"Winnie Mae" Airplane with Color Added

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

See Negative Number 32291-B for same image without color. Also See Negative Number SIA2011-0185 for another images of the plane.

Exhibited in the Arts and Industries Building is the "Winnie Mae" airplane, a single-winged 7-passenger plane, suspended from the ceiling above exhibit cases holding coins from the Numismatics Exhibit. Smithsonian National Gallery of Art paintings are on the walls. The "Winnie Mae", a special Lockheed Model 5C Vega flown by famed aviator Wiley Post, completed two around-the-world record flights and a series of special high-altitude substratospheric research flights. The original owner, F.C. Hall, purchased the plane in June 1930 and named the plane after his daughter. Hall hired Post to pilot the plane and his admiration for Post manifested itself in the gift of the "Winnie Mae" to Post. The plane was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution in 1936 from Post's widow and deposited in the museum. The plane is now part of the National Air and Space Museum collection. On this copy, color has been added to the airplane's body in the photograph.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 43, Folder: 37

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu