NASA will unveil a comprehensive new Centennial of
Flight exhibit at the Festival of Flight 2003, May 19-26, in
Fayetteville, N.C.
The Festival of Flight is the first official event to use
NASA’s new exhibit during the national countdown to the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers’ historic powered flight.
NASA has played a role in advancing the science of flight
since 1915, with the establishment of its founding
organization, the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics.
During the weeklong Aviation Exposition at the Festival of
Flight, NASA will showcase many of its innovative aerospace
achievements in three locations. The main NASA exhibition
space is 20,000 square feet of the Crown Center Coliseum,
renamed NASA Center, for this event. Visitors will get a feel
for how NASA has helped change our daily lives and how NASA
researchers and astronauts are working to improve our future,
by better understanding the Earth, exploring the universe and
searching for life.
The new NASA Centennial of Flight exhibit, “Powering Flight,
Powering Dreams,” features interactive displays, a micro-
gravity demonstrator, airplane and spacecraft models, and
several NASA scientists and engineers, all intended to
inspire the next generation of explorers. With the help of
NASA educators, school groups will have the chance to build
their own flying machines, including helicopters, kites,
rockets and airplanes. Visitors will be able to check out a
moon rock, operate a wind tunnel and take home a NASA
souvenir.
Outside the Center, visitors will also be able to enjoy three
NASA exhibits. They’ll have the chance to experience what
space travel might be like four decades from now, take a walk
through the “solar system” to appreciate its enormous size,
and learn more about aeronautics with the help of 10 unique
work stations.
On NASA Day, May 20, astronaut Jeff Ashby will make a special
appearance at the Festival. Ashby is a veteran of three Space
Shuttle flights. He commanded the Space Shuttle Atlantis
during the ninth assembly flight of the International Space
Station.
NASA will also have exhibits in two other areas. A “Women in
NASA” display will grace Heritage Hall. In the Aviation Hall,
visitors may operate a NASA flight-technology demonstrator, a
computer simulator similar to a future plane they may fly
someday.
NASA is also participating in six other major Centennial of
Flight observances in Dayton, Ohio; New York; Oshkosh, Wis.;
Los Angeles; Long Beach, Calif.; and Kitty Hawk, N.C.
For information about NASA programs, aeronautics, and space
flight on the Internet, visit:
For information about The Festival of Flight on the Internet,
visit:
http://www.festivalofflight.org
For information about the national Centennial of Flight
commemoration on the Internet, visit:
