Early Flight

Air and Space Museum

Early Flight uses artifacts like the Lilienthal Glider, 1909 Wright Military Flyer, and the Blériot XI to explore how in one short decade people in America and around the world were pushing boundaries, setting records, participating in air shows, and turning the aircraft into a technology that would usher in the aerial age.

Early Flight

1909 Wright Military Flyer

Plaque, James Gordon Bennett, 1909, Glenn Curtiss

Curtiss B-8, V-8 Engine

Model, Static, Chanute Bi-plane Gliding Machine, 1896

Curtiss E-4, In-Line 4 Engine

Model, Static, Chanute Multiple Wing Gliding Machine, 1896

Langley-Manly-Balzer Radial 5 Engine

Clement V-2 Engine

American Propeller and Mfg Co. Propeller, fixed-pitch, two-blade, wood

Gnome Omega No. 1 Rotary Engine

Scientific American Trophy

Medal, Gordon Bennett Championship, Glenn Curtiss

Model, Armored cruiser U.S.S. Pennsylvania with Eugene Ely in Curtiss