Warbird Information Exchange

Aviation Museum
One of the most valuable and
permanent aviation exhibits in
this country is the Aviation Sec-
tion of the Franklin Institute in
Philadelphia. This section, devel-
oped under the direction of C.
Townsend Ludington, already
represents an outlay of some
$140,000. Some of its exhibits
cannot be replaced at any price,
such as the early Wright
Brothers model B plane and en-
gine, which only recently was
demonstrated in actual flight.

Owing to the popularity and
success of this section and the
rapid growth of aviation, it is
now proposed to expand this sec-
tion and make it the base of the
first comprehensive and logically
arranged aviation museum in the
United States.

The initial step in the develop-
ment of the new museum will be
to erect, adjacent to the hall, a
hangar which will form an ap-
propriate setting for large planes,
engines, etc.

The Aviation Hall itself will
be devoted to models, dioramas,
wind-tunnels and other operating
exhibits illustrating the princi-
ples, history and latest develop-
ments in flight. The hall has been
broken into a number of units,
related exhibits are assembled in
these sections, and each is given
a simple popular title. The ac-
companying sketch of the floor
plan of the Hall shows that these
sections preserve a balance be-
tween the human drama and
science of flight, and also be-
tween the past, present and future
of the industry.

As a central and dramatic fea-
ture of this hall, there has been
invented a device known as the
Aeroplanarium. This will do for
aviation what the Planetarium
does for astronomy.

Plans for the new museum have
been developed by Leonard Outh-
waite, consultant, working in co-
operation with the Institute's
officers and staff.