by SAKINA RANGWALA

On Saturday, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. will open its new exhibit, “America by Air,” to the public.

“We’ve always had an exhibit about air transportation, but we ran out of time and a budget to do a thorough job on it, and it has taken nearly three years to get back to it,” Dr. Robert Van der Linden, chairman of the Aeronautics Division and curator at the museum said. The exhibit is the latest permanent addition to the museum since the Wright Brothers exhibit was installed in 2003. The Wrights were the first to fly by air in 1903.

The exhibit, which is spread across 15,000 square feet, cost $5.6 million in investment. It was mainly funding that took a lot of time, according to the chairman, and he said several commercial airlines, NASA and the department of transportation had helped tremendously to get the exhibit up and running.

The exhibit is divided into four thematic sections: Early years of air transportation between 1914 and 1927, airline expansion and innovation between 1927 and 1941, the hey-day of propeller airliners between 1941 and 1958 and the jet age which continues today.

The new interactive exhibit “America by Air” opens this Saturday. Observer reporter Sakina Rangwala gives you a sneak peak.

Click to proceed.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Earlier editions of this story contained an incorrect figure regarding
the cost of the exhibit. The Observer regrets the error.