Tag Archives: Research

“A Company of Scholars”: A Brief History of the National Air and Space Museum’s Fellowship Program

Posted on by
2

The Museum is accepting applications for fellowships from November 1, 2012 – January 15, 2013.

Most people know the National Air and Space Museum as the premier location in the United States, and perhaps in the world, for the display of the artifacts of aerospace history. Not so well publicized is the fact that the Museum is also home to what former Smithsonian Secretary Dillon S. Ripley called “a company of scholars … a small university that awards no degrees.” Ripley’s comments refer to his strong belief that the Smithsonian should be a place where scholars from around the world conduct research and exchange ideas with each other and with Smithsonian researchers. The Smithsonian has indeed become such a place and so has the National Air and Space Museum, most particularly in regard to its funding of and support for outside researchers who come here under the auspices of the Museum’s fellowship program.

Guggenheim Pre- and Post-doctoral Fellowships

In the mid-1960s, the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation pledged $250,000 (roughly equivalent to $1.7 million in today’s currency) to support three projects: an exhibition about the Guggenheim family’s longstanding support of aeronautical research and education; a public lecture series that featured prominent figures in aerospace history; and a fellowship that would allow graduate students to do historical research at the Museum.

red phoenix rising

Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II, by Von Hardesty and Ilya Grinberg, University Press of Kansas.

Over the years, the Guggenheim Fellowship has sponsored such distinguished aerospace historians as Richard P. Hallion, among others. Hallion’s book, Legacy of Flight: The Guggenheim Contribution to American Aviation (Seattle: U of Washington P, 1977), was the product of an appointed Guggenheim grant at the Museum. Another early former Guggenheim Fellow, Joseph Corn, wrote his groundbreaking The Winged Gospel: America’s Romance with Aviation (New York: Oxford UP, 1983), the first true cultural history of aviation, at the Museum. Von Hardesty, a Guggenheim Fellow here (1978-79) began work on his pioneering work Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power, 1941-1945 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982). This work was later revised as Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II, Modern War Studies (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012). Hardesty later became a curator in the Aeronautics Department, with responsibility for Russian and Soviet aircraft.

In later years the Guggenheim fellowship was awarded competitively, and is now available to pre-doctoral graduate students and to Ph.D.s who are within seven years of having been awarded their degree. Jenifer Leigh Van Vleck, a recent Guggenheim Predoctoral Fellow (2006-2007) from Yale University, wrote her doctoral dissertation, “No Distant Places: Aviation and the Global American Century,” which is soon to be published by Harvard University Press. Van Vleck is an Assistant Professor, Department of History, Yale University. Phil Tiemeyer, a recent Guggenheim Postdoctoral Fellow (2009-10) from Philadelphia University worked on the manuscript for his Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants, which will be published by University of California Press in February 2013.

 

Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History

Airlines of the Jet Age

Airlines of the Jet Age, A History, by R.E.G. Davies, Smithsonian Institution Press with Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.

Our most distinguished fellowship is the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History. Originally, this award was an appointment made by the Museum’s Director, but is now competitive and open to senior scholars with a distinguished record of publication who are or are soon to be at work on books in aerospace history. The first holder of the Lindbergh Chair was Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, a pioneer in the history of early flight. A subsequent recipient was the late Ron Davies, who held the chair from 1981 to 1983, who then become our curator of air transportation, a post he held just up to the time of his death in 2011. His last book, Airlines of the Jet Age: A History (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2011), was published just before his death. The Lindbergh Chair for 2012-13 will be Stuart Leslie, author of The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford (New York: Columbia UP, 1993). Dr. Leslie will examine six “iconic” architectural spaces that he believes transformed perceptions of the space age.

Ramsey Fellowship in Naval Aviation History

Wings and Warriors

Wings and Warriors: My Life as a Naval Aviator, by Donald D. Engen, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.

The Ramsey Fellowship was the result of a bequest by Juanita Ramsey, the widow of Admiral Dewitt Clinton Ramsey, who had commanded the carrier USS Saratoga during World War II, and who later became commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet before he retired. Paul E. Garber, whose pioneering efforts helped to found the National Air and Space Museum, was the first holder of the Ramsey Fellowship, which was an appointed position. Another appointed Ramsey Fellow was E. T. Wooldridge, who held the position from 1990 to 1994 and who was a curator in the Aeronautics Department and subsequently Chair, and later Assistant Director for Museum Operations. A later appointed holder of the Ramsey Fellowship was Donald D. Engen, a career naval aviator and officer, and former head of the National Transportation Safety Board, who became the Director of the Museum in 1996. Engen wrote his memoir Wings and Warriors: My Life as a Naval Aviator (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), while a Ramsey Fellow. During Engen’s time as Director, the Ramsey Fellowship became a competitive grant.

Other Ramsey Fellowship holders were: retired U.S. Navy Admiral Gerald E. Miller, who wrote Nuclear Weapons and Aircraft Carriers: How the Bomb Saved Naval Aviation (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2001) during his tenure; Norman Polmar, who wrote Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events, Vol. I: 1909-1945 (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2006) during his tenure, and Thomas Wildenberg, who wrote All the Factors of Victory: Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Air Power (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2005) during his tenure.

The National Air and Space Museum is no  longer accepting applications for the Ramsey Fellowship. The funds have been reprogrammed with the intention of providing funding for an eventual curatorial chair in naval aviation history.

A.Verville Fellowship

The A. Verville Fellowship was named for Alfred V. Verville, an innovative pioneer aviator and aircraft designer and manufacturer. The Verville Fellowship is a competitive grant that is open to academics and non-academics alike, who are interested in analyzing major trends, developments, and accomplishments in aerospace history.

Among the recipients are Dik A. Daso, former curator of military aircraft at the Museum, who worked on Hap Arnold and the Evolution of American Air Power (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001); Asif A. Siddiqi, who wrote The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination (New York: Cambridge UP, 2010), and Christine R. Yano, author of Airborne Dreams: “Nisei” Stewardesses and Pan American Airways (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2011).

Center for Earth and Planetary Studies Postdoctoral Program

The Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS) is the scientific research unit at the Museum. Most of the research in CEPS focuses on geologic processes that have shaped the surfaces of rocky bodies in the solar system, including the Earth.

CEPS has supported 22 post-doctoral researchers since the program began in 1994, drawing well-qualified candidates from a variety of U.S. and international universities. External grants, mostly from NASA, fund most of the salary, conference travel, field work, and other expenses. One fellowship is supported by a Smithsonian endowment. CEPS post-docs are able to submit research proposals for external funding as Principal Investigator, and many have funded a substantial portion of their own time, as well as subsequent careers in research.

To date, CEPS post-docs have published 46 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters as lead author, and pre-doctoral research assistants have authored another 25. Post-docs have received 30 research grants totaling over $2 million. Two have served as participating scientists on three NASA planetary missions (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Dawn mission to Vesta), and others have supported missions by working with a CEPS staff scientist on a mission team.

Five of the 22 CEPS post-docs since 1994 are currently in residence. Of the 17 who have completed their appointments, seven are now university professors, six work for a non-profit research institute or university on grant-funded science projects, three have pursued careers in government, and one is in private industry.

The Aviation Space Writers Foundation Award

Right Stuff, Wrong Sex

Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America’s First Women in Space Program, by Margaret A. Weitekamp, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

In April 2000, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Air and Space Museum accepted a financial gift from Aviation Space Writers Foundation. In exchange for the gift, the Museum would “support financially the work of a journalist, writer, or not-for-profit organization that is engaged in research and writing on significant aviation and space issues, developments or achievements, the publication of which may increase or enhance public awareness and knowledge of aviation, space flight, or the aerospace industry.” The grant also includes archival projects and the “product created as the result of the grant award must be in any form suitable for potential public dissemination in print, electronic or broadcast or other visual medium, including but not limited to a book manuscript, a video or film script, or monograph.” The award is given every two years in even-numbered years (2012, 2014, etc.).

A past recipient of the award (in 2002) was Margaret Weitekamp for work on her book Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: The Science, Culture, and Politics of Lovelace’s Woman in Space Program, 1959-1963. In 2006  Matthew Morrison  received the award for a drama based on the life of Willie “Suicide” Jones, an African American professional parachute jumper and aerial stuntman. The current recipient (2012) is Rebecca Herman, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Herman’s topic is the Pan American Airways World War II Airport Development Program, which will examine Pan Am’s development of airports in Latin America during World War II.

All in all, our Fellowship Program has significantly advanced the scholarship in aerospace history, technology and science.

Dominic A. Pisano is a curator in the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

Acknowledgment

I am indebted to a former Guggenheim Predoctoral Fellow, Dr. Alan D. Meyer, for his excellent research on the Museum’s Fellowship Program, which I have drawn on for this blog. Allan is now an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Auburn University. Thanks also to Dr. Rossman P. Irwin III of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies for providing information about CEPS Postdoctoral Program.

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation Collection – Patent Files

Posted on by
3

In 1929, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company merged with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. The merger of these two companies created one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the country, which held numerous patents for aircraft. The National Air and Space Museum Archives Division holds two collections that include patent documents from Curtiss-Wright. I just finished processing and writing a finding aid for the files of the Patent Department and found the material quite intriguing.

patent

U.S. Patent No. 1246011, issued to Glenn H. Curtiss of Hammondsport, New York, November 6, 1917, for "Flying Boats"

The majority of the collection consists of original patent certificates issued by the United States Patent Office and Patent Office of Canada between the years 1911 and 1939. The United States certificates are aesthetically appealing, with a bright blue ribbon holding them together, sealed with a red sticker stamp. Early Canadian patents contain the original drawings submitted by the patent applicant.

For me, the most interesting part of the collection was the patent litigation files. With the consolidation of the patents held by the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and their associates, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation held patents for many of the early discoveries in the design and construction of aircraft. As such, the Patent Department of Curtiss-Wright was vigilant in protecting its patents, suing the Ford Motor Company, the Waco Aircraft Company, the Nicholas-Beazley Airplane Company, and the Bellanca Aircraft Corporation, among others, for patent infringement. The patent litigation files include materials created by Curtiss-Wright in pursuit of litigation, including copies of the proceedings, correspondence and memoranda, aircraft drawings and blueprints, advertising brochures, and copies of related patents.

The original file titles as written on the original folders were unremarkable, but accurate—proceedings, correspondence, memoranda. Although many of the files contained “legalese”—notice, stipulation, equity, annexed motion, etc.—I could usually browse each folder quickly to determine that the description most often did match the contents.

I finally came to a folder with the nondescript title: “Data Records Re: Evidence.” Inside were notes from a 1932 interview with Orville Wright. Following the interview was a signed letter from Wright, dated June 15, 1931, and a photograph taken on June 24, 1905. Although the letter and photograph have little value among the large catalog of Wright material in the world, it does contain a signature, so I removed the originals and placed them in our Rare Manuscripts Collection, inserting photocopies in the collection.

letter

June 15, 1931 letter from Orville Wright to the Curtiss-Wright Corporation regarding the design of the Wright 1905 Flyer

The letter and interview reveal an interesting aspect of patent litigation—patents that have been assigned (transferred) to second parties have lives much longer than their original owners may have dreamed. Although Orville Wright had long since ended his association with Wright Aeronautical Corporation, Curtiss-Wright contacted Wright in the hopes that he would provide information to establish that early work on the vertical surface on an airplane was covered by Wright patents. Wright had originally responded favorably, not understanding that the patent was under suit, thinking it had expired. Based on the later interview, Curtiss-Wright determined that Wright would most likely not testify on its behalf, since he was opposed to litigation between American companies and was actually quite friendly with Henry Ford, one of the defendants. Ultimately, the suit was settled out of court with the defendant taking a license from Curtiss-Wright under the patent.

wright flyer

July 24, 1905 photograph sent with 1931 Orville Wright letter, demonstrating patent for the vertical surface of a Wright Flyer

Given this new information, when creating a new folder title for this material, I kept the original title “Data Records Re: Evidence” but added “[Orville Wright Interview and Correspondence]” in brackets to let researchers know that this was an archivist-imposed addition.

The rest of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation Collection – Patent Files consists of file wrappers (a complete record of proceedings from the filing of the initial patent application to the issued patent); research reports and documents submitted to the U.S. Navy Department’s Bureau of Aeronautics; and minutes, notes, and reports from the Curtiss-Wright Patent Department and Development Division Technical Committee. A finding aid to the collection can be found on the National Air and Space Museum Archives Division website in both HTML and PDF forms.

Elizabeth C. Borja is a reference services archivist in the National Air and Space Museum’s Archives Division.

Reflections on Post-Cold War Issues for International Space Cooperation

Posted on by
Reply

In the 1990s the United States collaborative space policy entered an extended period of transition from the earlier era of Cold War, one in which NASA has been compelled to deal with international partners on a much more even footing than ever before.

Apollo 17

Will the next flag on the Moon be a national flag or one representative of humankind as a whole? This image from Apollo 17 shows the U.S. flag on the Moon, an important symbolic moment for the United States in the Cold War race to the Moon with the Soviet Union. Those times have passed and cooperative efforts are the norm for the future.

This was true for several reasons. U.S. preeminence in space technology was rapidly declining, especially in launcher technology as other nations built their own internal capabilities. This was especially true of the European Space Agency’s superb Ariane launcher. This made it increasingly possible for other nations to “go it alone,” as a vernacular expression states.

U.S. commitment to sustained “preeminence” in space activities also waned and significantly less public monies went into NASA missions. The Clinton administration’s “National Space Policy” of September 29, 1996, for example, abandoned the language of preeminence that had been used since the origins of the space race in the 1950s. In addition, NASA’s budget declined in terms of real dollars every year from 1993 to 2000.

Of international cooperative projects that remained, NASA increasingly acceded to the demands of collaborators to develop critical systems and technologies. This overturned a longstanding policy of not allowing partners onto the critical technological path, something that had been flirted with but not accepted in the Space Shuttle development project.

This was in large measure a pragmatic decision on the part of American officials. Because of the increasing size and complexity of projects, according to former NASA international relations chief Kenneth Pedersen in 1992, more recent projects have produced “numerous critical paths whose upkeep costs alone will defeat U.S. efforts to control and supply them.”

Pedersen added, “It seems unrealistic today to believe that other nations possessing advanced technical capabilities and harboring their own economic competitiveness objectives will be amenable to funding and developing only ancillary systems.”

In addition to these important developments, the rise of competitive economic activities in space has mitigated the prospects for future collaborations. The brutal competition for launch business, the cutthroat nature of space applications, and the rich possibilities for space-based economic activities have created a climate in which international ventures may once again become the exception.

Historian John Krige astutely commented in 1998 that “collaboration has worked most smoothly when the science or technology concerned is not of direct strategic (used here to mean commercial or military) importance. As soon as a government feels that its national interests are directly involved in a field of R&D, it would prefer to go it alone.” He also noted that the success of cooperative projects may take as their central characteristic that they have “no practical application in at least the short to medium term.”

I would add that the sole exception to this perspective might be when nations decide that for prestige or diplomatic purposes it is appropriate to cooperate in space. A superb example of this is the effort beginning in 1992 to bring the Russians into the space station program already underway by a consortium of nations as a means of building stronger ties to Russia in the early post-Cold War era.

One of the key conclusions that we might reach about the course of international cooperation between the United States and its international collaborators in space is that it has been an enormously difficult process. I am reminded of the quote attributed to Wernher von Braun, “we can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” Even so, cooperative space endeavors have been richly rewarding and overwhelmingly useful, from all manner of scientific, technical, social, and political perspectives.

International Space Station Components

The International Space Station is the most significant international cooperative program in the history of spaceflight. This image shows the components of the station and which nation constructed them.

Kenneth Pedersen observed in 1983, “international space cooperation is not a charitable enterprise; countries cooperate because they judge it in their interest to do so.” For continued cooperative efforts in space to proceed into the twenty-first century it is imperative that those desiring them define appropriate projects and ensure that national leaders judge them as being of interest and worthy of pursuing them in a cooperative manner.

Roger D. Launius is a senior curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

A “New Mars” Comes to the National Air and Space Museum

Posted on by
8

The Exploring the Planets Gallery in the National Air and Space Museum’s National Mall Building recently underwent a major update to the section devoted to scientific exploration of Mars. This new exhibit features the results of the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Express, and other recent spacecraft that have revolutionized our ideas about the surface, atmosphere, ice deposits, and ancient water on the Red Planet.

Mars Portion of the Exploring the Planets Gallery

New Mars Section of the Exploring the Planets Gallery at the National Air and Space Museum

Visitors will find fantastically detailed images of the surface taken from orbit by the HiRISE camera, a full-scale model of a Mars Exploration Rover, instruments used by the Viking spacecraft to make the first searches for life, views inside the polar caps provided by radar sensors, a watch that runs on “Martian time,” and a chunk of rock that landed in Antarctica after being blasted from the surface of Mars by an impact. The new exhibit puts all this information together to reveal Mars as a complex and still-puzzling world that holds valuable clues to the development of our own planet and those around other stars.

We welcome comments on the new exhibit. Please note that installation of a few items, such as the Mars rover model, have been delayed due to the weather-related problems at the Museum’s storage facility.

Bruce Campbell is a geologist in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum

Bag, Baggage and Archives

Posted on by
Reply

PANAM

Ground crew unload a Douglas DC-2 of Pan American - Grace Airways, c.1940.

Pulling up stakes is always hard to do, especially if you’re packing up and moving a million plus documents, photographs, films, engineering drawings, tech manuals, and all the other treasures that make up the National Air and Space Museum’s Archives Division. Starting in May, some of our reference and reproduction services will be suspended as we get ready for the move to our great new facilities at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Phase Two. Right now, these are the affected services and the dates on which they’ll be suspended:

May 1, 2010 – Photo orders; film and video requests.

August 1 – Reproductions of microfilm, drawings, and technical manuals; Photocopies of collections material; Donations to the Archives Division collections.

September 1 – Research appointments at the Paul E. Garber Facility Reading Room in Suitland, Maryland.

We’ll continue to field permission and reference requests, but there may be delays in responding – we’re going to be rather busy. Oh, yes – the Archives and Library reading room in the National Mall building will still be open for research by appointment during the move period.

Watch the Archives Division’s web page for late-breaking bulletins about the move, and please contact us with any questions about Archives services as the process unfolds.

Aerial photo showing Phase Two of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center under construction in November, 2009. Photo by Duane Lempke, Sisson Studios, Inc.

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