DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 102: America by Air:
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GAL102_230108_006.JPG: I keep wondering where the men's room is. The women's room ("powder room") is clearly labeled.
GAL102_230108_025.JPG: Flying Stars
Air travel was popular with Hollywood celebrities, but their employers did not consider it safe. The film studios often put clauses in actors' contracts prohibiting them from flying, especially while filming a movie. But by the mid-1930s, the studios realized this rule was impossible to enforce, and they began to recognize the economic value of flying stars around the country to promote their movies.
Airlines benefited as well when celebrities flew. It was no coincidence that an airline's name was featured in the photo when a celebrity's arrival was captured on film.
GAL102_230108_026.JPG: The Marx Brothers
GAL102_230108_033.JPG: Lucille Ball
GAL102_230108_035.JPG: Katharine Hepburn
GAL102_230108_037.JPG: Who Flew?
Flying was very expensive. Only business travelers and the wealthy could afford to fly.
America's airline industry expanded rapidly, from carrying only 6,000 passengers in 1930 to more than 450,000 by 1934, to 1.2 million by 1938. Still, only a tiny fraction of the traveling public flew.
Most people still rode trains or buses for intercity travel because flying was so expensive. A coast-to-coast round trip cost around $260, about half of the price of a new automobile.
GAL102_230108_039.JPG: Flying Politicians
As air travel became more common in the 1930s, more politicians took to the air. In 1932, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt flew an American Airways Ford Tri-Motor from Albany to Chicago, where he accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for president and delivered his "New Deal" speech. During World War II, President Roosevelt flew overseas to meet Allied leaders at Casablanca and Yalta. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt often flew around the country on the president's behalf.
Commercial air travel still had risks. On May 6, 1935, New Mexico Senator Bronson M. Cutting died in a crash of a T.W.A. Douglas DC-2. Nevertheless, flying grew increasingly popular with politicians, as the advantages of fast travel outweighed the real and perceived hazards.
GAL102_230108_068.JPG: World War II and the Airlines
Airlines worked closely with the military during World War II, furthering the war effort by transporting people and material.
The airlines were well prepared to play their part in the war effort. Plans for their wartime mobilization had been drafted in 1937 by Edgar Gorrell of the industry's Air Transport Association.
When the United States entered World War II four years later, the plan was smoothly put into action, and the airlines immediately began working closely with the military. The Air Transport Command (ATC) was formed in 1942 to coordinate the transport of aircraft, cargo, and personnel throughout the country and around the world.
GAL102_230108_072.JPG: First President to Fly
Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to fly while in office. He flew to the 1943 Casablanca Conference in Morocco to plan the Allies' European strategy in World War II. The threat from submarines made air travel the preferred mode of transportation.
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Description of Subject Matter: America by Air
November 17, 2007 – January 2, 2019
How did the first commercial airline companies get off the ground? How has the experience of air travel changed over the past century? How will the politics of today affect the way we fly tomorrow? These are some of the issues in the development of commercial air transport this gallery explores, while expanding on the history of air transportation from only a few years after the invention of powered flight to the commercial challenges and technical sophistication of the 21st-century jet age. Featuring seven complete airplanes, engines, and other objects, this exhibition focuses on the following time periods:
* The Early Years, 1914-1927
* Airline Expansion and Innovation, 1927-1941, featuring a Ford Tri-Motor and a Douglas DC-3, the most successful airliner of the 1930s.
* The Heyday of Propeller Airliners, 1941-1958, featuring a Douglas DC-7, the first airliner to provide nonstop coast-to-coast service.
* The Jet Age, 1958-Today, featuring the forward fuselage section of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Note: Visitors can enter from the second floor to view the cockpit.
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2002_DC_SIAIR_Gall102A: DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 102: America by Air (5 photos from 2002)
1999_DC_SIAIR_Gall102A: DC -- Natl Air and Space Museum -- Gallery 102: America by Air (3 photos from 1999)
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2023 photos: Equipment this year: My old staples the Fuji XS-1 and Nikon D7000. In April, I bought a Google Pixel 7 Pro since DigitalReview.Com said it was the top camera smartphone and it wasn't an iPhone (so it's not evil). In June, I took the plunge and bought a mirrorless Nikon Z-5 camera.
The only trip so far this year:
(May) a visit to see Dad and Dixie in Asheville, NC and visit with some friends in Brevard.
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