NASM Press Kit - The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age

WHAT: “The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age” is a special exhibition that celebrates the centennial of powered heavier-than-air flight with a thorough presentation of Wilbur and Orville Wright’s biography, their technical achievements and the cultural impact of their breakthrough in the decade after 1903.

WHERE: The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, Independence Avenue at Sixth Street S.W. Washington D.C.

WHEN: Exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2003, and will run for at least two years.

ARTIFACTS: Some 170 on display including: the 1903 Wright Flyer, the world’s first airplane, at eye level for the first time since it was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1948; the stopwatch used to time the first powered flights; one of only five Wright-built bicycles still in existence; Wilbur Wright’s 1899 letter to the Smithsonian requesting publications on aviation; Orville Wright’s mandolin; report cards from the brothers’ school years; and wood and fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer carried to the moon in 1969 by Apollo 11.

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION: The exhibition is organized into three main sections:

• “Why Wilbur and Orville” – focusing on the Wrights’ background and personalities

• “Visions of a Flying Machine” – focusing on the Wrights’ process of invention

• “The Aerial Age Begins” – focusing on the impact and influence of human mechanical flight during its first decade.