National Air and Space Museum
Sea-Air Operations
July 1, 1976 – January 2, 2019
The focus of this gallery is overwater flight, including aircraft carrier operations from 1911 to the present.
Highlights include:
- Carrier Hangar Deck for All Times: displays major aircraft from different periods in the history of sea-air
- Boeing F4B-4 biplane: a shipboard fighter used from 1932 to 1937
- Douglas SBD Dauntless: the principle carrier-based bomber used throughout most of WWII
- Grumman FM-1 Wildcat: the first-line Navy fighter and the start of WWII
- Douglas A-4 Skyhawk: the first-line naval attack aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s
- Re-creation of the bridge of an aircraft carrier where visitors can step aboard the USS Smithsonian to watch simulated aircraft take off and land
- Ship's Museum presents the history of flight over water
