Interactive

  • Fly a bomber escort mission as flight leader of the 332nd Fighter Group in Italy.  World War II is raging and the Tuskegee Airmen are gaining a reputation as top-notch aviators.  As an all African-American group, they must constantly prove their skills.  The American military is segregated and the group’s reputation lies on the decisions of each of its members.  Wrong decisions could cost lives and equipment, and damage the reputation.  Will you make the right decisions and prove that you have the skills required to fly with the best?

A lot of effort and careful research went into each one of these activities.  We first generated a list of possible ideas. We narrowed the list by asking which ideas make the best use of the technology to teach specific content.  We hired a Web developer to help us.   The interactives need to be thoughtfully integrated into the surrounding exhibition content.  After we decided on the scenarios, we did some additional research.  We had to track down photos of the World Cruiser flight and film footage of the Lindberghs.  Our photographer took photos of objects in the collections – we wanted to display some of the interesting items that the Lindberghs packed on their trip.  These objects had not been on display before.  In some cases we also consulted with outside experts, including some of the Tuskegee Airmen themselves! What were the main decisions made by flight leaders on escort missions?  What happened when things didn’t go well?

Once our designer had a prototype activity, we took it onto the floor and asked our visitors to test it.  Some of the interactives, the Lindbergh one for example, went through major design changes.  We wanted to ensure that people find them engaging and easy to complete.  Do they take the right amount of time or are they too complicated?  Will they attract the right age groups?  We also tested the activities with some of our toughest critics, our National Air and Space Museum colleagues.  They all had an opportunity to weigh in on the activities.  When we completed usability testing and made sure visitors were getting the messages we wanted to convey, we went into final production.

So give them a try and let us know what you think.  Which did you like the best?  Did you learn anything new? And, if you have a chance to visit the Museum, please be sure to view the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery.

Tim Grove is Chief of Education at the National Air and Space Museum’s Mall building.

The Groundhog and the Nurse

Published by Allan Janus on February 2, 2011 in Archives, Aviation, History and Stories.
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Edna Newcomer with Groundhog Tailwind

Photograph by Rudy Arnold

I have a hunch that there aren’t a lot of aerospace museums that could come up with an appropriate image for Groundhog Day, but it’s at moments like this that the National Air and Space Museum’s Archives Division really shows the range and depth of its holdings. The photograph shown above – the only aviation/groundhog picture that I’m aware of – shows Edna Newcomer and her groundhog Tailwind waving from the cockpit of the Bellanca Skyrocket The American Nurse, at Floyd Bennett Field, New York in September 1932. Dr. Leon Pisculli, also seen in the window, organized the non-stop New York to Rome flight to study the effects of long-distance flight on humans, and presumably, on groundhogs. Newcomer, a nurse and a licensed pilot, planned to bail out over Florence and descend by parachute — it’s not known if she intended to jump with Tailwind. Dressed in white riding clothes, Newcomer also brought along a dress in case she was presented to King Victor Emmanuel III.

But it’s very sad to report that there was no parachute descent on Florence, and no royal audience – American Nurse was last seen by the S.S. France 400 miles from its European landfall. Edna Newcomer, Leon Pisculli, pilot William Ulbrich, and poor Tailwind the groundhog were never seen again.

Allan Janus is a museum specialist in the Museum’s Archives Division.