JHU Seminar: Object of Interest at NMAAHC

I work in the simulator gallery in the lower level of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. It has been fascinating watching NMAAHC get up and running next door. My company, Pulseworks, wanted to do something that would tie into both the mission of NMAH and NMAAHC, and their answer was in the Tuskegee Airmen. We offer an interactive ride in which the visitor controls an airplane, the newest addition is the P-51, the famous Red Tails of the Tuskegee Airmen. The ride even has its own unique introduction. It is always a challenge to have a fun ride that can somehow tie into real history, and basing a ride around the Tuskegee Airmen were a great opportunity to do just that.

Prior to working with this ride experience, I was aware that the Tuskegee Airmen were an important part of both African American history as well as in important part of the American war effort, but other than that I did not know much about this lauded group.

I was excited to learn that NMAAHC had one of their planes, I was surprised however when I got a chance to go over to NMAAHC, the plane on display was not a P-51.

This is a P-51:

This is the plane on display:

Confused I did some digging. It is in fact a plane flown by the Tuskegee Airmen…in training!

This made the plane no less notable, and yielded an interesting part of the Tuskegee Airmen’s story I had previously not been aware of.

Part of this plane had actually been signed by many of the airmen themselves, making it an even more interesting historical artifact!

I went looking, found the wrong plane, but learned more than I had expected!

It makes sense that in training a simpler, more common, plane would be used. Prior to the war this plane may have been a crop duster, and been pressed into the war effort. That, to me, is just as interesting a story as the planes flown in combat.

NMAAHC online object profile: Training aircraft used by Tuskegee Institute