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Golden Age of Flight
Americans were wild about aviation in the 1920s and '30s, the period between the two world wars that came to be known as the Golden Age of Flight. Air races and daring record-setting flights dominated the news. Airplanes evolved from wood-and-fabric biplanes to streamlined metal monoplanes. The military services embraced air power. Aviation came of age.
Aircraft displayed here include planes used for racing, record setting, business travel, and exploration. The Wittman Buster midget racer hangs near the entrance. Inside is Howard Hughes' sleek, record-setting Hughes H-1 racer; the Curtiss J-1 Robin Ole Miss, which stayed aloft for 27 days; a Beech C17L Staggerwing, designed for business travelers; and the Northrop Gamma 2B Polar Star, which traversed Antarctica.
This exhibition is located in Gallery 105
Artifact Highlights:
Smithsonian Institution Photo 97-15873, Eric Long/NASM
Northrop 2B Gamma Polar Star
On November 23, 1935, explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, with pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, took off in the Polar Star from Dundee Island in the Weddell Sea and headed across Antarctica to Little America. Fuel exhaustion forced them to land 40 kilometers (25 miles) short of their goal on December 5, and they walked for six days to reach their destination. They settled in the camp abandoned by Richard E. Byrd several years earlier.
The British Research Society ship Discovery II sighted them on January 15, 1936, near the Bay of Whales. Hollick-Kenyon later returned to recover the Polar Star. The dent in the fuselage behind the engine was caused by a hard landing on the polar ice. The total distance flown by the Polar Star before its forced landing was about 3,862 kilometers (2,400 miles).
Smithsonian Institution Photo SI2005-5390, Eric Long/NASM
Beech Model 17 Staggerwing
Called the Staggerwing due to the placement of the lower wing ahead of the upper, the Beech Model 17 first flew in 1932 and became popular as a luxury private and business transport. Staggerwings set many records and won several major air races prior to World War II.
The Museum's Staggerwing, serial #93, was delivered late in 1936 to E. E. Aldrin (father of astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) of the Standard Oil Development Company, who used it as a high-speed corporate transport.
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2005-5308, Eric Long/NASM
Wittman Chief Oshkosh/Buster
The aircraft that enjoyed what was perhaps the
longest and most successful career in air racing history was Steve Wittman's Chief
Oshkosh, known in the post-World War II era as Buster. From 1931 until its retirement
in 1954, this midget racer set records and took numerous trophies in class races and
free-for-alls.
Although Wittman was plagued
with several problems in this, his first homebuilt racer, he placed
high each year in major races in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Miami, and
Chicago. In 1937 Chief Oshkosh set a new world's speed
record for its class over a 100-kilometer (60-mile) course at Detroit
with a speed of 383 kilometers (238 miles) per hour.
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2005-5319, Eric Long/NASM
Curtis Robin Ole Miss
In 1935 this Curtiss Robin established
a world record for sustained flight, using air-to-air refueling. After two unsuccessful
attempts the year before, Fred and Algene Key took Ole Miss up from Meridian,
Mississippi, on June 4 and did not touch ground again until July 1, for a total time in
the air of 653 hours and 34 minutes, or 27 days. During the flight, the Keys received fuel
and supplies 432 times from another aircraft. They braved severe thunderstorms and an
electrical fire in the cabin before returning to a safe landing at Meridian.
The Curtiss Robin series was produced in
the late 1920s and early 1930s as a three-place general aviation aircraft. Ole Miss
varies from a typical Curtiss Robin by virtue of modifications made for the flight,
including a new fuel tank, engine servicing catwalk, and a sliding top hatch for receiving
supplies in flight.
Smithsonian Institution Photo 2005-4700, Eric Long/NASM
Hughes H-1
The Hughes H-1 racer, designed by
Howard Hughes and Richard Palmer and built by Glenn Odekirk, was developed to be the
fastest landplane in the world. On September 13, 1935, Hughes achieved this design goal by
flying the H-1 to a new world speed record of 567 kilometers (352 miles) per hour at Santa
Ana, California. Hughes broke the transcontinental U.S. speed
record in the H-l on January 19, 1937, flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 7
hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds. His average speed for the 4,000-kilometer (2,490-mile)
flight was 535 kilometers (332 miles) per hour.
Also known as the Hughes 1B, the H-1 was
designed with two sets of wings: a short set with a span of 7.6 meters (25 feet) for speed
record flight, and a long set with a span of 9.2 meters (31 feet, 9 inches) for
transcontinental flight. The aircraft as it is exhibited here is equipped with the long
set.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. Navy acquired a number of
aircraft and experimented with various ways to adapt aircraft to naval usage. Photos and
models exhibited in this gallery show how the Navy accomplished this. A similar display
illustrates the growth and development of the Army Air Corps and its theory of strategic
bombardment during this time.
Don't Miss the Golden Age Theater. Here, Jimmy Doolittle reminisces about
aviation in that era.
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